- Category: Statements
Mary Aileen Diez Bacalso, the Secretary General of Asian Federation Against involuntary Disappearances (AFAD) was banned to enter India on the night of 17th August 2014 at the Mumbai International Airport. Aileen Bacalso is also the Focal Person of the International Coalition Against Enforced Disappearances with 52 members worldwide.
On 11th August, Aileen Bacalso had tried to apply for visa from the Indian embassy in Manila. While her papers were complete her application was not accepted on the pretext that time was too short but they looked at the documents and were completely aware that she was travelling on 17th August to India.
- Category: Statements
Fugitive human rights violator, Retired General Jovito Palparan, has been arrested in the Philippines on Tuesday, August 12. Palparan is wanted for the 2006 disappearance of two University of the Philippines (UP) students, Sherlyn Cadapan and Karen Empeno. He has been hiding for 3 years.
- Category: News
Dear Sombath,
I heard about your enforced disappearance six days before the passing into law of Philippine Anti-Enforced Disappearance Act of 2012, the first ever anti-enforced disappearance law in Asia. I have worked on the issue of enforced disappearance for a couple of decades. Each case means a life stolen from the disappeared and his or her family; it means that a part of society has been forcibly taken from it, thus tearing apart its very fabric and causing devastating consequences to the disappeared that you are, your loved ones and the society where you belong. When the most-awaited enactment of draft anti-disappearance law came after more than 16 years of struggle for it to see the light of day, I had the ambivalent feeling of joy that we finally have this law in the Philippines but also mixed with pain because the list of desaparecidos of the world lengthened further by your enforced disappearance…..
- Category: Statements
Bayview Park Hotel, Manila, Philippines | July 17-20, 2014
Group photo of conference participants and secretariat
We gather for our Third Conference on Psychosocial Support in the Search for Truth and Justice for individual, family and community victims of enforced disappearance, torture, extrajudicial killing and allied human rights violations cognizant of the plurality of histories, cultures, political systems, and socio-economic settings of our countries of origin. Considering these diversities, we review and validate the applicability of the International Consensus on the Minimum Standards for Psychosocial Work in Search Processes and Forensic Investigations of Cases of Enforced Disappearance, Arbitrary or Extrajudicial Executions (Minimum Standards).
- Category: Statements
Today is the 29th year of the disappearance of Fr. Rudy Romano, a Redemptorist priest forcibly taken by military intelligence agents on July 11, 1985. He was well loved by the people, especially the urban poor, workers and farmers because he represented their concerns during the dark years of Martial Law. He was their voice in informing the government and the bigger public about their issues and demands.
- Category: Statements
The Asian Federation Against Involuntary Disappearances (AFAD) calls on the ASEAN Intergovernmental Commission on Human Rights (AICHR) to ACT NOW against increasing human rights violations in the region.
In Lao, the government remains calloused to calls from the international community to surface Sombath Somphone, a 2005 Ramon Magsaysay awardee for Community Leadership who disappeared on 15 December 2012, exactly 18 months today. The Lao People’s Democratic Republic signed the Convention Against Enforced Disappearance (CED) on 29 September 2008. It also ratified the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR) on 25 September 2009.
- Category: Statements
A Statement of the International Coalition Against Enforced Disappearances
International Week of the Disappeared
26-31 May 2014
This week, we commemorate the International Week of the Disappeared, first initiated by the Latin American Federation of Associations of Relatives of Disappeared-Detainees (FEDEFAM) in 1981 and adopted by many organizations of families of the disappeared and civil society organizations world-wide. The commemoration was also meant to step up the campaign against enforced disappearances which were then at their peak during the dark years of the dictatorship in many Latin American countries. Working hard to realize the dream for a world without enforced disappearances is our most important tribute to the desaparecidos.
- Category: Statements
AFAD Statement on the 2014th International Week of the Disappeared
The Asian Federation Against Involuntary Disappearances (AFAD), on the opening day of the International Week of the Disappeared, which falls on the 25th to 30th of May calls on Asian States to sign and ratify the International Convention Against Enforced Disappearance (CAED) to protect the right of Asian peoples from enforced disappearance.
Many States in Asia, which are in situations of conflict and political instability, continue to use enforced disappearance as an instrument to silence political dissent. Victims are either men or women who are political activists, leaders and members of mass organizations or institutions that assert their rights to land, water, jobs, food, housing, education, free expression, and environmental protection among others. In armed conflict situations, even innocent bystanders caught in the crossfire of competing armed forces have been enforcedly disappeared while some are victims of a flawed justice system where short cuts to due process have become the norm such as in the arrest and disappearance of suspected criminals.