- Category: Statements
Fourteen Years of Avowed Commitment to
End Enforced Disappearances
Following the world’s observance of the International Week of the Disappeared, we, the Asian Federation Against Involuntary Disappearances (AFAD) commemorate today our 14th founding anniversary. As the regional federation of organizations of families of the disappeared and human rights advocates working directly on the issue of enforced disappearance in the Asian region, we have endeavored for fourteen years to make a strong regional response in the global struggle against the phenomenon of enforced disappearance.
During all these years of building the federation, from a core group of three member-organizations, AFAD has metamorphosed into a pro-active regional human rights organization of eleven member-organizations from Bangladesh, India, Indonesia, Nepal, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Thailand and Timor Leste and serves as the resonating voice of voiceless families of the disappeared in Asia - a region where human rights remain a dim reality and where strong regional mechanisms and pieces of domestic legislation for redress are non-existent. During the last 14 years, the Federation’s very constituents, the organizations of families of the disappeared and other organizations working on the issue of disappearances have relentlessly pursued the cause the disappeared and helped the families seek truth and justice. Admittedly, though we still have to reach out to many countries, taking into consideration the vastness of the Asian continent.
- Category: Statements
Every last week of May, the international community, especially the associations of families of the disappeared, commemorate the International Week of the Disappeared (IWD). Accordingly Odhikar is observing the IWD from 27 May – June 2, 2012. During this week Odhikar condemns the failure of the government of Bangladesh to protect the citizens from enforced disappearance and extends solidarity to the families of the victim.
The IWD was initiated by the Latin American Federation of Associations for Relatives of the Detained-Disappeared (FEDEFAM), during its founding Congress in San Jose, Costa Rica in 1981. Over the past thirty years this event has inspired many organisations world-wide to fight enforced disappearances.
- Category: News
The Justice for Peace Foundation (JPF) today called on the Thai Government to ratify and comply with the International Convention for the Protection of All Persons from Enforced Disappearances in a report which documents the enforced disappearance of 59 people from throughout Thailand.
“JPF has found that enforced disappearances take place within a broader context of state violence which is used to silence dissenting views and to eliminate suspected criminals, outside of the rule of law”, said Angkhana Neelapaijit, JPF President.
- Category: Statements
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As the world observes the International Week of the Disappeared on 28 May – 02 June 2012, the Philippines undergoes the second cycle of the Universal Periodic Review (UPR) in the United Nations Human Rights Council in Geneva, Switzerland tomorrow, 29 May 2012.
One of the standing Council recommendations to the Philippines is to sign and ratify the International Convention for the Protection of All Persons from Enforced Disappearance. The Philippines neither “accepted” nor “refused” the said recommendation but declared “to consider” it.
It is hoped that the Philippines during the UPR will once and for all decide and sincerely commit to sign and accede to the Convention soonest.
- Category: Statements
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28 May 2012
JOINT STATEMENT ON THE INTERNATIONAL WEEK OF THE DISAPPEARED 2012
Families of Victims of Involuntary Disappearance (FIND)
Asian Federation Against Involuntary Disappearance (AFAD)
We mark the International Week of the Disappeared (28 May – 02 June) this year amidst the continued commission of enforced disappearances in no less than 87 countries across continents. The families of desaparecidos in Bangladesh, India, Indonesia, Nepal, Pakistan, Philippines, Thailand, Sri Lanka and Timor Leste join our Asian neighbors in giving tribute to the desaparecidos and more importantly in abhorring the culture of impunity that generally blankets perpetrators and violators in the region. Too, this year’s commemoration coincided with an important exercise of the United Nations Human Rights Council in its Universal Periodic Review (UPR) of some Asian States.
It is alarming that in more recent years, Asia has submitted to the United Nations Working Group on Enforced or Involuntary Disappearances (UN WGEID) the highest number of persons who are made to disappear for exercising their rights and for opposing human rights violations. These and scores of other unreported and undocumented victims of enforced or involuntary disappearances reflect the stark reality of human rights protection in the region.
- Category: Statements
27 May –June 2, 2012 – Every last week of May, the international community, especially the associations of families of the disappeared, commemorates the International Week of the Disappeared (IWD). The commemoration of the IWD can be traced to the Latin American Federation of Associations for Relatives of the Detained-Disappeared (FEDEFAM), which initiated this event during its founding Congress in San Jose, Costa Rica in 1981. Over the past thirty years this event has inspired many organizations world-wide to fight enforced disappearances.
This week, in the observance of the International Week of the Disappeared, the International Coalition Against Enforced Disappearances (ICAED) and its 40 member-organizations from Africa, Asia, the Eurasian Region (Euro-Mediterranean Region, Caucasus and Belarus), Latin America and the United States of America will conduct various activities to intensify its campaign for the ratification of the International Convention for the Protection of All Persons from Enforced Disappearance (the Convention) and in so doing, pay tribute to the disappeared.
- Category: Press Releases
South African Extraordinary Professor and UN official to visit PH for the International Week of the Disappeared
Mr. Jeremy Sarkin, Extraordinary Professor of the University of South Africa, former Chairperson-Rapporteur and incumbent member of the United Nations Working Group on Enforced or Involuntary Disappearances (UNWGEID) will visit the country in his personal capacity as a UN expert on May 29, 2012. He will join the families of the disappeared and other human rights groups in the commemoration of the International Week of the Disappeared.
- Category: Statements
Lasting Tribute to the May 1992 Heroes and Martyrs
Today, twenty long years have passed since the Thai people experienced one of the most gruesome massacres in history when hundreds of people who were fighting for genuine change and democracy in the country were violently and brutally suppressed by the Thai security forces. A couple of decades have passed yet truth and justice on the killings and disappearances are still to be achieved. A number of victims are still unaccounted for.
While in recent years, the Thai government in recent years had sought to atone for the gross human rights violations committed during the 1992 Black May massacre by indemnifying some of the victims and their families and by promising to build a monument in memory of the May 1992 Heroes, efforts to simply turn the page Thailand’s repressive history without genuine truth and accountability merely manifest impunity.