- Category: Statements
To defend human rights is inherently human. The promotion and fulfilment of human rights in the country involves the empowerment of the people in defense of human rights and the rule of law. The Families of Victims of Involuntary Disappearance (FIND) is driven by its steadfast search for truth and justice for the thousands of principled and committed activists who have been forcibly disappeared through decades, thus transforming family members of the disappeared to become human rights defenders (HRDs) themselves.
FIND strongly urges the government to enact and fully implement a Human Rights Defenders Protection law to attend to these victim-families in their long-drawn search for truth and elusive justice. In fact, HRDs and organizations dedicated to ending enforced disappearances and other human rights violations need to be protected.
- Category: Statements
The undersigned organisations call for the immediate and unconditional release of Kashmiri human rights defender Khurram Parvez, who was arrested one year ago on November 22, 2021 on politically motivated terrorism and other charges.
Parvez, the Coordinator of the Jammu Kashmir Coalition of Civil Society (JKCCS) and Chairperson of the Asian Federation Against Involuntary Disappearances (AFAD), has been a champion of human rights advocacy, documentation, and investigations including in the Jammu and Kashmir region, for over 20 years.
- Category: Statements
MANILA: Fifty years since Ferdinand Marcos Sr. declared Martial Law in 1972, the Asian Federation Against Involuntary Disappearances (AFAD) affirms its steadfast support to the Families of Victims of Involuntary Disappearance (FIND) and other Philippine human rights defenders in seeking truth and justice on atrocities committed under this dark regime.
- Category: Statements
Manila: The Asian Federation against Involuntary Disappearances strongly condemns the decision of the Prime Minister’s office in Bangladesh to uphold its decision to deregister Odhikar, one of the most credible human rights organisations in the South Asian region.
- Category: IDD-AFAD-MO
31 August 2022
Manila: On the International Day of the Disappeared 2022, the Asian Federation Against Involuntary Disappearances (AFAD) calls for the protection, NOT PERSECUTION, of human rights defenders and advocates.
Years after the adoption of the United Nations Declaration on Enforced Disappearance and the International Convention for the Protection of All Persons from Enforced Disappearance (ICPPED), the practice of enforced disappearance chillingly persists. Enforced disappearance is defined as a crime against humanity and the worst type of human rights violation as it puts a person completely outside the protection of the law.
- Category: Statements
On the occasion of the International Day of the Victims of Enforced Disappearances (30 August), we, the undersigned victims’ groups, national and international organizations urge the Government of Nepal, to take urgent steps to ensure the rights to truth, justice and reparations of the families of the enforced disappeared.
- Category: Statements
(Privilege Speech of Rep. Edcel C. Lagman on the International Day of the Victims of Enforced Disappearance, 30 August 2022)
Mr. Speaker, esteemed colleagues:
Yesterday we commemorated National Heroes Day to celebrate the great lives of Filipinos who courageously fought for justice, freedom, and democracy.
Today, we give tribute to a special class of heroes. Many without official recognition, although about 30 of them are honored by the Bantayog ng mga Bayani Foundation.
- Category: Statements
Manila/Paris/Dhaka, 29 August 2022: On the eve of International Day of the Victims of Enforced Disappearances, AFAD, FIDH, Maayer Daak, and Odhikar pay tribute to victims and survivors of the heinous crime of enforced disappearance and stand in solidarity with the families of the disappeared. The Bangladeshi government has consistently denied all cases of enforced disappearance, despite evidence and reports...