- Category: IDD-AFAD-MO
Amid the COVID-19 pandemic, the Asian Federation Against Involuntary Disappearances (AFAD) observes the International Day of the Victims of Enforced Disappearances (IDD) standing in solidarity with the families of the disappeared who are among the hardest hit by the global health crisis.
Years after the adoption of the United Nations Declaration on Enforced Disappearance and the entry into force of the International Convention for the Protection of All Persons from Enforced Disappearance (CPED), the egregious practice that violates practically all human rights persists globally.milies of the disappeared who are among the hardest hit by the global health crisis.
- Category: IDD-AFAD-MO
*Joint Statement by 12 human rights groups ahead of the International Day of the Victims of Enforced Disappearances, 2020
(Dhaka, August 28, 2020) – Bangladesh security forces and law-enforcement agencies continuously commit enforced disappearances with impunity, targeting journalists, activists, and government critics, 12 human rights groups said today ahead of the International Day of the Victims of Enforced Disappearances. The groups remember the victims of enforced disappearances and stand in solidarity with the families of people who have been forcibly disappeared in Bangladesh and across the world.
- Category: Press Releases
PRESS STATEMENT
Advocacy Forum-Nepal (AF) is concerned about the deteriorating health condition of IIh, a youth activist, who has been staging an indefinite hunger strike ‘Satyagraha’ for the last 13 days. The second phase of the hunger strike started on 18 July 2020 as a part of the "Enough is Enough" campaign (an independent collective movement, initiated and joined by hundreds of Nepali youths around the country demanding broader accountability and transparency in the government’s response to the COVID-19 pandemic). This second phase hunger strike is a call to the government to adhere to its previous commitments and to address 15-point demands (such as an expansion of PCR testing criteria, optimum use of existing resources, contact tracing, the rectification of quarantine strategy, risk information, timely results, dignity, security and relief, transparency and accountability and so forth) for better COVID-19 response measures. To date, more than 150 youths have participated in a relay hunger strike.
- Category: Statements
Manila: The Asian Federation Against Involuntary Disappearances (AFAD) remembers Masood Janjua, a businessman from Pakistan who was disappeared on 30th July 2005, along with his friend while they were travelling on a bus to Peshawar. Masood’s disappearance 15 years ago was the first recorded and documented case of disappearance in Pakistan that led to a movement against enforced disappearances in the country.
- Category: Statements
Press statement
17 July 2020
Kathmandu, Nepal
Globally, 17 July is commemorated as the International Criminal Justice Day in recognition of the adoption of the Rome Statute on 17 July 1998. On this occasion, Advocacy Forum-Nepal (AF) pledges its support to the strengthening of the international criminal justice system and calls upon all the stakeholders to act together to end impunity for the crimes of genocide, crimes against humanity, war crimes and the crime of aggression, established by the Statute of the International Criminal Court (ICC).
- Category: Statements
Manila: Today, in observance of the International Day in Support of Victims of Torture, the Asian Federation Against Involuntary Disappearances (AFAD) stands in solidarity with the victims of torture across the globe and unequivocally condemns this egregious practice.
Despite 170 parties and 83 signatories to the Convention against Torture (CAT) which came into force over three decades ago, torture persists across continents. States continue to perpetrate this offense routinely and countless people become victims. Torture is a contemptible act that causes extreme and irreversible psychological and physical damage on the individual. It is an inhumane, degrading and cruel treatment or punishment to which no human being should be subjected.
- Category: Statements
A Joint Statement by the Asian Federation Against Involuntary Disappearances, Asian Human Rights Commission, International Federation for Human Rights, Odhikar, Robert F. Kennedy Human Rights and World Organisation Against Torture on the occasion of International Day in Support of Victims of Torture 2020
Manila/Hong Kong/Paris/Dhaka/Washington, D.C./Geneva, 25 June 2020: On the occasion of the International Day in Support of Victims of Torture (26 June), the Asian Federation Against Involuntary Disappearances (AFAD), the Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC), the International Federation for Human Rights (FIDH), Odhikar, Robert F. Kennedy Human Rights, and the World Organisation Against Torture (OMCT) remember and pay tribute to victims of torture and stand in solidarity with the victims and their families.
- Category: Statements
PRESS STATEMENT
June 5, 2020
Do Not Sideline the Transitional Justice Process under the Excuse of Covid-19
Proceed with the Act Amendment Process in a Credible Manner
15 years ago, on 6 June 2005, the then Maoists rebels had bombed a public bus in Badarmude of Chitwan district leaving 35 civilians and 3 security personnel dead and more than 70 civilians injured. Accountability Watch Committee (AWC) also recalls the brutal killing of 17-year-old Krishna Prasad Adhikary by the then Maoists rebels on 7 June 2004 at Bakulahar Chowk in Chitwan. The AWC strongly urges the Government of Nepal to address the demands of truth, justice and reparations being raised by conflict victims for years and to put an end to the deep-rooted culture of impunity, ensuring non-repetition of such crimes in the future.