AFAD Statement on the Commemoration of International Day of the
Disappeared
30 August 2011
A DAY OF REMEMBRANCE, A DAY OF ACTION
Today, we honor all victims of enforced disappearance, considered one of
the cruelest forms of human rights violations. In 2010, recognizing the
global magnitude of the crime and the never ending sufferings of the
desaparecidos’ families, the United Nations officially recognized August
30 as the International Day of the Disappeared. The Asian Federation
Against Involuntary Disappearances (AFAD), which is the Focal Point of
the International Coalition Against Enforced Disappearances, joins all
the families of the disappeared and human rights advocates world-wide in
commemorating this day by resonating the call for an end to enforced
disappearance and by renewing its organizational commitment to take
action.
Enforced disappearance is an international phenomenon. It is a major
concern of 94 countries based on the 2010 report of the UN Working Group
on Enforced or Involuntary Disappearance (UN WGEID).
Many of these cases occur in 27 countries
of Asia, a continent that has the highest number of cases submitted to
the UNWGEID in recent years. Unfortunately, Asia lacks a strong
regional mechanism for redress. No Asian country has a domestic law
penalizing enforced disappearance as a separate and autonomous criminal
offense.
This condition perpetuates a climate of impunity allowing perpetrators
to escape accountability and increasing possibilities for repetition.
Indeed, globally, thousands of people are forcibly disappeared by their
own governments or individuals or groups acting on states’
authorization, support or acquiescence. Bereft of legal safeguards, they
are often tortured, confined under constant fear or threat of death, and
in many instances, murdered without any trace.
Their families are equally victimized, not knowing their loved ones’
fate and whereabouts and are put in a perpetual state of hope and
despair, wondering and waiting, pleading and demanding for answers that
may never ever come.
We reckon
that enforced disappearance has a particular universal impact on women
and children. Most of the disappeared are men. Hence, women who are
usually left behind to tend to their families bear the brunt of serious
hardships. When women are direct victims of disappearance themselves,
they are particularly vulnerable to sexual and other forms of violence.
The children of the disappeared are also victims. The disappearance of a
child or of a parent is a serious violation of children’s rights.
As we remember all the desaparecidos of the world, we demand that
the perpetrators of enforced disappearances be brought to justice. A
concrete step to combat impunity is to urge all
governments to sign and ratify the International Convention for the
Protection of All Persons from Enforced Disappearance (The Convention).
The Convention which was adopted in 2006 by the United Nations General
Assembly, entered into force on 23 December 2010. To
date, this international human rights instrument has 88 signatories and
29 States Parties. To ensure its implementation, States are under the
obligation to codify enforced disappearance in their statute books. To
note, the UN Committee on Enforced Disappearances, composed of 10
individual experts, was established on 31 May 2011 to ensure the
treaty’s implementation.
Today, member-organizations of the Asian Federation Against Involuntary
Disappearances, through varying forms of public activities, call for a
stop to enforced disappearances and reiterate their call to all States
to sign and ratify the Convention, recognize the competence of the
Committee Against Enforced Disappearances, enact domestic laws
penalizing enforced disappearances and end enforced disappearances NOW.
As we pay tribute to all the desaparecidos of the world, we must
also highlight the long drawn struggle of the families and human rights
organizations particularly in Asia to obtain truth and justice and to
work for the complete eradication of enforced disappearance from the
face of the earth.
The International Day of the Disappeared is a time to remember and in
remembering, we must take action.
Signed
and authenticated by:
 |
 |
|
MUGIYANTO |
MARY AILEEN
D. BACALSO |
|
Chairperson |
Secretary-General |
