Press Release
25 November 2010
Human rights groups hail the imminent Entry into Force of the
International Convention For the Protection of All Persons from Enforced
Disappearance
The Asian Federation Against Involuntary Disappearances (AFAD) has
expressed euphoria over the imminent entry into force of the
International Convention for the Protection of All Persons from Enforced
Disappearance, calling it a “major advance in the global human rights
protection.” The said treaty will enter into force 30 days following
the deposit of the 20th instrument of ratification made by
Iraq on 23 November 2010. Thus, the treaty will come into force on 23
December 2010.
According to the 2010 report of UN Working Group on Enforced or
Involuntary Disappearances, this form of human rights violation is
outstanding in 94 countries around the world. Iraq, like the
Philippines, has outstanding cases of disappearances.
According to Ms. Mary Aileen D. Bacalso, Secretary General of the Asian
Federation Against Involuntary Disappearances (AFAD), the forthcoming
entry into force of the Convention is a symbolic tribute to all the
desaparecidos of the world who were plucked from the bosom of their
families and continue to be deprived of their most basic right to life,
liberty and many other basic human rights.
“The UN Convention For the Protection of All Persons from Enforced
Disappearance is a concrete legal measure which, when put in place, can
be a powerful tool to help strengthen governments' capacities to
eradicate disappearances, punish the perpetrators and provide truth,
justice, redress, reparation and historical memory to victims and their
families,” Ms. Bacalso said.
Unfortunately, the Philippines where the AFAD Secretariat is based, is
not yet a signatory and a party to this treaty. Human rights
organizations have been lobbying the Philippine government for years to
get its signature and ratification. President Benigno Aquino lll, in a
meeting with representatives of AFAD and the Families of Victims of
Involuntary Disappearance (FIND), promised to study the international
treaty and mentioned the possibility of codifying the crime of enforced
disappearance through the enactment of an anti-enforced disappearance
law.
To make sure that enforced disappearance be known to the public, AFAD,
in cooperation with FIND, recently launched a video documentary on the
disappearance of six Paper Industries Corporation of the Philippines (PICOP)
workers abducted on 14 October 2000 by members of the 62nd
Infantry Battalion, 8th Infantry Division of the Philippine
Army and remain disappeared up to this day. Corporal Rodrigo Billones
has been convicted of kidnapping and serious illegal detention and not
of enforced disappearance due to the absence of an anti-enforced
disappearance law.
The AFAD attributed this landmark achievement of the imminent entry into
force of the treaty to the untiring work
of organizations of families of the disappeared first in Latin America
and later, in the rest of the world and the support of human rights
groups.
“This is a fruit of the concerted labor of love principally by the
families of the disappeared who have struggled to transform themselves
from mere victims into human rights defenders, ” Ms. Bacalso added.
The Convention is viewed as important and necessary particularly in Asia
which has the most number of cases of disappearances and has no national
and regional human rights mechanism for redress.
“We hope that the Philippine government under the Aquino administration
will finally fulfill its voluntary pledges before the UN Human Rights
Council by acceding to this Convention without further delay and to help
achieve its universal application,” she concluded.
Contact Person:
Darwin B. Mendiola
AFAD Philippine Project Coordinator
Email:
dars-0352007@yahoo.com /
afad@surfshop.net.ph
Tel No. 4546759
Mobile: 09054826575
