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.

As we celebrate our unity, we also count on our efforts at the national and international level to empower families of the disappeared through our psychosocial and other direct assistance programs. Healing wounds, mending scars, transforming victims to healers and promoting the cycle of healing in the context of the campaign for truth justice, the Federation and its member-organizations facilitate that families of the disappeared muster their inner strength amidst woundedness in order to attain more victories. This is based on the premise that families of the disappeared are in the best position to garner victories in the struggle for justice.

In our fourteen years of struggle, we have contributed to the global fight against enforced disappearance through our consistent and active participation in all sessions of the negotiation process of the International Convention for the Protection of All Persons from Enforced Disappearance from 2003-2005 in Geneva, Switzerland. Linking in solidarity with our Latin American sisters and brothers and with similar formations in other continents and in cooperation with international human rights organizations under the umbrella of the International Coalition Against Enforced Disappearances, we continued to pursue the adoption by the United Nations General Assembly of the International Convention for the Protection of All Persons from Enforced Disappearance in 2006 and its entry into force on 23 December 2010. Untiringly, we persevere in the uphill struggle to convince UN Member-States particularly, Asian governments to accede to this new international human rights treaty without reservation in order to achieve universal application. To date, 91 States have signed and 32 have already ratified this UN Convention. This Convention if ratified and complemented with domestic pieces of legislation criminalizing enforced disappearances, can serve as an effective tool to ensure state accountability, respect for the rights of the victims and their families and to prevent recurrence. Unfortunately, most Asian governments are not yet signatories much less States-Parties to this Convention. This reality is a huge challenge for AFAD in the next years to come.

As we step up our search for the truth and the campaign for justice, we are in the process of beefing up our documentation system as the very foundation of all our other endeavors. In so doing, we strengthen our other endeavors, including our aim to attain concrete victories in our search for the disappeared, in finding and prosecuting the perpetrators, providing reparation and rehabilitation to victims and guaranteeing non-repetition.

Today, as we commemorate our 14th anniversary, we pay tribute to all desaparecidos of the world. Likewise, we keep in mind the martyrdom and heroism of the pro-democracy activists who were killed and forcibly disappeared during massacre in Tiananmen Square in Beijing, China twenty-one years ago. The unfailing struggle of families of the victims, including the Tiananmen Mothers in relentlessly pursuing their quest for truth and justice inspires and strengthens us to go on.

For fourteen long years, we were not spared from persecution. Our member-organization in Indonesia,KontraS, was raided for two consecutive years from 2002-2003. Munir, Indonesian human rights defender and former AFAD Chairperson was treacherously poisoned in a Garuda flight from Jakarta to Amsterdam via Singapore on 7 September 2004. Aasia Jeelani was killed in a landmine blast on 24 April 2004. Our member-organization in Kashmir is continuously being persecuted for its persistent fight against enforced disappearances. Our new member from Bangladesh continues to be harassed in many ways than one in its work to fight against disappearances and human rights violations. While causing some setbacks, these are temporary because no matter what the cost, our member-organizations which constitute the whole Federation, are determined to pursue our unity towards attaining a world without disappeared people.

What AFAD is now is an embodiment of the shared values and ideals of the respect and protection for the inherent dignity of every human person. We will continue to embrace these values in our continuing journey towards attaining a world free from enforced disappearances and other forms of human rights violations.

Singed by:

MUGIYANTO	MARY AILEEN D. BACALSO
Chairperson	Secretary-General