Corollary to this are intensive efforts of each member-organization to demand state accountability on cases of involuntary disappearances in Asia through effective advocacy work on the national level. The families and relatives of victims of involuntary disappearances are pushing governments, who are perpetrators of this heinous crime, to be accountable. Traditionally commemorated activities in honor of the disappeared are important venues to bring the voice of the families of the disappeared to the fore.
The United Nations' present process of drafting an international treaty protecting all persons from enforced or involuntary disappearances, if eventually ratified by United Nations' states-parties, will surely go a long way towards the attainment of AFAD members' common direction - truth, justice, redress. AFAD's role towards the ratification of a new international instrument against disappearances is indispensable in the task of destroying the myth that the problem of involuntary disappearances is solely a Latin American phenomenon. Thus, involuntary disappearances in China, India, Indonesia, Pakistan, Philippines, Sri Lanka and Thailand and in many other parts of Asia should be projected.
International solidarity at all levels is important. A very concrete example of solidarity was the AFAD members' collective efforts expressed in synchronized pickets in front of the Indian embassies in Jakarta, Hong Kong, Colombo and other pressure tactics done a year ago. If multiplied, this effective form of solidarity and advocacy pressures governments to explicitly admit the existence of this phenomenon and concretely respond to the victims' cry for justice. To further strengthen the impact, it is important if solidarity is channeled through the international level through AFAD's continuing cooperation with its counterparts in other regions of the world.
AFAD, in its Second Congress held in Bangkok in August 2004, reaffirmed its commitment to intensify the struggle on the national, regional and international level. This commitment, carried collectively in creative ways by AFAD members, whose arms are linked with other defenders and victims in the rest of the world, shall surely take roots and gain ground towards breaking the wall of impunity
