- Category: Statements
A Call for Solidarity on the International Torture Survivors’ Day
26 June 2017
"... Most of them lived the rest of their lives in the detention centers, hooded or blindfolded, forbidden to talk to one another, hungry, living in filth. The center of their lives - dominating the memories of those who survived - was torture. They were tortured, almost without exception, methodically, sadistically, sexually, with electric shocks and near-drownings, [some burried to their necks and left in the sun and the rain for days. They were] constantly beaten, in the most humiliating possible way, not to discover information - very few had any information to give - but just to break them spiritually as well as physically, and to give pleasure to their torturers."[Ronald Dworkin, in the introduction to "Nunca Mas, Argentina "]
- Category: Statements
4 June 2017 – Nineteen years ago, the Asian Federation Against Involuntary Disappearances (AFAD) was founded in Manila, Philippines by the Families of Victims of Involuntary Disappearances (FIND, Philippines), the Association of Parents and Family Members of the Disappeared (APDP, in the disputed state of Jammu and Kashmir) and the then Organization of Parents and Family Members of the Disappeared (OPFMD, Sri Lanka).
Today, AFAD has grown into a Federation of 14 member-organizations from 10 countries, namely Bangladesh, India, Indonesia, Nepal, Pakistan, Philippines, South Korea, Sri Lanka, Thailand, Timor-Leste and with individual members in Laos and in Switzerland.
- Category: Statements
First commemorated by the Latin American Federation of Associations of Relatives of Disappeared-Detainees (FEDEFAM) in the early 80s, the International Week of the Disappeared has been adopted by the Asian Federation Against Involuntary Disappearances (AFAD) to serve as a venue to campaign against this heinous crime and reaffirm its solidarity to all victims and their families.
- Category: Statements
- Category: Statements
Manila, 23 May 2017 – The Universal Period Review (UPR) of Indonesia took place on May 3, 2017, in Palais de Nations, in Geneva.
The review process was led by three member States of the UN Human Rights Council, namely Bangladesh, Belgium, and Ecuador.
- Category: Statements
As this year’s International Week of the Disappeared begins, we call upon the Philippine Government to end enforced disappearances and bring to justice all perpetrators of this grave human rights violation.
- Category: Statements
The Phruetsapha Thamin, or Black May, refers to the protest that erupted in Bangkok in 1992 against the government of General Suchinda Kraprayoon, and to the military crackdown that followed. At the height of the protest, between 17-20 May 1992, 200,000 people demonstrated in central Bangkok.
- Category: Statements
May 18 marks a central moment in the history of South Korea: the May 1980 Gwangju Democratic Uprising. The Gwangju Uprising was a wave of protests that took place in the southwestern city of Gwangju in May 18-27, 1980 that saw thousands of South Korean students, workers, mothers, teachers and farmers collectively deciding that they have had enough of the State’s violence and repression, and revolted against a tyrannical military dictatorship that controlled the country for more than 18 years.