- Category: IDD-AFAD-MO
Rawalpindi; Defence of Human Rights on the occasion of International week of Disappeared has organized a number of online activities starting from 25th May 2020. The very last week of May, families of the disappeared and human rights activists around the world join handsin the activities to commemorate International Week of the Disappeared. This week is observed to show solidarity with the victim families of enforced disappearances. Most of the families have been struggling to find the truth and justice for decades now.This week shall be a reminder for all those families that they do not stand alone in this struggle to find their disappeared loved-ones.
- Category: IDD-AFAD-MO
Philippines (24th to 30th May, 2020): The Asian Federation Against Involuntary Disappearances (AFAD) commemorates the International Week of the Disappeared, 2020 and stands in solidarity with the families of the disappeared across continents. Most of these families have been struggling for decades to know the truth about the fate and whereabouts of their loved ones.
Amid the extraordinarily difficult circumstances arising from the COVID-19 pandemic, enforced disappearances along with torture, extrajudicial killings, arbitrary arrests and detention, and other gross violations of human rights and fundamental freedoms persist.
- Category: IDD-AFAD-MO
The COVID-19 pandemic cannot obliterate enforced disappearance. On the contrary, it may even exacerbate the perpetration of this global scourge.
As we kick off the International Week of the Disappeared (IWD) this year, we think of Joseph Jimeda, fondly called Dodong. On 07 May 2020, Dodong, a resident of Caloocan City left home for the Navotas City fish port to buy fish. Vending fish is his source of livelihood. His wife and children waited for him the whole day and through the night. But Dodong didn’t come home. For a week they were clueless of his whereabouts. Fear engulfed them as they anxiously searched for him. Finally Dodong surfaced with a harrowing tale to tell. He was arrested as he could not produce a Navotas City-issued quarantine pass. They then detained him along with more than 500 other alleged violators of enhanced community quarantine directives.
- Category: IDD-AFAD-MO
A Joint Statement by the Asian Federation Against Involuntary Disappearances, Asian Human Rights Commission, International Federation for Human Rights and Odhikar on the occasion of International Week of the Disappeared 2020
Dhaka/Manila/Hong Kong/Paris, 25 May 2020: To commemorate International Week of the Disappeared (the last week of May), the Asian Federation against Involuntary Disappearances (AFAD), the Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC), the International Federation for Human Rights (FIDH), and Odhikar remember and pay tribute to victims of enforced disappearance and stand in solidarity with the families of the disappeared during the novel coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic.
- Category: Statements
Advocacy Forum-Nepal (AF) expresses its serious concern on the use of electric tasers on peaceful protesters, protesting against the annexation of Lipulekh, a territory of Nepal by India, in Kathmandu Nepal. In light of series of human rights violations committed by Nepal Police during the lockdown, the most recent act of using electric shocks to take people in control and disperse the mob is a serious breach of human rights and a condemnable act. AF strongly condemns the use of electric tasers on the peaceful protesters in Jadibuti and Maitighar, Kathmandu Nepal.
- Category: Statements
MANILA, PHLIPPPINES. Lent is the season when Filipinos remember Christ’s passion (his suffering and death) and resurrection.
This year, the threat of Corona Virus Disease 2019 (CoViD-19) adds to the thorny crown of suffering, the wanton flagellation of impunity, and the heavy cross of losing a loved one and the ensuing search for truth and justice for these families. The CoViD situation in the country quickly went from bad to worse that before midnight on 15 March 2020, President Duterte announced the implementation of a month-long community quarantine or, in his words, a lockdown.
- Category: Statements
Manila: It can be argued that enforced disappearance (ED) might very well take on a woman’s face. This year the Asian Federation Against Involuntary Disappearances (AFAD) celebrates the International Women’s Day by remembering the collective and individual struggles of women family members of ED victims. These women who bear the burden of having a loved one disappeared are the icons of brave resistance and struggle for survival in the face of overwhelming psychological, social, cultural, and economic challenges.
- Category: Statements
MANILA, Philippines – The Asian Federation Against Involuntary Disappearances (AFAD) strongly condemns the Indian government’s ineffective handling of and (lack of) response to anti-Muslim violence in the wake of the passage of the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA).
The situation was made worse by Kapil Mishra’s, a leader of the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), order to the police to clear the protest site ahead of US President Donald Trump’s visit. A video released on Twitter showed this same official giving an ultimatum to the police. Soon after, CAA supporters, flanked by police officers, approached the protest site chanting “Jai Shree Ram!” (“Hail Lord Ram!”), a slogan associated with right-wing Hindus, followed by stones being thrown towards the protesters.