- Category: Statements
AFAD STATEMENT FOR THE 2014 INTERNATIONAL DAY OF THE DISAPPEARED
Asian peoples are the most victimized by the practice of enforced disappearance over the past years. The practice is still continuing with 14 Asian states out of 21 asked to respond to 93 new cases lodged at the UN
Working Group on Enforced or Involuntary Disappearances (UNWGEID), as contained in its August 4, 2014 report to the UN Human Rights Council. These Asian states are Bahrain, Bangladesh, Cambodia, India, Indonesia, Iraq, Nepal, Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, Syria, Tajikistan, Thailand, United Arab Emirates and Yemen.
Urgent appeals were also sent by the UNWGEID to 16 States, eight of these from Asia (Bahrain, Bangladesh, China, Iraq, Kazakhstan, the Lao People’s Democratic Republic, the Syrian Arab Republic and United Arab Emirates) concerning the whereabouts of persons who were arrested, detained or feared to have been disappeared or at risk of disappearance. Communications concerning allegations of harassments of human rights defenders and relatives of disappeared persons were also sent to 12 states, five of these are from Asia (Bangladesh, Nepal, Pakistan, Sri Lanka and Thailand).
- Category: Statements
FOLLOW THE DESAPARECIDOS,
DEFEND DEMOCRACY AND GOOD GOVERNANCE
It was only three years ago that the United Nations declared August 30 as the International Day of the Victims of Enforced Disappearance. For years, however, the families of desaparecidos across continents marked the day as the International Day of the Disappeared to pay tribute to their missing kin.
Today, as the world observes the Day of the Disappeared, FIND and AFAD celebrate the sterling lives of the desaparecidos as defenders of freedom and democracy and as catalysts of developmental change. In this light, we invite President Aquino to train his warning against pseudo-reformists not only on his critics but on himself and his cohorts in government first. In paying tribute to past and present-day heroes on August 25, National Heroes’ Day, the President cautioned against “those who only pretend at reform.”
The genuine pro-people struggles of the desaparecidos for societal change should inspire self-declared reformists within and without government to tread the oft-invoked but yet to be walked straight path. And the people must be vigilant against the resurrection of a dictatorship that stifles political dissent with unrestrained enforced disappearances, torture, and extrajudicial killings.
The long road to EDSA 1 was paved by the blood and sweat of courageous political activists, at least 878 of whom have been forcibly disappeared. These include: student activist Rizalina Ilagan, college professor Charlie del Rosario, public accountant Romeo Crismo, labor and human rights lawyer Hermon Lagman, labor leader Victor Reyes, Benedictine deacon Carlos Tayag, Redemptorist priest Rudy Romano.
- Category: Statements
Mary Aileen Diez Bacalso, the Secretary General of Asian Federation Against involuntary Disappearances (AFAD) was banned to enter India on the night of 17th August 2014 at the Mumbai International Airport. Aileen Bacalso is also the Focal Person of the International Coalition Against Enforced Disappearances with 52 members worldwide.
On 11th August, Aileen Bacalso had tried to apply for visa from the Indian embassy in Manila. While her papers were complete her application was not accepted on the pretext that time was too short but they looked at the documents and were completely aware that she was travelling on 17th August to India.
- Category: Statements
Fugitive human rights violator, Retired General Jovito Palparan, has been arrested in the Philippines on Tuesday, August 12. Palparan is wanted for the 2006 disappearance of two University of the Philippines (UP) students, Sherlyn Cadapan and Karen Empeno. He has been hiding for 3 years.
- Category: News
Dear Sombath,
I heard about your enforced disappearance six days before the passing into law of Philippine Anti-Enforced Disappearance Act of 2012, the first ever anti-enforced disappearance law in Asia. I have worked on the issue of enforced disappearance for a couple of decades. Each case means a life stolen from the disappeared and his or her family; it means that a part of society has been forcibly taken from it, thus tearing apart its very fabric and causing devastating consequences to the disappeared that you are, your loved ones and the society where you belong. When the most-awaited enactment of draft anti-disappearance law came after more than 16 years of struggle for it to see the light of day, I had the ambivalent feeling of joy that we finally have this law in the Philippines but also mixed with pain because the list of desaparecidos of the world lengthened further by your enforced disappearance…..
- Category: Statements
Bayview Park Hotel, Manila, Philippines | July 17-20, 2014
Group photo of conference participants and secretariat
We gather for our Third Conference on Psychosocial Support in the Search for Truth and Justice for individual, family and community victims of enforced disappearance, torture, extrajudicial killing and allied human rights violations cognizant of the plurality of histories, cultures, political systems, and socio-economic settings of our countries of origin. Considering these diversities, we review and validate the applicability of the International Consensus on the Minimum Standards for Psychosocial Work in Search Processes and Forensic Investigations of Cases of Enforced Disappearance, Arbitrary or Extrajudicial Executions (Minimum Standards).
- Category: Statements
Today is the 29th year of the disappearance of Fr. Rudy Romano, a Redemptorist priest forcibly taken by military intelligence agents on July 11, 1985. He was well loved by the people, especially the urban poor, workers and farmers because he represented their concerns during the dark years of Martial Law. He was their voice in informing the government and the bigger public about their issues and demands.
- Category: Statements
The Asian Federation Against Involuntary Disappearances (AFAD) calls on the ASEAN Intergovernmental Commission on Human Rights (AICHR) to ACT NOW against increasing human rights violations in the region.
In Lao, the government remains calloused to calls from the international community to surface Sombath Somphone, a 2005 Ramon Magsaysay awardee for Community Leadership who disappeared on 15 December 2012, exactly 18 months today. The Lao People’s Democratic Republic signed the Convention Against Enforced Disappearance (CED) on 29 September 2008. It also ratified the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR) on 25 September 2009.