- Category: Statements
A Joint Statement on the occasion of 10 December - International Human Rights Day 2022
Dhaka/ Bangkok/ Geneva/ Hong Kong/ Johannesburg/ Kuala Lumpur/ Manila/ Paris/ Washington DC, 09 December 2022: The undersigned human rights organisations commemorate all victims of human rights violations and stand in solidarity with the victims’ families in Bangladesh and across the world. This year’s International Human Rights Day’s slogan is “Dignity, Freedom, and Justice for All”. International Human Rights Day 2022 is being observed at a time when the human rights situation in Bangladesh continues to worsen. The absence of effective institutions to prevent political intolerance, undemocratic practices and human rights abuses has resulted in rampant impunity. The current authoritarian government has deprived the people of the benefits of good governance and administration of justice through the politicisation of various State institutions, including the judiciary and the Election Commission, and has severely repressed civil and political rights, including the rights to freedom of expression, freedom of peaceful assembly, and freedom of association.
- Category: Statements
The Asian Federation Against Involuntary Disappearances (AFAD) joins the international community in commemorating the 74th Anniversary of the adoption of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR). We gather to celebrate the fundamental freedoms that every human being is entitled to. On this day, AFAD renews its pledge to protect and promote human rights and fundamental freedoms for all and stands in solidarity with the countless families of the disappeared across the globe in their fight for truth and justice.
Over seven decades since the adoption of the Declaration in 1948, institutions, organizations, and individuals have worked relentlessly to ensure that human rights are protected and individuals are able to live a life of dignity. Yet, the international human rights community has observed a severe disregard for human rights in recent years as oppressive and populist regimes are coming to power. The inalienable rights mentioned in the UDHR have been under assault.
- Category: Statements
To defend human rights is inherently human. The promotion and fulfilment of human rights in the country involves the empowerment of the people in defense of human rights and the rule of law. The Families of Victims of Involuntary Disappearance (FIND) is driven by its steadfast search for truth and justice for the thousands of principled and committed activists who have been forcibly disappeared through decades, thus transforming family members of the disappeared to become human rights defenders (HRDs) themselves.
FIND strongly urges the government to enact and fully implement a Human Rights Defenders Protection law to attend to these victim-families in their long-drawn search for truth and elusive justice. In fact, HRDs and organizations dedicated to ending enforced disappearances and other human rights violations need to be protected.
- Category: Statements
The undersigned organisations call for the immediate and unconditional release of Kashmiri human rights defender Khurram Parvez, who was arrested one year ago on November 22, 2021 on politically motivated terrorism and other charges.
Parvez, the Coordinator of the Jammu Kashmir Coalition of Civil Society (JKCCS) and Chairperson of the Asian Federation Against Involuntary Disappearances (AFAD), has been a champion of human rights advocacy, documentation, and investigations including in the Jammu and Kashmir region, for over 20 years.
- Category: Statements
MANILA: Fifty years since Ferdinand Marcos Sr. declared Martial Law in 1972, the Asian Federation Against Involuntary Disappearances (AFAD) affirms its steadfast support to the Families of Victims of Involuntary Disappearance (FIND) and other Philippine human rights defenders in seeking truth and justice on atrocities committed under this dark regime.
- Category: Statements
Manila: The Asian Federation against Involuntary Disappearances strongly condemns the decision of the Prime Minister’s office in Bangladesh to uphold its decision to deregister Odhikar, one of the most credible human rights organisations in the South Asian region.
- Category: IDD-AFAD-MO
31 August 2022
Manila: On the International Day of the Disappeared 2022, the Asian Federation Against Involuntary Disappearances (AFAD) calls for the protection, NOT PERSECUTION, of human rights defenders and advocates.
Years after the adoption of the United Nations Declaration on Enforced Disappearance and the International Convention for the Protection of All Persons from Enforced Disappearance (ICPPED), the practice of enforced disappearance chillingly persists. Enforced disappearance is defined as a crime against humanity and the worst type of human rights violation as it puts a person completely outside the protection of the law.
- Category: Statements
On the occasion of the International Day of the Victims of Enforced Disappearances (30 August), we, the undersigned victims’ groups, national and international organizations urge the Government of Nepal, to take urgent steps to ensure the rights to truth, justice and reparations of the families of the enforced disappeared.