8/3/2019 AFAD Statement on 63rd Human Rights Day Commemoration

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AFAD Statement onInternational Human Rights Day10 December 2011

Impunity for Enforced Disappearance Must End NOW!

Today, as the world commemorates the 63rd International Human Rights Day, the Asian

Federation Against Involuntary Disappearances or (AFAD) calls on all governments particularlythose in the Asian region to stop enforced disappearance and to end impunity.

Enforced disappearance is considered one of the cruelest human rights transgression. It is a multipleand continuous violation of the basic human rights not only of the direct victims but also of theirfamilies and the greater society. It inflicts untold sufferings to the victims who are forcibly taken byagents of the States and denied access to legal safeguards by removing them from the protection ofthe law. It causes ill-effects to the victims families, not knowing the fate and whereabouts of theirloved ones. Mothers, wives, and daughters are usually left without any means to tend their families.In South Asian context, wives of the disappeared are called half-widows who are stripped of legalstatus to obtain pensions and other means of support. Children of the disappeared equally suffer.

They are deprived of a normal family and a good future. No doubt, enforced disappearance sows

fear and terror in society.

Many governments employ this atrocious practice as a tool of state repression and political witch-hunt. It is a major human rights concern of more than 80 countries based on the 2010 report of theUN Working Group on Enforced or Involuntary Disappearances, a thematic UN body created in1980 to monitor the incidences of enforced disappearances worldwide. Many cases occur in Asiancountries, the continent that submitted the highest number of cases.

The Asian region lacks a strong mechanism for redress. There are no available domestic lawspenalizing disappearance as a separate and autonomous criminal offense. Not only are cases ofenforced or involuntary disappearances difficult to investigate and prosecute. They recur with eachpassing day in many Asian countries. Perpetrators can easily walk away from criminal accountability.

Efforts by several governments along with families of the disappeared and international humanrights organizations have made possible the adoption of the International Convention for theProtection of All Persons from Enforced Disappearance in 2006 by the United Nations General

Assembly and its consequent entry into force on 23 December 2010. To date, this internationalhuman rights instrument has 90 signatories and 30 States Parties.

It is but imperative for all states to accede to the international treaty against enforced disappearances without reservation and immediately adopt effective national laws to abolish this horrendouspractice.

Asian Federation Against Involuntary DisappearancesRms. 310-311 Philippine Social Science Center BuildingCommonwealth Avenue, Diliman, 1103 Quezon City PhilippinesTelefax: 00-632-4546759 Telephone Number 00-632-9274594 Mobile 00-63-9177924058Email afad@surfshop.net.ph website www.afad-online.org

8/3/2019 AFAD Statement on 63rd Human Rights Day Commemoration

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While these legal measures and mechanisms may not bring back the disappeared, they can certainlyhelp in finding truth and justice and in preventing cases from happening again. It only takes one

small step to have a leap of change.

Ending impunity should both be a demand and a call for unity and action.

For the disappeared and their families, the 63rd anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human

Rights will have a deeper meaning through governments accession to the International Convention

for the Protection of All Persons from Enforced Disappearance and the enactment of laws

criminalizing disappearances and their full implementation.

Signed and authenticated by:

MUGIYANTO MARY AILEEN BACALSOChairperson Secretary-General