From May the 27th till June the 6th 2010 We Remember founder Irina Krasovskaya was in Indonesia, where she took part in a large-scale event on the issue of enforced disappearances initiated by The Asian Federation Against enforced Disappearances (AFAD).

The practice of enforced disappearances is now prevented by the existence of the International Convention for the Protection of All Persons from Enforced Disappearance. The Convention was unanimously adopted by the UN General Assembly on December 20, 2006. Currently, 82 countries have signed the Convention and 18 countries have ratified it. The presence of Convention indicates the seriousness of the international community to put to a stop the act of enforced disappearance. As part of the Convention campaign efforts, AFAD held several activities which included the following:

— 27th May, Lobby Meeting with Speaker of the Parliament and Minister of Foreign Affairs;

— 28th-30th of May, meeting of the International  Coalition Against Enforced Disappearances — attended by the representatives of the ICAED Steering Committee members;

— 1st of May, Public Forum on the problem of involuntary disappearances which was attended, among others, by the President of Indonesia, a number of Ministers and ambassadors in Jakarta, Chairperson of the UN Working Group on Enforced or Involuntary Disappearances Mr. Jeremy Sarkin;

— 1st-6th of June, Congress of AFAD which included sharing of situations and responses of AFAD member-organizations during the last three years vis-à-vis its 6-Year Plan of Action;

— 7th-10th of June, Forensic Training.

Irina Krasovskaya took part in all the activities, except for the Forensic Training. She held a speech twice — during the Public Forum on Involuntary Disappearances on the 31st of May and on the 2nd of June during the Congress.

In her speech during the public hearings on the 31st of May Irina Krasovskaya stressed We Remember activities on the international level: "We Remember Foundation became a member of the Steering Committee of the International Coalition against Enforced Disappearances which was created on May 2007 in Paris, — she said. — As a member of the Steering Committee we are continuing to advocate signing and ratification of the UN Convention against disappearances and for these reasons we are trying to meet with officials from governments and Parliaments of many European countries and the US as well as to meet families of disappeared.

Very important achievement of our struggle for decades is adoption in December 2006 of the International Convention for the Protection of All Persons from Enforced Disappearances by GA of UN, signing it by 82 Countries and ratification by 18. Only 2 more countries to make the Convention the powerful international law. And I am happy that organization I represent here — We Remember Foundation — is also a part of the struggle for the right of every person not to be disappeared."

Irina Krasovskaya also shared We Remember activities in connection to the local situation:

"To find the truth about disappearance which occurred in Belarus in 1999- 2000 and to push the Government of Belarus to investigate the cases We Remember closely cooperates with the UN Working Group on Enforced and Involuntary Disappearances (WGEID, Geneva), Human Rights Committee of Inter Parliamentary Unity (IPU, Geneva), UN Human Rights Committee (HRC, Geneva) and other organizations. Irina Krasovskaya together with MP Mr. Christos Pourgourides, the author of Parliamentary Assembly of Council of Europe report “Disappeared Persons in Belarus,” testified before Human Rights Committee of Inter- Parliamentary Union. Also the case of the disappearance of Anatoly Krasovsky which was analyzed and prepared with the help of lawyers in the Netherlands finally has been registered by the UN Human Rights Committee under the Optional Protocol to the International Covenant on Civil and Political rights and sent to the Government of Belarus for respond and got the comments from them. After We Remember have submitted its own comments on the State Party's Submissions, the case is now ready for examination by the Human Rights Committee."

Irina Krasovskaya also noticed the fact that:

"The UN Human Rights Council considered Belarus’s Universal Periodical Review on May 12, 2010 in Geneva. Some Belarusian NGOs prepared an alternative report proposing about 50 recommendations to improve the human rights situation in Belarus including problems of disappearances in Belarus. Cuba, Libya, Iran, Oman and other states with low democracy ratings and significant human rights violations supported official Belarus’s report. On the opposite, representatives of Canada, Belgium, the Netherlands, Switzerland, Austria and other Western democracies criticized the lack of progress in the areas of political and public rights and called on the country to secure real freedom of associations and media, free activity of NGOs, guarantee independence of the judicial branch, impose moratorium on the capital punishment, sign the abovementioned UN Convention... As reaction on unsolved problems of disappearances in Belarus in 1999-2000 the travel bans by US, EU countries and Canada were imposed in 2004 on four people suspected of their involvement in political disappearances. In May 2010, eight more countries joined this list: Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Iceland, Liechtenstein, Macedonia, Norway, Croatia, and Montenegro."

Irina Krasovskaya shared as well the unique experience of We Remember cooperation within the cultural domain:

"We Remember continues to cooperate and support Free Theatre in Belarus. On September 17th, 2008 in Rotterdam, The Netherlands, Free Theater performed play “Discover Love“ devoted to the problem of disappearances in the world and to the story of love and disappearance of Anatoly Krasovsky in 1999. It was the start of the international campaign “Theaters against Disappearances” which will be continued by Free Theater and other theatrical groups from all over the world including performances in Australia, Poland, Sweden, Czech Republic, USA, and The Netherlands.

On September 15-16, 2009 in Washington, D.C., The Georgetown University Theater and Performance Studies Program, in association with Woolly Mammoth Theatre Company and in cooperation with We Remember Civil Initiative, presented Free Theatre at the Davis Performing Arts Center’s Devine Studio Theatre. This underground troupe from Minsk performed the area premiere of “Generation Jeans” on September 15. On September 16, the company performed the U.S. premiere of “Discover Love”. The performance took place exactly 10 years after Anatoly and Victor Gonchar, the Vice-Speaker of the Belarusian Parliament, disappeared on Sept. 16, 1999. A memorial reception organized by Irina Krasovskaya followed the Sept. 16 premiere. The same performance was organized in Los Angeles REDCAT Theater and enjoyed big attention from media and public.

On February 2010 in London Soho Theater play “They dream dreams…” written by Natalia Koliada about life of wives of the disappeared and killed opposition leaders in Belarus was introduced. Such famous theatre persons as Tom Stoppard, Toni Harrison, Ingeborga Dapkunaite, and Simon Stokes were present during the presentation."

During the AFAD Congress the following information was revealed:

Enforced disappearance is a continuing phenomenon in one hundred countries based on the 2009 report of UN Working Group on Enforced or Involuntary Disappearances (UNWGEID). Many of these cases occur in 27 countries of Asia, which is the continent that submitted the highest number of cases to the UNWGEID in recent years. Common to all of these countries is the prevailing impunity that allows perpetrators to escape accountability. While the uncertainty of the victims’ fate inflicts untold sufferings and immeasurable pain on both the disappeared victims and their families, most of the cases that have taken place over decades in the region have not been seriously investigated and the fate and whereabouts of victims remain unknown.

In Timor Leste, approximately 186,000 to 250,000 people died and made to disappear during the Indonesian occupation of Timor Leste based on report of the Truth, Reparation and Reconciliation Commission of Timor-Leste, entitled, “Chega!” But after achieving the independence in 1999, both the Indonesian and Timor Leste governments have continually ignored the recommendations submitted by the Commission on Truth and Friendship and the continuing cry of victims’ families for justice. The release of indicted militia leader Martenus Bere who is suspected to be one of those responsible for the past atrocities is not only an insult to the families and survivors but also a breach to the spirit of friendship and reconciliation. An AFAD lobby group met Timor Leste President Jose Ramos-Horta on 25 November 2009, in Dili, East Timor. The president made a clear commitment that he would undertake all efforts to sign and ratify this international treaty before the end of 2009. He noted that had he been alerted earlier, the government of Timor-Leste could have already been a state party.

In war-torn area of Jammu and Kashmir, around 8,000 people disappeared since the onset of armed conflict across the state in 1989, who are generally attributed to Indian security forces. The Association of Parents of the Disappeared Persons (APDP) has recently found more or less 2, 900 unmarked graves in cemeteries of 18 villages near the Line of Control, dividing Kashmir between India and Pakistan. Families believed that their disappeared relatives could have ended up in these unmarked graves. The government of India has still to officially respond to the report on the said mass graves, entitled “ Buried Evidence,” which was presented to the Indian government on 2 December 2009.

In Indonesia, human rights is still a major concern that needs to be immediately addressed particularly the impunity for past abuses including cases of enforced disappearance, the slow pace of military reform, and lack of investigations on the atrocities in Aceh and Papua. The unresolved murder of Munir Said Thalib, one of the Indonesia’s prominent human rights lawyers and former AFAD Chairperson, who was killed by arsenic poisoning in a Garuda flight from Singapore to Amsterdam, on 7 September 2004 continuously undermines the rule of law with the acquittal of Major General (ret.) Muchdi Purwopranjono. The Commission on Inquiry of the Disappearances that is investigating the case of 13 Indonesian Activists of 1997 -1998 came up with a four-point recommendation to President Sucilo Bambang Yudhoyono as a result of the meeting with human rights organizations which include the establishment of the Adhoc Human Rights Court; take appropriate steps to immediately locate the whereabouts of 13 people cited as still missing by Komnas Ham; to facilitate the rehabilitation and satisfactory compensation to victims and/or the families of the disappeared; and to sign and ratify the UN Convention For the Protection of All Persons from Enforced Disappearance.

In Nepal, hundreds of enforced disappearances took place during the ten year conflict between the government of Nepal and the Communist Party of Nepal-Maoist (CPN-M) which ended in 2006 by both parties signing the Comprehensive Peace Agreement. However, the cases of disappearance remain unresolved up to this day despite efforts of Nepali government to institute some legal reforms. The draft bill for the establishment of a Truth and Reconciliation Commission was strongly opposed by civil society for it allows granting of amnesties to the perpetrators. The same is true with the anti-disappearance bill which was approved in a form of an ordinance but was retracted following clamors of foul play by the national and international human rights organizations.

In Pakistan, thousands of persons have been subjected to enforced disappearance, mostly from Balochistan province and from the North Western Frontier Province, Sindh and Punjab. The number of cases has sharply increased since Pakistan joined the “war on terror” campaign. Still, as a result of the constant protests and petitions in courts by families of the disappeared, and with the clear resolve on the part of the Supreme Court by issuing orders to the military to produce the detainees before the courts, the government has finally acknowledged the custody of dozens of alleged terror suspects, but in most cases, the intelligence agencies continue to defy these judicial orders in the name of national security.

In the Philippines, more than 2,000 people are victims of enforced disappearance since the dark days of martial law up to the present. Disappearances are mostly carried out as a result of the counter-insurgency operations of the government against the communist and secessionist groups. Although, the number of cases of disappearances had dropped significantly in 2007, the political persecution against known progressive and opposition leaders by slapping them with trumped-up criminal charges, continues unabated. Impunity still holds sway as the Philippine government has failed to pass a domestic legislation penalizing enforced disappearance and neglects its voluntary pledge to the UN Human Rights Council stating that it would sign and ratify the International Convention for the Protection of All Persons from Enforced Disappearances. The government has still to positively respond to the 2007 request of the UN Working Group on Enforced or Involuntary Disappearances to visit the country and to implement the latter’s recommendations during its first visit in 1990.

In Thailand, enforced disappearance continues unabated. The recent escalation of political violence in central district of Bangkok between the police forces and the Red-Shirt protesters and the ongoing military operations in southern provinces are feared to have resulted in more cases of disappearances. While recent cases have not been fully investigated by the authority, the perpetrators of past human rights violations particularly the military crackdown on pro-democracy demonstrators in Bangkok in May 1992 remained unpunished. The unresolved disappearance case of Atty. Somchai Neelaphajit, a human rights lawyer who disappeared in Bangkok in 2004 also continues to be a litmus test to the Thai judicial system.

Recognizing the bleak reality of human rights in Asia, where no country has a domestic law criminalizing enforced disappearance and a strong and effective regional mechanism for human rights protection, AFAD deems it imperative to have a universal legally binding instrument which contains an agreed definition of the crime of enforced disappearance and establishes state obligations with regard to its prevention, investigation and repression. The International Convention for the Protection of All Persons from Enforced Disappearance is an effective tool to help strengthen governments' capacities to combat enforced disappearances, punish the perpetrators and guarantee justice and redress to victims and their families. To date, 83 states have already signed and 18 States have ratified the Convention and that only more two ratifications are lacking for the treaty’s entry into force.

CIWR.ORG

On the photographs:

Public Forum on the Issue of Enforced Disappearances. Jakarta, May 31 2010;

The ICAED Steering Committee meeting. Jakarta, May 28 — 29 2010;

Mandira Sharma (Nepal), Irina Krasovskaya, the UN Working Group on Enforced Disappearances Chairman Jeremi Sarkin, Ruth Llanos (Bolivia), Mugiyanto (Indonesia);

Irina Krasovskaya is holding speech at the Public Forum on the Issue of Enforced Disappearances;

Irina Krasovskaya and the Fourth AFAD Congress participants.

All the photographs