International Week of the Disappeared 2012 (27 May – June 2, 2012): ICAED Vows to Continue Its Campaign for Ratification of the Anti-Disappearance Convention

Every last week of May, the international community, especially the associations of families of the disappeared, commemorates the International Week of the Disappeared (IWD). The commemoration of the IWD can be traced to the Latin American Federation of Associations for Relatives of the Detained-Disappeared (FEDEFAM), which initiated this event during its founding Congress in San Jose, Costa Rica in 1981. Over the past thirty years this event has inspired many organizations world-wide to fight enforced disappearances.

This week, in the observance of the International Week of the Disappeared, the International Coalition Against Enforced Disappearances (ICAED) and its 40 member-organizations from Africa, Asia, the Eurasian Region (Euro-Mediterranean Region, Caucasus and Belarus), Latin America and United States of America will conduct various activities to intensify its campaign for the ratification of the International Convention for the Protection of All Persons from Enforced Disappearance (the Convention) and in so doing, pay tribute to the disappeared.

Enforced disappearance is extremely disturbing because it violates the human rights of both the disappeared person and their family. It does not recognize the victim as a person. It strips a disappeared person of the right to be protected by the law, which is recognized under Article 6 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and Article 16 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights. This crime is especially alarming when it is committed against pregnant women and children because it also violates women’s and children’s rights. The cycle of victimization caused by enforced disappearances is without end. Families and relatives left behind are deprived of the truth, bereft of justice and worse still, are often subjected to persecution.

To date, the International Convention for the Protection of All Persons from Enforced Disappearance (the Convention) has been signed 91 States and ratified by 32. The number of signatures and ratifications pales in comparison with the 57,771 outstanding cases from 87 countries that rest with the UN Working Group on Enforced or Involuntary Disappearances (as per their 2011 report). These figures represent human suffering of the disappeared, their families and the greater society – a festering wound that refuses to heal.

Most member organizations of ICAED from Namibia, Zimbabwe, South Africa, Cyprus, Morocco, Georgia, Lebanon, Belarus, Russia, Iraq, Jammu and Kashmir, Indonesia, Timor Leste, Sri Lanka, Nepal, Philippines, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Thailand, Guatemala, El Salvador and Peru are confronted with the innumerable consequences of enforced disappearance, such as reprisal, intimidation, denial of state responsibility and grave threats by the governments’ security forces. Adding insult to injury, most states are notorious for refusing to cooperate in bringing perpetrators to justice.

Much as the ICAED has made important accomplishments during its five-year existence by carrying out its mandate of lobbying for the Convention, recruiting member-organizations, organizing important meetings and events, it can certainly further strengthen itself and expand its membership, especially in countries with the worst cases of disappearances. The consolidation of existing membership and its expansion, complemented with capacity-building, will go a long way towards mustering strength to combat enforced disappearances and impunity. Hand in hand with civil society, the Coalition can better fulfill its mission to convince governments to ratify the Convention, recognize the competence of the UN Committee Against Enforced Disappearances, codify the offense in their respective penal codes, fully implement the treaty, ensure truth, justice, redress and non-repetition. These are all important steps to end impunity and preserve the historical memory of the disappeared.

More than thirty years had passed since our Latin American sisters and brothers initiated the International Week of the Disappeared. It is high time to end enforced disappearances NOW!
As an apt tribute to the desaparecidos of the world, the ICAED vows to continue convincing UN States to sign and ratify the Convention NOW!
Justice for All Desaparecidos of the World!
Sign and Ratify the International Convention for the Protection of All Persons from Enforced Disappearance NOW!

MARY AILEEN D. BACALSO
Focal Person
International Coalition Against Enforced Disappearances