Parallel Activity on the Draft International Convention
On the Protection of All Persons
From Enforced or Involuntary Disappearances
By: Mary Aileen Diez-Bacalso, AFAD
Palais des Nations, Geneva, Switzerland

His Excellencies, ladies and gentlemen, good afternoon (buenas tardes):

The Asian Federation Against Involuntary Disappearances (AFAD), thank you
very much for the opportunity given to us for echoing the voice of the
thousands of suffering families of the disappeared in the Asian region, a
continent that submitted the highest number of cases to the United Nations
Working Group on Enforced or Involuntary Disappearances and where regional
human rights mechanisms and national legislation criminalizing this very
cruel form of human rights violation are absent.

As I speak before you today, I remember the voiceless families of the
disappeared in a number of Asian countries. Ding Zilin of the Tiananmen
Mothers, who spoke about the families of those who disappeared during the
1989 Tiananmen massacre, and who cannot even mourn in public for fear of
reprisal by their government; Parveena Ahangar of Kashmir, who vowed
never to let any stone unturned in searching for her disappeared son and
many other victims made to disappear in Kashmir by the Indian soldiers;
Toti Koto of Indonesia who, in tears, promised to spend her remaining
years in life to search for her disappeared son; the elderly family
members of the disappeared in my own country, the Philippines, some of
whom had already died but still a number of them continue dreaming of
seeing at least the remains of their disappeared loved ones if ever they
had been killed; the agonizing families of the disappeared in Sri Lanka
who once gave me pictures of their beloved desaparecidos hoping that AFAD
could facilitate their return; the families of the disappeared in
Thailand, who, upon meeting other family members of the disappeared in
other Asian countries, could not hold back their tears knowing that they
are not alone in the struggle against impunity – they are among the
millions of families of the disappeared who ceaselessly cry for truth,
justice, redress and recuperation of the historical memory of their
disappeared loved ones.

The cases of disappearances in the Asian region which continue to happen
in large numbers in many Asian countries and the fact that there are no
national and regional mechanisms of protection, prevention and redress for
the victims had urged us to form our own Federation, which is now active
since eight years. Once working individually as national organizations
in our own respective countries, we saw the need for regional and
international cooperation. Immediately after our birth, we joined FEDEFAM
in its campaign for an adoption by the United Nations of the
much-cherished dream for an International Convention on the Protection of
All Persons from Enforced or Involuntary Disappearances.

AFAD, together with the rest of the global movement against enforced or
involuntary disappearances, consistently participated in all sessions of
the United Nations Inter-Sessional Open-Ended Working Group to Elaborate a
Draft Legally-Binding Normative Instrument for the Protection of All
Persons from Enforced or Involuntary Disappearances. After three years of
difficult negotiations successfully concluded through the able leadership
of French Ambassador Bernard Kessedjian, the final text of the Convention
was adopted on the 22nd of September 2005 – a historic day which families
of the disappeared consider as a grand, yet initial victory.

Our Federation welcomes the new right provided for in the draft – the
RIGHT NOT TO BE DISAPPEARED. No one shall be subjected to enforced
disappearance under any circumstances, whether it be a state or a threat
of war, internal political instability or any other public emergency. Its
widespread or systematic practice is considered a crime against humanity.
Furthermore, AFAD hails another set of rights provided for in the draft,
i.e. the right of the relatives of the disappeared person and of the
society as a whole to know the truth on the fate and whereabouts of the
disappeared and another provision emphasizing the right to form and
participate freely in organizations and associations supporting the cause
of the disappeared. These new set of rights is especially important to us
because in the course of our work, our colleagues in the struggle were
themselves, made to disappear and were killed. Because of his staunch
human rights advocacy, our own Chairperson, Munir, who worked very hard
against enforced disappearances, was killed by a lethal dosage of arsenic
on a Garuda flight from Singapore to Amsterdam more than a year ago.

The draft treaty protecting people from the scourge of involuntary
disappearances overcomes the limitations of the existing international
bodies that address this issue. One very important achievement of the
future treaty is the establishment of a ten-member Committee on Enforced
Disappearances, which will carry out a comprehensive and multiple tasks
that would ensure implementation once the Convention enters into force.
Thus, the families of the disappeared in our continent and in the rest of
the world expect from this newly established United Nations Human Rights
Council – the immediate adoption of this important future instrument of
protection and prevention. Once entered into force, it would compel
states to enact necessary legislation to ensure fulfillment of their
international obligations.

AFAD is however worried by the fact that out of the thirteen Asian
countries who are members of the UN Human Rights Council, only Japan
explicitly expressed support for this Convention with a strong monitoring
body. We still have to hear the explicit support of the other Asian
governments whose election in this Human Rights Council obliges them to
protect the Asian peoples from this crime, never to be repeated in the
history of humanity.

His Excellencies, ladies and gentlemen, the peace that family members of
the disappeared seek is a peace based on justice. The justice that the
families of the disappeared seek lies never in forgetting the past but in
remembering the all those who involuntarily disappeared and whose
historical memory deserve never ever to be forgotten.

Once again, AFAD, in unity with other families of the disappeared all over
the world – in Latin America, Africa, Europe, reiterates its call to the
47 member-states of the UN Human Rights Council:

Convention now!

Respect the right not to be disappeared.

Mary Aileen Diez-Bacalso