AFAD 25 Years Video Teaser

This AFAD video teaser is an opening salvo of the yearlong campaign and fight Against Enforced Disappearances and for the Protection, not Persecution, of Human Rights Defenders, across Asia.

a continuing crime
a disappearing act

What's Happening

On this International Day of the Victims of Enforced Disappearances, the Asian Federation Against Involuntary Disappearances (AFAD) stands in solidarity with families of the disappeared across Asia. For decades, enforced disappearance has been used to silence dissent, criminalize human rights defenders, and instill fear in communities. It remains one of the gravest crimes committed by states, leaving families in perpetual anguish, trapped between hope and despair.

Today, on International Day of the Victims of Enforced Disappearances, eight human rights and civil society organizations highlight the systematic failure of the Pakistani authorities to stop enforced disappearance and provide truth, justice and reparations to victims and families of the disappeared in Pakistan.

The last fifty years has been turbulent, even traumatic for Sri Lanka. Two uprisings in the South led by Sinhala youth (1971, 1987-89) and a 30-year civil war led by separatist Tamil groups in the North wreaked havoc on the country. While there is no official total count of the killings or disappearances, the estimated figure could be as high as 150,000 to 200,000.

In commemoration of the 2025 International Day of the Disappeared, the Commission for the Disappeared and Victims of Violence (KontraS) and Indonesian Association of Families of the Disappeared (IKOHI) demand the Indonesian legislative to immediately ratify the International Convention for the Protection of All Persons from Enforced Disappearances (ICPPED) and the Indonesian security forces to end the practice of enforced disappearance.

The Federation

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