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

September 6 marked the disappearance of the noted human rights activist Jaswant Singh Khalra who was picked up from outside his home in Amritsar, Punjab, in 1995, following his courageous activism around enforced disappearances in Punjab. The Asian Federation Against Involuntary Disappearance (AFAD) recognizes Mr. Khalra’s sacrifice for truth and the tireless efforts of his wife, Mrs. Paramjit Kaur Khalra, and the Khalra Mission Organization for Justice.

Disappearances in Punjab, in northwestern India, remain an unresolved crime and the true scale of disappearances is thus far unknown. In the 1990s, Jaswant Singh Khalra uncovered secret mass cremations in Punjab, estimating over 25,000 such cremations across the state. Almost immediately after his international trip to bring awareness around these cremations, Khalra was himself disappeared and killed. Since then, India’s Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) has validated 2,097 secret cremations at just three cremation grounds of Amritsar district alone.

One month after his arbitrary arrest by the Detective Branch of Police on 10 September 2013,, Adilur Rhaman Khan, Secretary General of Odhikar and AFAD Council Member remains in jail. The Asian Federation Against Involuntary Disappearances (AFAD) calls on the Hasina Government to accord him due process in his legal recourse to freedom.

Based on our information, the Sessions Judge Court rejected the bail petition on 9 September though according to lawyers of Adilur, the charge against him under Sections 57 (1) and (2) of the Information and Communication Technology Act of 2006 is bailable. On 5 September, documents on his case were also transferred to the newly-formed Cyber Crimes Tribunal.

INTERNATIONAL DAY OF THE DISAPPEARED

On the occasion of the International Day of the Disappeared, the Asian Federation Against Involuntary Disappearances (AFAD) vows to make full use of Republic Act 10353, the Anti Enforced Disappearance Act of 2012 to bring home all Filipino desaparecidos and to exact accountability from its violators.

Republic Act 10353 or the “Anti-Enforced Disappearance Act of 2012, which was enacted into law on 21 December 2012 and whose Implementing Rules and Regulations (IRR) was promulgated on 12 February 2013, clearly define and penalize the act of enforced disappearance as a distinct and separate criminal offense.

On the commemoration of the International Day of the Disappeared (IDD), the Asian Federation Against Enforced Disappearances (AFAD) calls on governments in Asia and the world to BRING HOME VICTIMS OF ENFORCED DISAPPEARANCE!  In so doing, these governments must sign and ratify the International Convention for the Protection of All Persons from Enforced Disappearance, recognize the competence of the UN Committee on Enforced Disappearance and enact domestic laws criminalizing enforced disappearances.

Enforced disappearance is when someone is taken away by agents of governments, usually by security forces like the military or police. This act is followed by the denial or concealment of a person’s fate or whereabouts, in effect removing them from the protection of law.

The Federation

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