UN chief calls for action to end enforced disappearances
UN Secretary-General António Guterres has urged countries to fulfil their obligations to prevent and prosecute cases of enforced disappearance, a “cowardly practice” which the COVID-19 pandemic has made even more difficult to combat. “Together, we can and we must end all enforced disappearances,” he said.
The UN chief made the appeal in his message to mark the International Day honouring victims of this serious human rights violation, observed on Monday.
UN General Assembly declared the 30th of August as International Day of the Victims of Enforced Disappearances and the day was observed for the first time in the year 2011.
In the official UN report of 2009, of the 82 countries where the cases of missing persons were identified, the largest number (more than 1000) transmitted were: Iraq (16,544), Sri Lanka (12,226), Argentina (3,449), Guatemala (3,155), Peru (3,009), Algeria (2,939), El Salvador (2,661) and Colombia (1,235). However, the number of disappeared persons in Nepal has been estimated to 2,510.
The International Day of the Disappeared, on August 30 of each year, is a day created to draw attention to the fate of individuals imprisoned at places and under poor conditions unknown to their relatives and/or legal representatives.
The impulse for the day came from the Latin American Federation of Associations for Relatives of Detained-Disappeared (FEDEFAM), a non-governmental organization founded in 1981 in Costa Rica as an association of local and regional groups actively working against secret imprisonment, forced imprisonment and abduction in a number of Latin American countries.
The International Day of the Victims of Enforced Disappearances has been commemorated annually on 30 August since 2011.
Meanwhile, the United States also marked the International Day of the Victims of Enforced Disappearances, as established by the UN General Assembly in 2010.
The United States stands in solidarity with victims of the egregious crime of enforced disappearance and with the loved ones who live with the agony of their absence and the added pain of not knowing their whereabouts or fate, said a release from the State Department.
Every year, friends and family members vanish after being arrested, detained, or abducted by government officials or those working in concert with them or with their tacit assent. Those responsible refuse to acknowledge the deprivation of liberty or conceal the victims’ fates and whereabouts.
Human rights defenders, political activists, environmental defenders, journalists, and those who exercise their fundamental freedoms are often the targets of this egregious crime, it said.
The United States strongly condemns all enforced disappearances and calls on governments to facilitate the return of and provide information about all victims of enforced disappearances, and to undertake independent and transparent investigations into all such cases.
Governments must put an end to enforced disappearances, hold accountable those responsible, reveal the fate or whereabouts of loved ones who have disappeared, and respect the human rights and fundamental freedoms of all persons, added the release.
In Nepal
Also, as in other parts of the world, the World Day Against Disappearances is being celebrated in Nepal today with various programs in memory of the forcibly disappeared persons.
Since 1981, the United Nations and Amnesty International have been actively involved in commemorating those who have been forcibly disappeared.
On the occasion of the day, organizations working in the field of human rights are organizing various awareness programs against disappearances.
International human rights groups such as Amnesty International, the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, and the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) have been campaigning globally to put pressure on the government and the rebels.
During the ten years of Maoist insurgents’ armed conflict in Nepal, a large number of civilians were reported missing by the security forces and the Maoists.
Even after the peace agreement was signed between Maoists and Government of Nepal, the people who have disappeared from the state and the rebel side have not yet come in contact.
As per the reports, a total of 3,223 complaints have been registered three times. The Commission investigates each complaint in three stages: preliminary action, preliminary investigation and detailed investigation.
In the preliminary stage of action, it is seen that the complaint is not justified, there is no factual basis, the complaint is not registered within the prescribed format, the incident did not happen during the armed conflict, the incident did not happen during the conflict but not related to the armed conflict.
The Commission for the Investigation of Disappeared Persons estimates that more than 2,510 people have been reported missing by the state and the rebels during the armed conflict.
Currently, the commission has completed the first phase of detailed investigation into 2,101 complaints from 65 districts.
