ENFORCED DISAPPEARANCES

Enforced disappearances persist in many countries all over the world, having been a continuing feature of
the second half of the twentieth century since they were committed on a gross scale in Nazi-occupied
Europe.

An enforced disappearance takes place when a person is arrested, detained or abducted by the state or agents
acting for the state, who then deny that the person is being held or conceal their whereabouts, placing them outside
the protection of the law.

Very often, people who have disappeared are never released and their fate remains unknown. Their families and
friends may never find out what has happened to them.

But the person has not just vanished. Someone, somewhere, knows what has happened to them. Someone is
responsible. Enforced disappearance is a crime under international law but all too often the perpetrators are never
bought to justice.

Every enforced disappearance violates a range of human rights including:
the right to security and dignity of person
the right not to be subjected to torture or other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment
the right to humane conditions of detention
the right to a legal personality
right to a fair trial
right to a family life
when the disappeared person is killed, the right to life.
Enforced disappearance is a particularly cruel human rights violation; a violation of the person who has disappeared
and a violation of those who love them.

The disappeared person is often tortured and in constant fear for their life, removed from the protection of the law,
deprived of all their rights and at the mercy of their captors. It is a continuing violation which persists often for many
years after the initial abduction.

If the person does not die and is eventually released, they may continue to suffer for the rest of their life from the
physical and psychological consequences of this form of dehumanization and from the brutality and torture which
often accompany it.

Their family and friends, not knowing the fate of their loved one, wait, sometimes for years, for news that may never
come. They do not know if their loved one will ever return, so they cannot mourn and adjust to the loss. Their anguish
is often exacerbated by material deprivation if the missing person is the mainstay of the family's finances. Sometimes
they cannot obtain pensions or other means of support if there is no death certificate.
What Amnesty International is doing
Amnesty International condemns all enforced disappearances as crimes under international law.
In recent years, in the course of the "war on terror", the USA, sometimes with the complicity of other governments,
has acrried out enforced disappearances of terror suspects. Amnesty International has campaigned to demand that
the USA and all states reveal the whereabouts and fate of disappeared persons, and if they are not to be released
that they are charged with a recognizably criminal offence and given a fair trial in accordance with international
standards.

We also seek to bring to justice those who commit enforced disappearances.

Every year Amnesty International also joins activists around the world to observe 30 August as the International Day
of the Disappeared, to remember those who have disappeared and their relatives.
Case study
On 14 January 1990, 43 people were abducted in Colombia from the Pueblo Bello community in Antioquia
department by 60 army-backed paramilitaries.

This was allegedly in retaliation for the theft of some cattle belonging to a paramilitary commander. The 43 were
taken to a farm where they were most probably killed.

On the road to the farm, the paramilitaries were not challenged at a military checkpoint, despite reports that screams
could be heard coming from the trucks.

Following exhumations, six bodies were identified as victims of the Pueblo Bello abductions. The fate of the other 37
victims remains unknown.

Some paramilitaries have been given prison sentences for killing the six people identified. However, the perpetrators
responsible for the enforced disappearance of the other victims have gone unpunished.
Campaigning work
In December 2006, the UN adopted the International Convention for the Protection of All Persons from Enforced
Disappearance. The convention aims to prevent enforced disappearances taking place, uncover the truth when they
do occur, punish the perpetrators and provide reparations to the victims and their families.

This is considered to be one of strongest human rights treaties ever adopted by the UN. Some of its provisions
appear for the first time and introduce important new standards.

Amnesty International is joining other members of the International Coalition against Enforced Disappearances to call
on all states to ratify the convention. For the convention to be effective, governments must introduce legislation to
implement it.

SOURCE: AMNESTY INTERNATIONAL



Enforced Disappearances
Some men arrive. They force their way into a familys home, rich or poor, house, hovel or hut, in a city or
in a village, anywhere. They come at any time of the day or night, usually in plain clothes, sometimes in
uniform, always carrying weapons. Giving no reasons, producing no arrest warrant, frequently without
saying who they are or on whose authority they are acting, they drag off one or more members of the
family towards a car, using violence in the process if necessary.
This is often the first act in the drama of an enforced or involuntary disappearance, a particularly heinous
violation of human rights and an international crime.
Who Is Affected?
Definition
According to the Declaration on the Protection of All Persons from Enforced Disappearance, proclaimed
by the General Assembly in its resolution 47/133 of 18 December 1992 as a body of principles for all
States, an enforced disappearance occurs when:
"persons are arrested, detained or abducted against their will or otherwise deprived of their liberty by
officials of different branches or levels of Government, or by organized groups or private individuals
acting on behalf of, or with the support, direct or indirect, consent or acquiescence of the
Government, followed by a refusal to disclose the fate or whereabouts of the persons concerned or a
refusal to acknowledge the deprivation of their liberty, which places such persons outside the
protection of the law."
The Victims Themselves
The victims are frequently tortured and in constant fear for their lives. They are well aware that their
families do not know what has become of them and that the chances are slim that anyone will come to
their aid. Having been removed from the protective precinct of the law and disappeared from society,
they are in fact deprived of all their rights and are at the mercy of their captors.
Even if death is not the final outcome and the victim is eventually released from the nightmare, the
physical and psychological scars of this form of dehumanization and the brutality and torture which often
accompany it remain.
Friends and Families of the Victims
The families and friends of the victims, experience slow mental anguish, not knowing whether the victim is
still alive and, if so, where he or she is being held, under what conditions, and in what state of health.
They alternate between hope and despair, wondering and waiting, sometimes for years, for news that
may never come. In addition, they are well aware that they, too, are threatened, that they may suffer the
same fate themselves and that searching for the truth may expose them to even greater danger.
The familys distress is frequently compounded by the material consequences of the disappearance. The
disappeared person is often the familys main breadwinner. He or she may be the only member of the
family able to cultivate the crops or run the family business. The emotional upheaval is thus exacerbated
by material deprivation, made more acute by the costs incurred should they decide to undertake a search.
Furthermore, they do not know when if ever their loved one is going to return, which makes it difficult
for them to adapt to the new situation. In some cases, national legislation may make it impossible to draw
a pension or receive other means of support in the absence of a death certificate. Economic and social
marginalization is frequently the result.
The serious economic hardships which usually accompany a disappearance are most often borne by
women, and it is women who are most often at the forefront of the struggle to resolve the disappearance
of family members. In this capacity they may suffer intimidation, persecution and reprisals. When women
are themselves direct victims of disappearance, they become particularly vulnerable to sexual and other
forms of violence.
Children can also be victims, both directly and indirectly. The disappearance of a child is a clear
contravention of a number of provisions of the Convention on the Rights of the Child, including the right to
a personal identity. The loss of a parent through disappearance is also a serious violation of a childs
human rights.
Communities
Communities are directly affected by the disappearance of breadwinners, and the degradation of the
families' economic situation and their social marginalization.
Enforced disappearance has frequently been used as a strategy to spread terror within the society. The
feeling of insecurity generated by this practice is not limited to the close relatives of the disappeared, but
also affects their communities and society as a whole.
A Serious Violation of Human Rights
Having been removed from the protective precinct of the law and "disappeared" from society, victims of
enforced disappearance are in fact deprived of all their rights and are at the mercy of their captors. Some
of the human rights that enforced disappearances regularly violate are:
The right to recognition as a person before the law;
The right to liberty and security of the person;
The right not to be subjected to torture and other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or
punishment;
The right to life, when the disappeared person is killed;
The right to an identity;
The right to a fair trial and to judicial guarantees;
The right to an effective remedy, including reparation and compensation;
The right to know the truth regarding the circumstances of a disappearance.
Enforced disappearances also generally violate various economic, social and cultural rights for both the
victims as well as their families:
The right to protection and assistance to the family;
The right to an adequate standard of living;
The right to health;
The right to education.
Both the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court , which came into force on 1 July 2002, and
theInternational Convention for the Protection of All Persons from Enforced Disappearance, adopted by
the UN General Assembly on 20 December 2006, state that, when committed as part of a widespread or
systematic attack directed at any civilian population, a "forced disappearance" qualifies as a crime against
humanity and, thus, is not subject to a statute of limitations. It gives victims' families the right to seek
reparations, and to demand the truth about the disappearance of their loved ones.
SOURCE: UN.ORG

Philippines: Milestone Law Criminalizes Forced
Disappearances
First Law of its Kind in Asia
DECEMBER 21, 2012


EMAIL

Enlarge
2012 Human Rights Watch
RELATED MATERIALS:
"No Justice Just Adds to the Pain"
JULY 18, 2011
Philippines: Two Years Under Aquino, Abuses Go Unpunished
JUNE 27, 2012
Press release
Philippines: Aquino Should Sign Landmark Disappearances Law
OCTOBER 17, 2012
Press release
Philippines: Landmark Law Crucial for Womens Health
DECEMBER 16, 2012
Press release
President Aquino should be commended for these two important human rights laws, but
too often new laws in the Philippines are followed by inaction. Aquino now needs to
demonstrate leadership to overcome the obstacles to these laws and ensure they are fully
enforced.
Brad Adams, Asia director
(Manila) The new law that criminalizes enforced disappearances in the Philippines is the first of its kind
in Asia and a major milestone in ending this horrific human rights violation, Human Rights Watch said
today. President Benigno S. Acquino III signed the law today.

The Anti-Enforced or Involuntary Disappearance Act of 2012 closely reflects international legal standards
on enforced disappearance. Although Congress passed the law in October, Aquino did not immediately
sign it despite reports of new abductions of leftist activists. Enforced disappearances are defined as the
detention of a person by state officials or their agents followed by a refusal to acknowledge the detention
or to reveal the persons fate or whereabouts. People held in secret are especially vulnerable to torture and
other abuses, and their families suffer from lack of information.

President Aquino and the Congress deserve credit for acting to end the scourge of enforced
disappearances in the Philippines, said Brad Adams, Asia director. This law is a testament to the
thousands of disappearance victims since the Marcos dictatorship, whose long-suffering families are still
searching for justice. The challenge now is for the government to move quickly to enforce the new law.

The new law reflects longtime recommendations by human rights organizations to the government to
address unacknowledged detentions. Anyone convicted of committing an enforced disappearance faces a
maximum sentence of life in prison and may not receive an amnesty. Superior officers who order or are
otherwise implicated in a disappearance face the same penalty as those who directly carried out the crime.
The government cannot suspend the law even in times of war or public emergency.

A crucial provision of the law says that those accused of forced disappearances may not invoke orders of
battle military documents that identify alleged enemies as justification or an exempting
circumstance. Many victims of enforced disappearances and extrajudicial killings in the Philippines have
been listed or said to have been listed in such orders of battle. The law specifically allows a person who
receives an illegal order to commit a disappearance to disobey it.

The law defines an enforced or involuntary disappearance as the arrest, detention, abduction or any
other form of deprivation of liberty committed by agents of the State or by persons or groups of persons
acting with the authorization, support or acquiescence of the State, followed by a refusal to acknowledge
the deprivation of liberty or by concealment of the fate or whereabouts of the disappeared person, which
places such person outside the protection of the law. This definition is derived from international human
rights standards.

The law also prohibits secret detention facilities. The government is to make a full inventory of all
detention facilities in the Philippines and create a registry of every detainee, complete with all relevant
details including who visited the detainee and how long the visit lasted. It also mandates and authorizes
the governmental Commission on Human Rights to conduct regular, independent, unannounced and
unrestricted visits to or inspection of all places of detention and confinement. Human rights
organizations are encouraged to assist the Justice Department in proposing rules and regulations for
enforcement.

Effective enforcement of this new law by the Philippine government will deter enforced disappearances
and address the deep-seated problem of impunity for human rights abusers, Adams said.

Under President Ferdinand Marcos, enforced disappearances were rampant, as the military and police
routinely rounded up activists and suspected communist rebels and supporters. The practice did not end
with Marcoss ouster in 1986. Many enforced disappearances occurred during the administration of
President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo. Several activists have disappeared since Aquino took office in 2010,
according to local rights groups, though there are no allegations that these were ordered by Aquino or
other members of his government.

Human Rights Watch detailed some cases of disappearances in its 2010 report, No Justice Just Adds to
the Pain, and in a video released earlier in 2012 in which family members of the disappeared call on
President Aquino to live up to his promises of justice.

The Philippine government should also sign the International Convention for the Protection of All
Persons from Enforced Disappearance and transmit it to the Senate for prompt ratification. In Asia, only
Japan has ratified the convention, although Laos, India, Indonesia, and Thailand have signed it.

In addition to signing the anti-disappearance law, Aquino is expected to soon sign the landmark
reproductive-health bill recently passed by Congress. The bill aims to improve the lives of many Filipino
women and to reduce the countrys high maternal mortality rate.

President Aquino should be commended for these two important human rights laws, but too often new
laws in the Philippines are followed by inaction, Adams said. Aquino now needs to demonstrate
leadership to overcome the obstacles to these laws and ensure they are fully enforced.
SOURCE: HUMAN RIGHT WATCH
http://www.hrw.org/news/2012/12/21/philippines-milestone-law-criminalizes-forced-disappearances



Philippines signs human rights law on forced
disappearances
Activists burnt an effigy of
Benigno Aquino on International Human Rights Day because of crimes allegedly committed by his
government
Continue reading the main story
Related Stories
Philippines cyber law suspended
Philippines martial law attacked
The President of the Philippines Benigno Aquino has signed a new human
rights law on the abduction of individuals by state officials.
It is the first major human rights legislation passed by Mr Aquino, who came to
power three years ago promising to address such crimes.
Officials face a life sentence if convicted of the offence.
The US-based Human Rights Watch said the law, passed by Congress two
months ago, was the first of its kind in Asia.
The group challenged Mr Aquino to move quickly to enforce the new legislation,
which it said would address the problem of impunity in the Philippines.
The BBC's Jonah Fisher says the legislation makes for the first time a distinction
between simple kidnapping and the abduction of people by government security
forces.
The Philippine human rights group Karapatan has documented more than 1,000
enforced disappearances since the end of the dictatorship of Fernando Marcos in
1986.
It says 12 cases have been reported during the term of President Aquino - with
more than 200 under his predecessor, Gloria Arroyo.
Torture
The new law defines an enforced disappearance as the abduction or "any other
form of deprivation of liberty" of a person by state officials or their agents who
subsequently conceal the person's fate or whereabouts.
Human rights groups have reported that such people have been kept in a
network of "safe houses" where they are tortured and sometimes killed.
The law also prohibits a practice by security forces of listing people they perceive
to be "enemies of the state" to make them "legitimate targets as combatants,"
including those not formally charged with a crime.
Those listed are open to assassinations, abductions, harassment and
intimidation.
The law cannot be suspended even during wartime and does not permit amnesty
for those convicted. Superior officers of those found responsible are to be equally
penalised.
SOURCE: BBC.COM
http://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-20823526