International Day of Victims of Enforced Disappearances (30/08)

The UN General Assembly in 2010 expressed serious concern in its resolution that the number of enforced disappearances of people is growing around the world. This category includes arrests, detentions and abductions. By the same resolution (A/RES/65/209), the General Assembly declared 30 August the International Day of the Victims of Enforced Disappearances.

Enforced disappearances have become part of the strategy of instilling an atmosphere of terror and, according to experts from the UN General Assembly, have become a global problem. Previously, such cases were associated with dictatorial regimes, but today they occur in a variety of situations, especially in internal conflicts as a means of political suppression of opponents.

Various public organizations are dealing with the problem of enforced disappearances. Traditionally, on this day they appeal to national governments to take all possible steps aimed at eradicating such practices.

One of the tools to combat was the International Convention for the Protection of All Persons from Disappearance, adopted in 2006. It obliges states to give enforced disappearance the status of a criminal offense, to protect witnesses to such cases, and to search for missing people or – in the event of their death – at least remains. In addition, the convention calls on governments to establish clear guarantees for people deprived of their liberty.

But still the problem has not yet been solved. Hundreds of thousands of cases of enforced disappearance remain uninvestigated, while new ones occur every year. But the involuntary disappearance of people — is a particularly flagrant violation of human rights.

Disappearance brings suffering that paralyzes both the victim, who is often tortured and constantly fears for her life, and her family members, who know nothing about the fate of their loved ones, whose hope gives way to despair, who worry and wait, sometimes for years, for news that they may never receive.

Left without the protection of the law and «disappearing» for society, victims are effectively deprived of all rights and are entirely dependent on the mercy of their captors. Even if a person can ultimately escape from this nightmare, the physical and psychological scars left behind as a consequence of this form of abuse of the human person, as well as the cruelty and torture with which it is usually accompanied, will never be made up.

Children may also be victims of disappearance, directly or indirectly. The disappearance of a child constitutes a direct violation of a number of provisions of the Convention on the Rights of the Child, including the right to recognition of his individuality. The child's loss of either parent due to disappearance is also a serious violation of the child's rights.

Therefore, on the International Day of Victims of Enforced Disappearance, activists of the movement call on civil society to pay attention to the problem and do everything in its power to cope with it.

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