CIVICUS

FROM THE DESK OF THE SECRETARY-GENERAL

Enforced disappearances threaten us all

Release Date: 05 September 2007

By Kumi Naidoo, CIVICUS Secretary-General

Dear e-CIVICUS Subscriber,

August 30 was the International Day of the Disappeared. In the Declaration on the Protection of All Persons from Enforced or Involuntary Disappearance (www.ohchr.org/english/law/disappearance.htm) in 1992, the UN General Assembly defined enforced disappearances as follows:

“..enforced disappearances occur 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.”

While, understandably, the media cannot cover each International Day with equal attention, I was surprised to notice the limited attention ‘The International Day of the Disappeared’ received in mainstream media. After all, next to civil society activists, many of the disappeared are journalists. This should be no big surprise, as both activists and journalists, much to the dislike of repressive regimes, strive to uphold the freedom of opinion and information as laid down in Article 19 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights that states that:

“Everyone has the right to freedom of opinion and expression; this right includes freedom to hold opinions without interference and to seek, receive and impart information and ideas through any media and regardless of frontiers.”

The twentieth century was bloodstained by states systematically targeting those who were not subscribing to the State ideology. The concentration camps of the Nazis, the Gulag archipelago of the Soviet Union, the killing fields of Pol-Pot in Cambodia, the cultural revolution in China; all grotesque genocides against independent thinkers. As well, in my own country South Africa, during the Anti-Apartheid struggle, the blood of many fellow countrymen was spilled by means of enforced disappearance. I vividly remember, following the death of a close friend, Lenny Naidu, and the disappearances of several activists, how I feared for my brother’s life. After I fled South Africa in the early 1980s, it was a “relief” for me to find out that my younger brother was “safely” being detained by the apartheid regime without charge. To this day, I still hope to find out more about a friend, Mthintwa Tobias Badumuti, with whom I worked in the anti-apartheid movement. I am aware, however, that this may never happen.

To express their anger and pain resulting from the state-enforced disappearance of their fathers, husbands and sons, in the seventies Chilean women regularly performed the "dance of solitude," a variation of the sensuous "cueca," Chile's national dance of love and passion between men and women. By dancing the dance alone while carrying pictures of their disappeared loved ones, they symbolised a nations’ grief and reminded the world once more what dictatorships are really about. At the same time, Argentinian mothers took to the Plaza de Mayo every week demanding to know the fate of their loved ones. Thirty years later, like many other madres in Latin America, the Madres de Plaza de Mayo have still not received official confirmation of the fate of their loved ones.

The ongoing struggle of the madres, and the International Day of the Disappeared are there to remind us that disappearances are not a thing of the past. Though we may have seen a lull in the number of disappearances at the turn of the century, we are increasingly witnessing new enforced disappearances everyday. In last week’s column I briefly touched upon the extra-judicial killings that are taking place in the Philippines, in particular targeting civil society and independent media representatives, that was brought to my attention by fellow activist Anthony Tujan, who heads up the Reality of Aid Network. Besides the Philippines, people forcefully disappear in Sri Lanka, Iraq, Zimbabwe, Colombia, and many more countries. Moreover, enforced disappearances became a core element of the war on terror as the USA, in co-operation with some European countries, used rendition flights to carry out enforced disappearances of suspected “terrorists” from Afghanistan, Pakistan and other countries. “Extraordinary rendition” is a polite way to describe torture by proxy, or in countries where the penalties for torture are non-existent. On top of that, disappearance by “extraordinary rendition” tortures the family and friend of the abducted persons as they live in agonising uncertainty about the fate of their loved ones.

These enforced disappearances are the quintessential threat to our work as active citizens peacefully striving for a more just world. We cannot avoid engaging in efforts to put a stop to enforced disappearances worldwide. This is even more important in a context where reports from human rights and humanitarian organisations, such as the International Committee of the Red Cross and Red Crescent, and the UN Working Group on Enforced or Involuntary Disappearances, indicate that the world is facing a new silent genocide of political activists by dictatorships and democratic governments alike.

Fortunately, there are positive developments. Enforced disappearance when “committed as part of a widespread or systematic attack directed against any civilian population, with knowledge of the attack” has been defined as a crime against humanity in Article 7(1)(i) of the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court. More recently, inspired by the Latin American madres’ demands, and after a long struggle by civil society, in 2006 the UN General Assembly endorsed ‘The Convention against Enforced Disappearance’. Now that the Convention is there, what needs to happen is ratification and then implementation. Implementation consists of two elements. First, states must draft national legislation to create the legal tools needed to put the convention into effect. Without the criminalisation of enforced disappearance in national law, courts cannot prosecute offenders. As with all new laws, the second element focuses on practical measures such as training of officials and, very importantly, systematically bringing perpetrators to justice.

Both ratification and implementation requires political will, and that is where you and I can play an important role. To get this groundbreaking convention ratified, I invite you all to pressure your governments. To help you in doing so, our friends at Amnesty International have drafted a model letter that you can send to your government (http://web.amnesty.org/pages/393-120707-action-eng). Sending letters alone will not pressurise repressive regimes to stop human rights violations in general and enforced disappearances in particular. What is required is for those of us who are able to, to reach out in solidarity with our brothers and sisters whose loved ones have disappeared, or who are living in everyday fear of becoming an enforced disappeared themselves, to let them know that they and their brave loved ones have not been forgotten and are not alone. Let us join hands to enforce the worldwide eradication of enforced disappearance. To find out more, go to the links below that will explain in more detail the frightening reality of enforced disappearances.

Wherever this column may find you, I am grateful it has found you!

Warmest regards

Kumi Naidoo

Below you will find all previous columns published.

• We must plug the leaks: Civil Society and Aid Effectiveness

• October 17: Stand up with millions united as one

• Should the voting age be reduced to sixteen? International Youth Day: a time for reflection

• CIVICUS partners continue to languish in jail

• If civil society organisations cannot change how governments can?

• Climate Change: How much longer can we ignore this catastrophe and how will climate change affect the work of civil society?

• Civil society engaging with inter-governmental organisations: is the feeling mutual?

• 07/07/07: Reflection on the mid-point of the Minimalist/Millennium Development Goals

• Towards the Legal Empowerment of the Poor