- Tweeter
republish
On 30 August, on the occasion of the International Day of the Victims of Enforced Disappearances, people around the world are mobilizing against this human rights violation, whether by states or political groups. or mafia. Many families are still helpless in the face of these disappearances.
It is following a reflection initiated by the UN on the resurgence of forced kidnappings in many countries in the world that this day was established in 2011. It is a question of supporting the families affected by this phenomenon and to denounce the strategies of terror that it underlies. "The feeling of insecurity resulting from this practice affects not only the loved ones of the missing person but also their community and society as a whole," says the UN text .
Almost 83,000 missing in Colombia
In Colombia, for example, many mothers are fighting to trace their missing children in armed conflict. " We, the mothers of missing people, suffer from eternal pain, " wrote the women who define themselves as "researchers" and distribute messages to bus passengers in Cali, a city in southwestern Colombia. To draw attention to the deep tear that causes the enforced disappearance, they get on the bus, sign around the neck, and distribute their messages, says the correspondent of Agence France presse. A # ReconocemosSuBúsqueda campaign was launched this year .
According to the Colombian National Center of Historical Memory , a public entity, at least 82,998 people disappeared by force between 1958 and 2017, but officials are known for only 52% of cases. A figure almost three times higher than the total balance sheet of Argentine , Brazilian and Chilean dictatorships of the twentieth century.
The 2016 peace agreement signed with the FARC guerrillas foresaw the creation of a Missing Persons Research Unit ( UBPD ) that began its investigations.
March for the missing in Mexico
In Mexico, 40,000 people are considered victims of enforced disappearance. More than 26,000 unidentified bodies still rest in morgues. These terrifying official figures are considered by some associations as far from reality: they increase the number to 200,000 . Figures that also do not seem to decline despite the commitments of the new President Andrés Manuel Lopez Obrador (AMLO). On August 30, a big march is organized on the streets of Mexico to demand more action from the government.
►To listen also: In Mexico, Maria Marquez de Favela is looking for her son, who has been missing for 6 years
In Bangladesh, FIDH mobilizes
Between 2011 and 2018, the International Federation of Human Rights (FIDH) registered and investigated more than 500 cases of enforced disappearances in that country. Delphine Carlens, FIDH spokeswoman, presents the case of an opponent, kidnapped on December 5, 2013, which illustrates the phenomenon of enforced disappearances in Bangladesh. These kidnappings target according to the organization more precisely the political opponents since 2011.
In our report, it was pointed out that these enforced disappearance crimes, given their scale and systematicity, and because the targeted victims are mainly political opponents and dissidents, have been called crimes against humanity.
Delphine Carlens (FIDH) on enforced disappearances 30/08/2019 - by Théo Conscience Listen
The kidnappings of Boko Haram
In Africa too. Around Lake Chad and the theater of operations of the Boko Haram organization, disappearances have also increased over the past ten years. In particular, there was the high profile of the 276 young high school students from Chibok in Nigeria in 2014. But more generally, the armed group has attacked schools many times and all these places that they accuse of Islam scorn. At the same time, these mass abductions have become a recruitment mode for Boko Haram. In April 2018, Unicef estimated that more than 1,000 children were abducted in Nigeria.
and with agencies