30 August is dedicated to give a serious thought to the issue of people from enforced disappearance. According to UN observation, nearly 1000 persons disappear under enforced disappearances or under suspicious circumstances daily. Children, adults, women, critics of governments, political opponents, human rights defenders, media personnel, migrants, etc. come under such danger.
On December 21, 2010, The UN General Assembly in its resolution no. 65/2009 observed “the increase in enforced or involuntary disappearances in various regions of the world, including arrest, detention and abduction, when these are part of or amount to enforced disappearances, and by the growing number of reports concerning harassment, ill-treatment and intimidation of witnesses of disappearances or relatives of persons who have disappeared.”
Thereafter, a resolution was adopted namely, The International Convention for the Protection of All Persons from Enforced Disappearance. 30 August was declared the International Day of the Victims of Enforced Disappearances.
Earlier governments under dictatorship were the culprits. Nowadays, even the democratic governments have graduated to become perpetrators of such crime mainly through encounter killings. This criminal activity is violation of people’s human rights such as rights to life, security, home, family, health, privacy, education, name, identity, citizenship, etc.
Legislators, judicial fraternity, human rights institutions, journalists, educators, etc. have the bounden duty to get this evil eliminated.