PURPOSE: The UN General Assembly, in Resolution 65/209, designated 30 August every year as the International Day of the Victims of Enforced Disappearances. Every year, thousands of people around the world are taken by governments and simply disappear. In recognition of this global problem and to remember those who have disappeared, The International Day was declared by the General Assembly in 2010 in anticipation of the coming into force of the International Convention for the Protection of All Persons from Enforced Disappearance.
FORUM: "Stand up for the rights of the disappeared." International Day of the Victims of Enforced Disappearances 2024. The United Nations and regional human rights experts urged all States to provide effective access to justice for victims of enforced disappearance, that include any individual who has suffered harm as the direct result of an enforced disappearance. Follow the conversations with the hashtags: #enforceddisappearances, #30August, #access2justice,#InternationalDayOfVictimsOfEnforcedDisappearances.
EVENTS: On August 30th; The International Day of the Victims of Enforced Disappearances 2024 will be held at the United Nations Palace in Geneva and at UNHQ in New York. The United Nations invites authorities to strengthen operational and technical capacities, including the provision of training in mass grave exhumations, crime scene management, and mortuary procedures; to provide guidance on effective operational planning, inter-agency cooperation, chain of custody, and the upgrade mortuary facilities. In the context of the 76th anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, the Committee on Enforced Disappearances, the Working Group on Enforced or Involuntary Disappearances, the Inter-american Commission on Human Rights, the Chairperson of the Working Group on Death Penalty, Extrajudicial, Summary or Arbitrary Killings of the African Commission on Human and Peoples’ Rights and the Representatives of Indonesia and Malaysia to the ASEAN Intergovernmental Commission on Human Rights jointly called on all States to make pledges to promote justice for all victims of enforced disappearances without delay, and to ratify international and regional instruments on enforced disappearances.
On 15 and 16 January 2025 in Geneva, Switzerland. The forthcoming World Congress on Enforced Disappearances, which will take place, presents a crucial opportunity to bring States, victims and their representative organisations, national human rights institutions and experts together to find actionable solutions to eliminate and prevent enforced disappearances and promote the universal ratification of the International Convention for the Protection of all Persons against Enforced Disappearances. The World Congress will allow us to identify and adopt concrete actions to address these concerns and pledge to implement them under our respective mandates. We encourage all actors involved in the fight against enforced disappearances to make the most of this event and to commit to concrete action. On this International Day of the Victims of Enforced Disappearances, we reiterate our shared commitment to assisting victims worldwide and our call for collective action to end this scourge, once and for all.”
PUBLICATIONS: 2024 Report of the Working Group on Enforced or Involuntary Disappearances; This report reflects the activities of the WGEID, communications and cases that it processed during the reporting period. It also includes the main findings and observations on the thematic study on enforced disappearances and elections. Explore the Thematic report: Enforced disappearances and elections -A/HRC/57/54/Add.4 and the full report. A/HRC/57/54.
STATEMENTS: The United Nations and regional human rights experts issued a joint statement today, urging all actors to join forces immediately to support victims of enforced disappearance and ensure that their rights and obligations as codified in regional and international treaties and other legal instruments. Read the full Statement by Human Rights experts ahead of the International Day of the Victims of Enforced Disappearances 2024; August 30th.
PODCASTS: Let’s strengthen our commitment to help families come to terms with their loss by finding their loved ones and bring them home so that they can have a proper burial and commemoration. Listen to the audio-podcast!
CAMPAIGN MATERIALS: “Show solidarity with the families of missing persons.” Join the campaign to light candles representing the remaining missing persons. Get the communication materials!
WHY WE CELEBRATE THE DAY?
HOW TO GET INVOLVED?
PARTNERSHIPS
The United Nations General Assembly welcomed the adoption of the International Convention for the Protection of All Persons from Enforced Disappearance, and decided to declare 30 August the International Day of the Victims of Enforced Disappearances, by the resolution 65/209 in 2011; the Day is observed to draw attention to the fate of individuals detained, often in brutal conditions, in places that are unknown to their relatives and loved ones and/or their legal representatives. Victims of enforced disappearance are stripped of their most basic rights, dehumanized, tortured. Let's bring justice to the victims and their families!
The United Nations General Assembly urges the authorities to accelerate the process and to become more engaged in the commemoration of the International Day of the Disappeared.
The International Day of the Disappeared is hosted by the Special Rapporteur on extrajudicial, summary or arbitrary executions, The United Nations Office of Human Rights; The Office of the United Nations commissioner of Human Rights; The International Criminal Court; The Committee on Enforced Disappearances; The Working Group on Enforced or Involuntary Disappearances; The Interntional criminal Police Organization (Interpol); The FBI; The Central Intelligence Agency (CIA); The Latin American Federation of Associations for Relatives of Detained-Disappeared (Federación Latinoamericana de Asociaciones de Familiares de Detenidos-Desaparecidos, (FEDEFAM); The International Commission on Missig Persons (ICMP); The Asian Federation Against Involuntary Disappearances (AFAD); The International Coalition against Enforced Disappearances (ICAED) and many other Civil Society organizations and Non-Governmental Organizations.
Address this global challenge.
Participate in global events to mark the Day and to raise awareness of the alarming increase in the number of enforced disappearances around the world
Volunteers and family members should distribute information about the effort to account for the missing persons.
Recognize those who are working against secret imprisonment, forced disappearances and abduction
Relate the human rights violiations of persons who are subjected to harassment, ill-treatment and intimidation of witnesses of disappearances or relatives of persons who have disappeared.
Engage the local communities to develop a coordinated approach in area where a focused, rule-of-law approach is required
Encourage governments and others to develop strategies to deal with the missing