Knit your brows and you will hit upon a stratagem: August 2007

On August 30 this year, we will be commemorating the International Day of the Disappeared to draw attention to the fate of individuals abducted or imprisoned at places unknown to their relatives and/or legal representatives.

The observance of the date was started by the Federation of Association of Relatives of the Detained and Disappeared (Federación Latinoamericana de Asociaciones de Familiares de Detenidos-Desaparecidos, or FEDEFAM) based in Costa Rica in 1982. The tradition has been adopted by many human rights advocates worldwide.

"Enforced disappearance" is defined in Article 2 of the United Nations’ International Covention for the Protection of All Persons from Enforced Disappearance as:

the arrest, detention, abduction or any other form of deprivation of liberty by agents of the State or by persons or groups of persons acting with the authorization, support or acquiescence of the State, followed by a refusal to acknowledge the deprivation of liberty or by concealment of the fate or whereabouts of the disappeared person, which place such a person outside the protection of the law.

Article 1 of the Convention further states that:

"No exceptional circumstances whatsoever, whether a state of war or a threat of war, internal political instability or any other public emergency, may be invoked as a justification for enforced disappearance."

According to human rights group Desaparecidos, the number of those abducted and disappeared under the Arroyo administration has reached almost 200. This includes the cases of rural activist Jonas Burgos, University of the Philippines students Karen Empeno and Sherlyn Cadapan, former political prisoner Luisa Dominado and Bayan-Panay chair Nilo Arado.

The systematic and widespread attack against any civilian population is further defined as a “crime against humanity” by the Rome Statue of International Criminal Court and Article 6 of the UN Convention.

Gloria Macapagal Arroyo’s continuing inaction despite condemnation from several international human rights groups raises doubts and concerns about her political will to stop the mounting extrajudicial killings and enforced disappearances in the Philippines.

In the guise of fighting insurgency and “terrorism”, the government enacted the Human Security Act on March 2007. Many people fear that this repressive piece of law will further legalize the mechanisms of the government’s dirty war against its oppositions.

On August 30, once again, let us make the voices of the disappeared heard and press the government to take the necessary actions to surface the missing. We shall also ask the Congress to enact laws that penalize involuntary or enforced disappearances, including the ratification of the International Covention for the Protection of All Persons from Enforced Disappearance.

We shall gather to remember and demand justice for all the victims.

Let us unite in the struggle to end enforced disappearances and all forms of political persecution and repression.