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	What is Enforced Disappearance?


	According to Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights "Some men arrive. They force their way into a family's home, rich or poor, house, hovel or hut, in a city or in a village, anywhere. They come at any time of the day or night, usually in plain clothes, sometimes in uniform, always carrying weapons. Giving no reasons, producing no arrest warrant, frequently without saying who they are or on whose authority they are acting, they drag off one or more members of the family towards a car, using violence in the process if necessary. This is often the first act in the drama of an enforced or involuntary disappearance, a particularly heinous violation of human rights." A forced disappearance is when someone is made to vanish from public view either by elimination or abduction with the purpose of separating the said person form his/her family, home, place of living or country. Usually disappearances lead to murder and elimination. Disappearances have a regular pattern around the world. First the person is abducted, then illegally detained in prisons/camps or some secret locations often brutally tortured and finally murdered and their bodies disposed off in a manner that there is little evidence left. The person just vanishes without any clue to his existence ever. The evidence is cleared up, the families of the victim are threatened to not to report the crime and it becomes the ultimate silence. History of Enforced Disappearance Soviet Union Disappearance were practiced in the Soviet Union during the rule of Stalin and know as damnatio memoriae. Notable examples of the disappeared range from prominent Russian revolutionaries who took part in the Russian Revolution, but disagreed with Bolsheviks, to some of the most devoted Stalinists who fell into disfavor. In cases of tens of thousands people who had disappeared during this period their actual fate had became known only after the destalinization of 1950s. Nazi Germany During World War II, Nazi Germany set up secret police forces including branches of the Gestapo in occupied countries, which they used to hunt down known or suspected dissidents or partisans. This tactic was given the name Nacht und Nebel (Night and Fog) to describe those who disappeared after being arrested by Nazi forces without any warning. The Nazis also applied this policy against political opponents within Germany. Most victims were killed on the spot or sent to concentration camps, with the full expectation that they would be killed. Argentina The infamous "dirty war." About 30,000 people were "disappeared" in Argentina during the "dirty war". "During the 1970s Argentina lived a period of widespread military repression on the civilian population. Under the pretext of the "war against subversion" the military and police authorities developed a Machiavelli campaign of terror. All civil rights - freedom of expression, justice, association vote - were eliminated. Thousands of citizens were unjustly put in prison where they endured inhuman conditions and lived under the pain of torture and the fear of death day to day." Argentinean Torturers and Killers Organizations working against Disappearances United Nations realized that enforced disappearance constitute a violation and a Crime against humanity. Therefore the General Assembly on December 18, 1992 made an official declaration titled; Declaration on the Protection of all Persons from Enforced Disappearance: Adopted by General Assembly resolution 47/133 of 18 December 1992 and made the following observation, "Affirming that , in order to prevent enforced disappearances, it is necessary to ensure strict compliance with the Body of Principles for the Protection of All Persons under Any Form of Detention or Imprisonment contained in the annex to its resolution 43/173 of 9 December 1988, and with the Principles on the Effective Prevention and Investigation of Extra-legal, Arbitrary and Summary Executions, set forth in the annex to Economic and Social Council resolution 1989/65 of 24 May 1989 and endorsed by the General Assembly in its resolution 44/162 of 15 December 1989." In Article 1 of the declaration it declared that disappearance is an "offence to human dignity." Council of Europe Parliament Assembly in its draft resolution said that it "unequivocally condemns enforced disappearance as a very serious human rights violation on par with torture and murder and it is concerned that this humanitarian scourge is still not eradicated, even in Europe." It therefore "lays down a number of points pertaining to the definition of enforced disappearance, safeguards against impunity, preventive measures, the victims' right to reparation and the monitoring mechanism which it considers essential." Other major organizations working against enforced disappearances are the Iraqi organization Mafqud , Human Rights Watch with its work on Algerian disappearances, the United Nations Working Group on Enforced or Involuntary Disappearances , FIDH , Amnesty International and many more.


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