Saturday, April 11, 2009

Ratify enforced disappearance convention: APDP to GoI

Courtesy:Daily Rising Kashmir dt. April 11th, 2009 byHakeem Irfan Srinagar,
April 10: Families of the disappeared persons on Friday demanded that India should ratify the Enforced Disappearance Convention to which it is a signatory.In its monthly sit-in, Association of Parents of Disappeared Persons (APDP) urged the government of India to follow countries like France, Senegal, Argentina, Mexico, Hundura and Cuba, and ratify the convention.Speaking on the occasion, legal advisor of APDP, Advocate Hafizullah Mir said, “India should also ratify the convention. The disappearances that took place in Kashmir, Punjab and North East should be probed by independent and credible commission.”The convention is an international human rights instrument of the United Nations intended to prevent forced disappearance. It was adopted by the United Nations General Assembly on December 20, 2006. As of March 2009, 81 states have signed, and ten have ratified. It will come into force when ratified by 20 states-parties.Speaking on the occasion, APDP President, Parveena Ahanger said, “We don’t want any compensation from the government. If our sons are alive, allow us to meet them and if they are dead, handover their bodies. Our demand is plain and simple.” Family members of several missing persons, mostly elderly men and women, participated in the peaceful protest holding placards demanding whereabouts of their dear ones.One of the victims, Begum Bakti whose son was arrested one month after his marriage from Tragpora Rafiabad and later went missing, said, “I am still hopeful of my son’s return. His wife has married again only six years after his disappearance and is demanding compensation in the name of my son which adds to my miseries.” Nineteen-year-old Abrar was too small to recollect his father’s disappearance after his arrest in 1993 from Narkara Budgam.“I don’t know what happened then. But now I know that my father was arrested from home. I want to know if he is alive or dead,” he said.On the occasion, APDP chairman Parveena Ahanger said, “We don’t want any compensation from the government. If our sons are alive, allow us to meet them and if they are dead, handover their bodies. Our demand is plain and simple.” The parties to the convention are bound to investigate acts of enforced disappearance and bring those responsible to justice, ensure that it constitutes an offence under its criminal law, and to assist the victims of enforced disappearance or locate and return their remains. It also envisages establishing a register of those currently imprisoned, and allow it to be inspected by relatives and counsel, and also to ensure that victims have a right to obtain reparation and compensation.

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