Nonviolence Publishes Statement on Int’l Day of Victims of Enforced Disappearances

Coinciding with the International Day of the Victims of Enforced Disappearances on August 30, Nonviolence Incorporation published the following statement:

“The United Nations marks August 30 as the International Day of the Victims of Enforced Disappearance. Enforced disappearance has frequently been used as a strategy to spread terror within the society. The feeling of insecurity generated by this practice is not limited to the close relatives of the disappeared, but also affects their communities and society as a whole.

Enforced disappearance has become a global problem and is not restricted to a specific region of the world. Once largely the product of military dictatorships, enforced disappearances can nowadays be perpetrated in complex situations of internal conflict, especially as a means of political repression of opponents.

For instance, hundreds of women, children and men are being kidnapped by unknown militia groups in countries such as Saudi Arabia, Iraq, Bahrain, Egypt, Libya, Lebanon, Palestine, and Syria. What is more disturbing is the fact that many of these unknown militia groups receive logistic and financial support from governments that plan to repress their dissidents.

On this international occasion, Nonviolence Incorporation uses this chance to honor the memory of the victims of enforced disappearance and calls for urgent and universal efforts to save those people who are captured by these terrorists and whose fate are unknown.”