Activists seek justice for ‘disappeared’Activists seek justice for ‘disappeared’

Category: Network

Thailand will hopefully sign a convention on “enforced disappearances” – or secret imprisonment – later this year, human rights experts say.
Amnesty International says an enforced disappearance takes place when a person is arrested, detained or abducted by the state or agents acting for the state, who then deny that person is being held or conceal their whereabouts.
Pitikan Sithidej, from the Justice Ministry’s Department of Rights and Liberty Protection, said state agencies have agreed to forward the accession to the United Nations’s 2006 International Convention for the Protection of All Persons from Enforced Disappearance for government approval.Thailand will hopefully sign a convention on “enforced disappearances” – or secret imprisonment – later this year, human rights experts say.
Amnesty International says an enforced disappearance takes place when a person is arrested, detained or abducted by the state or agents acting for the state, who then deny that person is being held or conceal their whereabouts.
Pitikan Sithidej, from the Justice Ministry’s Department of Rights and Liberty Protection, said state agencies have agreed to forward the accession to the United Nations’s 2006 International Convention for the Protection of All Persons from Enforced Disappearance for government approval.
The convention, if ratified, would demand justice for victims of enforced disappearances.
Ms Pitikan addressed a seminar on “Thai society and the right to know the truth in disappearance cases” to mark the International Day of the Disappeared yesterday.
She said the convention could be signed immediately once the government agreed with the proposal, hopefully later this year.
Justice for Peace Foundation president Angkhana Neelapaijit said Thailand had been ignorant of the crime of enforced disappearance. Only high profile cases such as that of her husband, Somchai Neelapaijit, the human rights lawyer who disappeared six years ago, had been brought before the judicial system.
The lack of appropriate domestic laws meant the relatives of the disappeared experienced difficulties with legal matters such as insurance payments, remarrying, being issued passport and other travel documents, and trauma, Ms Angkhana said.
She said she had received just 80,000 baht in compensation in the case of her husband.
“Trauma for the families of the disappeared is more complicated than for the relatives of those who were murdered, since the fate of the disappeared remains unknown,” she said.
“Difficulties can be worse as most of the disappeared are breadwinners.”
Asian Human Rights Commission spokesman Basil Fernando said the convention’s key concept was “the right to know”.
“Enforced disappearance has been transformed to mystery, but it should not be the case,” the Hong Kong-based Fernando said. “The state does not have the right to be silent.”
From: http://www.bangkokpost.com/print/193974/
The convention, if ratified, would demand justice for victims of enforced disappearances.
Ms Pitikan addressed a seminar on “Thai society and the right to know the truth in disappearance cases” to mark the International Day of the Disappeared yesterday.
She said the convention could be signed immediately once the government agreed with the proposal, hopefully later this year.
Justice for Peace Foundation president Angkhana Neelapaijit said Thailand had been ignorant of the crime of enforced disappearance. Only high profile cases such as that of her husband, Somchai Neelapaijit, the human rights lawyer who disappeared six years ago, had been brought before the judicial system.
The lack of appropriate domestic laws meant the relatives of the disappeared experienced difficulties with legal matters such as insurance payments, remarrying, being issued passport and other travel documents, and trauma, Ms Angkhana said.
She said she had received just 80,000 baht in compensation in the case of her husband.
“Trauma for the families of the disappeared is more complicated than for the relatives of those who were murdered, since the fate of the disappeared remains unknown,” she said.
“Difficulties can be worse as most of the disappeared are breadwinners.”
Asian Human Rights Commission spokesman Basil Fernando said the convention’s key concept was “the right to know”.
“Enforced disappearance has been transformed to mystery, but it should not be the case,” the Hong Kong-based Fernando said. “The state does not have the right to be silent.”
From: http://www.bangkokpost.com/print/193974/