VIRTUAL MUSEUM ON ENFORCED DISAPPEARANCE IN SOUTH ASIA


Footprints of those forcibly disappeared in South Asia

Across South Asia, countless people, including children as young as 15 have been subjected to enforced disappearance. Among the disappeared are journalists, activists, dissenters – individuals whose voices challenge authority and advocate for justice.  

A person is forcibly disappeared when they have been apprehended by the authorities or their agents or people acting with their authorization. It always entails authorities refusing to acknowledge this or conceal the person’s fate or whereabouts. Enforced disappearance is a crime under international law. It’s not only a relic of past conflicts but also a contemporary instrument of oppression used by states across the world to silence dissent and instill fear. 

Despite the establishment of numerous commissions in many South Asian countries to investigate these crimes, they have largely failed to ensure justice, or hold perpetrators accountable, leaving families of the victims in a constant state of anguish.  

Amnesty International partnered with more than 20 human rights organizations campaigning to end this culture of enforced disappearance in the region. Together, we created “Footprints” – a digital place where the stories of the disappeared are memorialized. A place that provides the families of the disappeared an opportunity to unite in their demands for justice and accountability.  

What causes enforced disappearances in South Asia?

Enforced disappearances are a serious and continuing human rights violation that affect most of South Asia’s countries where thousands of families still await news of the fate of loved ones. States weaponize enforced disappearances, often under the pretext of combating “terrorism” and maintaining national security.  

South Asia has a long history of enforced disappearances. Sometimes states have kept people in arbitrary detention for a few hours, or a few weeks without revealing their whereabouts or release them, but in thousands of cases people have been disappeared for decades.  

There are instances of enforced disappearances leading to extra-judicial executions. And cases where individuals who initially disappeared were later brought before courts on arbitrary charges.  

The families of the disappeared often struggle – being socially ostracized, emotionally drained and financially vulnerable, often after losing the breadwinner of the family – with no justice, no closure. Additionally, they continue to be harassed by the authorities for demanding justice. 

Enforced disappearances by country 

Pakistan

Enforced disappearances in Pakistan goes far back as the 1980’s but was more frequently deployed after 2001, during the ‘War on Terror’, as a counterterrorism strategy.  

Since 2011, at least 10,078 enforced disappearances were recorded by the Pakistan Commission of Inquiry on Enforced Disappearances (COIED). Of them, 3,485 took place in the provice of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, and 2,752 in Balochistan. Figures by human rights organisations and families suggest higher numbers. While many remain disappeared, in other cases, the state – after briefly abducting people – releases them or uses draconian laws and trumped-up charges to silence them. In addition to these so-called resurfaced disappearances, there have been instances of the same person being repeatedly abducted by the state.  

On 7 June 2021, a proposed amendment to the Penal Code was presented before parliament by the Ministry of Human Rights, but it failed to meet the standards of international law and eventually lapsed in the Senate.  

Most of the families of forcibly disappeared people are unable to seek legal support to locate their loved ones for socio-economic reasons, despite broad constitutional safeguards. Their protests demanding justice continue despite resistance and harassment from the state. 


Decades of cases

What is Amnesty International doing to help?

Amnesty International is collaborating with more than 20 human rights organizations in South Asia. The stories featured on this page are based on the information provided by our partner organizations, verified in accordance with Amnesty International’ s guidelines.  

In countries such as Afghanistan and India where state reprisals are severe and contacting families of the disappeared would put the families at greater risk, we have collected stories of the forcibly disappeared published in prominent media outlets. To safe guard the individuals and groups involved, meticulous care has been taken to anonymize sensitive information, ensuring that identities of affected families remain confidential as and when necessary.  

Acknowledging the pervasiveness of enforced disappearances in the region, Amnesty International decided to focus just on one or two decades per country, except for Afghanistan, where outreach efforts have been implemented due to high security sisks and the details were collected without limiting to a decade.  

It is important to mention that the collection of verified stories does not reflect the total number of the disappeared even within the selected decades.  

To learn more about the project, you can watch the webinar recording from our event commemorating International Day of the Victims of Enforced Disappearances.