International Day of the Disappeared

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The International Day of the Disappeared (Engl. International Day of the Disappeared ) is a year on August 30 committed Remembrance Day , which commemorates the fate of people who are being held against their will at a location and under conditions which their family members or are not known to the legal representatives. The initiative for this Memorial Day goes back to the Federación Latinoamericana de Asociaciones de Familiares de Detenidos- Desaparecidos (FEDEFAM), one in 1981 Costa Rica was founded and in Latin America, active non-governmental organization and association of local and regional initiatives, which actively seek to secret detention .

For internationally in the field of humanitarian aid and human rights protection authorities operating and organizations such as Amnesty International , the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights (Engl. Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights , OHCHR) and the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) is a focus of their work on helping people affected by such practices. For these institutions, International Day of the Disappeared is an opportunity to draw the public's attention to their work and to solicit support through volunteer work and donations.

Due to its special position under international law and its strictly practiced neutrality, the ICRC has a special role in helping people who have disappeared and their families. In some cases, the ICRC is the only institution that the responsible authorities allow access to certain prisoners. In this way, minimal contact with these prisoners and monitoring of their treatment is possible, which can subsequently lead to an end to the uncertainty about their whereabouts. For affected families, communications from the ICRC are often the first indication of the fate of their relatives.

Internment in secret or uncertain circumstances for relatives is a violation of both human rights and, in the case of an armed conflict, international humanitarian law . On December 18, 1992, the General Assembly of the United Nations passed resolution 47/133 on the “ Declaration on the Protection of all Persons from Enforced Disappearance” . It is estimated that such practices are common in about 30 countries around the world. The United Nations Working Group on Enforced or Involuntary Disappearances has recorded around 46,000 cases of missing persons.

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