STATEMENT FOR NATIONAL DAY OF PRAYER FOR THE DISAPPEARED by Find

Photo by FIND
















The article below was released by Families of Victims of Involuntary Disappearance (FIND) last year as part of the 2010 Human Rights week commemoration. We are posting related articles as part of cat alert's contribution and support for the human rights community's campaign for the enactment of the Anti-Enforced Disappearance law.

STATEMENT FOR NATIONAL DAY OF PRAYER FOR THE DISAPPEARED by Find Campaigns on Friday, December 3, 2010 at 12:42pm

03 December 2010

“Your hands are full of blood; wash and make yourselves clean. Take your evil deeds out of my sight! Stop doing wrong, learn to do right! Seek justice, encourage the oppressed. Defend the cause of the fatherless, plead the case of the widow.” (Isaiah 1:16-17)

The strong words of the prophet Isaiah are as relevant today as when he spoke rebuking the deeds of the leaders in his time.

It is the same urgent words that the Families of Victims of Involuntary Disappearance (FIND) addresses to the present government as it observes today, December 3, 2010 the National Day of Prayer for the Disappeared.



In the week-long human rights commemoration, FIND members in its nine chapters all over the country are one in stressing the immediacy of addressing the issue of Enforced Disappearance.

To date it has monitored 2,137 individuals—farmers, workers, students, media practitioners and church workers, who became victims of enforced disappearance.

The figure ticks and demands decisive action on the part of the executive with no room for “we will study the issue first” that could in no way deter State agents or persons acting with the support, consent or acquiescence of government authorities from committing enforced disappearance.

Today the families, relatives and friends of victims will not only hear Mass and offer prayers but seek the truth and justice for their loved ones gone missing.

Like the words of Isaiah, we demand that government leaders do what is right and cleanse itself by defending the cause of the fatherless and the widows.

FIND therefore calls on the President to create a real Truth Commission that would pursue and resolve enforced disappearance cases or clarify the fate and whereabouts of the missing.

We urge President Aquino to certify as a priority administration measure the proposed “Anti-Enforced or Involuntary Disappearance Act of 2010” and sign and ratify the International Convention for the Protection of All Persons from Enforced Disappearance (ICED).