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Date: April 19, 2024 Fri
Time: 4:43 pm
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Results for disappearances
15 results foundAuthor: Silva, Romesh, Jasmine Marwaha & Jeff Klingner, Title: Violent Deaths and Enforced Disappearances During the Counterinsurgency in Punjab, India Romesh Silva Jasmine Marwaha Jeff Klingner A Preliminary Quantitative Analysis Summary: This report analyzes reported fatal violence across Punjab during a period of conflict from 1984 to 1995. This preliminary, descriptive statistical analysis uses systematic and verifiable quantitative research to interrogate the Indian government’s portrayal of the Punjab counterinsurgency as a successful campaign with isolated human rights violations. The empirical findings indicate that the intensification of coordinated counterinsurgency operations in the early 1990s was accompanied by a shift in state violence from targeted enforced disappearances and extrajudicial executions to large-scale and systematic lethal human rights violations, accompanied by mass “illegal cremations.” Details: Palo Alto, CA: Benetech's Human Rights Data Analysis Group; Fremont, CA: Ensaaf, Inc., 2009. 50p. Source: Internet Resource: Accessed May 20, 2011 at: http://www.ensaaf.org/publications/reports/descriptiveanalysis/ Year: 2009 Country: India URL: http://www.ensaaf.org/publications/reports/descriptiveanalysis/ Shelf Number: 121774 Keywords: DisappearancesExtrajudicial ExecutionsHuman Rights (India)TerrorismViolence |
Author: Steinberg, Nik Title: Neither Rights Nor Security: Killings, Torture, and Disappearances in Mexico’s “War on Drugs” Summary: Five years since President Felipe Calderón declared “war” on organized crime in Mexico and dispatched the military to confront the country’s drug cartels, the government’s policy is failing on two fronts. It has not succeeded in reducing violence, and has resulted in a dramatic increase in grave human rights violations, which have only exacerbated the climate of violence, lawlessness, and fear that exists in many parts of the country. Based on extensive research in five states — Baja California, Chihuahua, Guerrero, Nuevo León, and Tabasco — Neither Rights Nor Security presents compelling evidence of the systematic use of torture by Mexican security forces, as well as the involvement of police and soldiers in scores of enforced disappearances and extrajudicial killings. These are not isolated acts. Rather as the testimonies of victims, eyewitnesses, and evidence from public information requests and official government statistics show, these abusive tactics are endemic to Mexico’s counternarcotics efforts. The violations persist in large part because the members of security forces who commit them are virtually never held accountable. Many cases languish in the military justice system. And even when investigations are opened in the civilian justice system, prosecutors repeatedly fail to take basic steps such as identifying and interviewing witnesses. Nevertheless, government officials are often quick to dismiss victims’ allegations as false and to cast victims as criminals. Such accusations compound the suffering already inflicted by these serious violations and place the burden on victims and their families to conduct investigations themselves. Neither Rights Nor Security demonstrates how this pattern of abuse and impunity is undercutting Mexico’s efforts to reduce violence, dismantle criminal networks, and restore the rule of law in parts of the country where it has been badly damaged. Details: New York: Human Rights Watch, 2011. 218p. Source: Internet Resource: Accessed November 10, 2011 at: http://www.hrw.org/sites/default/files/reports/mexico1111webwcover_0.pdf Year: 2011 Country: Mexico URL: http://www.hrw.org/sites/default/files/reports/mexico1111webwcover_0.pdf Shelf Number: 123278 Keywords: DisappearancesDrug CartelsDrug TraffickingHomicidesHuman Rights (Mexico)Organized CrimePolice Use of ForceTortureViolence |
Author: Human Rights Watch Title: Operation Likofi: Police Killings and Enforced Disappearances in Kinshasa, Democratic Republic of Congo Summary: On November 15, 2013, the government of the Democratic Republic of Congo launched "Operation Likofi," a police operation in Congo's capital, Kinshasa, aimed at ending crime by members of organized criminal gangs known as "kuluna." Gen. Celestin Kanyama, currently the police commissioner for all of Kinshasa, was the primary commander of the operation. Over the course of three months, police officers who participated in the operation extrajudicially executed at least 51 young men and teenage boys and forcibly disappeared 33 others. In raids across the city, police in uniform, often with black masks covering their faces, and with no arrest warrants, dragged suspected kuluna at gunpoint out of their homes at night. In many cases, the police shot and killed the unarmed youth outside their homes, while others were apprehended and executed in the open markets where they slept or worked or in nearby fields or empty lots. Many others were taken to unknown locations and forcibly disappeared. Police warned family members and witnesses not to speak out about what happened, denied them access to their relatives' bodies and prevented them from holding funerals. Congolese journalists were threatened when they attempted to document or broadcast information about Operation Likofi killings. Operation Likofi: Police Killings and Enforced Disappearances in Kinshasa is based on interviews conducted in Kinshasa with over 100 witnesses to abuses, family members of victims, police officers who participated in Operation Likofi, government officials, and others. Human Rights Watch calls on the Congolese government to hold those responsible for these abuses to account. General Kanyama should be suspended immediately pending a judicial investigation. The government should also provide information to family members on the fate or whereabouts of the victims. Details: Hew York: HRW, 2014. 63p. Source: Internet Resource: Accessed January 15, 2015 at: http://www.hrw.org/sites/default/files/reports/drc1114_forUpload_0.pdf Year: 2014 Country: Congo, Democratic Republic URL: http://www.hrw.org/sites/default/files/reports/drc1114_forUpload_0.pdf Shelf Number: 134403 Keywords: DisappearancesGangsHomicidesOrganized CrimePolice Brutality (Congo, Democratic Republic)Police MisconductPolice Use of Force |
Author: Human Rights Watch Title: Mexico's Disappeared: The Enduring Cost of a Crisis Ignored Summary: When Enrique Pena Nieto took office in December 2012, he inherited a country reeling from an epidemic of drug violence. The "war on drugs" launched by his predecessor, Felipe Calderon, had not only failed to reduce violence, but also led to a dramatic increase in human rights violations. Throughout most of his presidency, Calderon denied abuses had occurred and failed to take adequate steps to ensure they were prosecuted. That responsibility now falls to President Enrique Pena Nieto. And nowhere is it more urgent than in the crime of disappearances: where people have been unlawfully taken against their will and their fate is still unknown. Mexico's Disappeared documents nearly 250 "disappearances." In 149 of these cases, evidence suggests that these were enforced disappearances, carried out with the participation of state agents. In virtually all of the cases documented by Human Rights Watch, authorities failed to promptly and thoroughly search for the disappeared person, instead blaming the victim and passing the responsibility to investigate onto families. The limited investigative steps prosecutors took were undermined by delays, errors, and omissions. These lapses only exacerbate the suffering of victims' families, for whom not knowing what happened to their loved ones is a source of perpetual anguish. Another path is possible. In the state of Nuevo Leon, responding to pressure from victims' families and human rights defenders, prosecutors have broken with a pattern of inaction and begun to seriously investigate a select group of disappearances. While progress thus far has been limited, it is an encouraging first step. Ultimately, enforced disappearances are a national problem, and the success of state-level efforts will depend in large measure on whether the federal government is willing and able to do its part. If, like its predecessor, the Pena Nieto administration fails to implement a comprehensive strategy to find the missing and bring perpetrators to justice, it will only worsen the most severe crisis of enforced disappearance in Latin America in decades. Details: New York: HRW, 2013. 176p. Source: Internet Resource: Accessed May 26, 2015 at: http://www.hrw.org/sites/default/files/reports/mexico0213_ForUpload_0_0_0.pdf Year: 2013 Country: Mexico URL: http://www.hrw.org/sites/default/files/reports/mexico0213_ForUpload_0_0_0.pdf Shelf Number: 127733 Keywords: DisappearancesDrug TraffickingDrug-Related ViolenceHomicidesMissing PersonsMurdersWar on Drugs |
Author: Interdisciplinary Group of Independent Experts (GIEI) Title: Ayotzinapa Report: Research and intial conclusions of the disappearances and homicides of the normalistas from Ayotzinapa Summary: The report issued on September 6 by the Interdisciplinary Group of Independent Experts (GIEI) concludes that the Mexican government's version of the fate of the 43 forcibly disappeared students from Ayotzinapa is wrong and not substantiated by scientific evidence. The Washington Office on Latin America (WOLA) is deeply troubled by the government's grave mishandling of the case and supports the experts' call for the government to pursue further lines of investigation to clarify what happened to the students and provide truth and justice to their families. Mexico's Attorney General, Arely Gomez, who replaced former Attorney General Jesus Murillo Karam shortly after he presented the Mexican government's grossly flawed version of the students' disappearance, affirmed that her office will analyze all aspects of the report to determine whether to incorporate them into the investigation but refrained from making any statements about the government's grave errors in the case. "Rather than doing new tests to prove a theory that has already been discarded, the Mexican government should work to restructure the investigation and pursue all of the proposed lines of investigation," affirmed Maureen Meyer, WOLA Senior Associate for Mexico. "Given the multiple failures of the government's investigators, a new team should be created within the Attorney General's Office to be in charge of this next stage of the investigation," she stated. The group of five renowned experts on criminal prosecutions and human rights was formed by the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR) based on an agreement with the students' families, their representatives, and the Mexican government. They began their work on March 2, 2015 and have been providing vital technical assistance for the case. Their report reflects six months of extensive work to search for the students, investigate those responsible, provide attention to the surviving victims of the attacks and victims' families, and to develop proposals regarding enforced disappearances in Mexico. The report negates the Mexican government's narrative that after the students had been forcibly disappeared by municipal police they were handed over to a criminal group and subsequently incinerated in a trash dump. "'The experts' report makes clear that the government attempted to sell to the families, Mexican society, and the international community a version of the events that, far from being the truth, is not backed up by scientific evidence," affirmed Meyer. "The government preferred expediency over veracity and went to great lengths, including likely torture, to back up their version of the events," she said. The report also shows that several areas of investigation remain unexplored. In particular, the experts suggest that the extreme violence that was used against the students may have been related to the fact that buses were being used by organized criminal groups in Iguala to transport heroin. Lastly, the report also makes clear that state and federal security forces knew that the students were being pursued and attacked by the municipal police yet they did nothing to come to the students' aid. Details: Grupo Interdisciplinario de Expertos Independientes. Ayotzinapa (GIEI),2015. 35p. (English summary) Source: Internet Resource: Accessed September 11, 2015 at: http://media.wix.com/ugd/3a9f6f_e1df5a84680a4a8a969bd45453da1e31.pdf Year: 2015 Country: Mexico URL: http://media.wix.com/ugd/3a9f6f_e1df5a84680a4a8a969bd45453da1e31.pdf Shelf Number: 136721 Keywords: Criminal InvestigationDisappearancesHomicidesOrganized Crime |
Author: Amnesty International Title: "Treated with Indolence": The State's Response to Disappearances in Mexico Summary: In Mexico, it makes no difference whether disappearances have a high profile internationally and nationally or remain in relative obscurity, nor whether those responsible are state agents or private individuals. Whatever the nature of the disappearance, the authorities seem equally unable to provide a coherent response at the institutional level aimed at uncovering the truth and ensuring justice and reparations for the more than 26,000 people who have disappeared. Amnesty International has documented shortcomings in the authorities efforts to search for the disappeared and their failure to carry out effective investigations that result in victims being identified and those responsible punished. In this report, Amnesty International examines the enforced disappearance of 43 students from Ayotzinapa and the crisis of disappearances in Ciudad Cuauhtemoc in the State of Chihuahua. These two cases are emblematic, reflecting the seriousness of the situation facing the country. This crisis has led to the creation of a large number of groups, including relatives of the disappeared, who are demanding truth, justice and reparation. In the face of state inaction, they have taken up the struggle and made enormous efforts to find their loved ones. Amnesty International urges the Mexican authorities to take concrete steps to address this issue. In particular, it calls on them to ensure that the General Law on Disappearances, which is due to be introduced shortly, incorporates the highest international standards. The new legislation must take into account the experience and the needs of the thousands of victims seeking their loved ones. The law should also establish appropriate mechanisms to investigate and punish disappearances and develop a public policy aimed at preventing and ending enforced disappearances and disappearances carried out by non-state actors. Details: London: AI, 2016. 52p. Source: Internet Resource: Accessed January 28, 2016 at: http://www.amnestyusa.org/sites/default/files/mexico_disappearances_report_eng_pdf.pdf Year: 2016 Country: Mexico URL: http://www.amnestyusa.org/sites/default/files/mexico_disappearances_report_eng_pdf.pdf Shelf Number: 137699 Keywords: DisappearancesMissing Persons |
Author: International Displacement Monitoring Centre Title: Forced displacement linked to transnational organised crime in Mexico Summary: Drug cartel violence in Mexico has increased dramatically since 2007, when the new government of President Felipe Calderon identified insecurity as a key problem and began deploying the military to fight the cartels in key locations. According to various analysts the strategy has backfired, stirring up a hornet's nest by disturbing existing arrangements between the cartels, and sparking wars both within and between them. The impact of the violence has been enormous. Government figures put the number of people killed since the launch of the security strategy at 47,000, with more than 15,000 losing their lives in 2010 and 12,900 in the first nine months of 2011. The media have repeatedly put the death toll at 50,000, and many have referred to the violence as an insurgency or armed conflict. It is clear, however, that the cartels do not have a political agenda or ideology, and such references have prompted angry responses from the Mexican government. Whether the violence can be defined as an internal armed conflict under international humanitarian law or not, its effects on the civilian population have been significant and the response inadequate. One impact has been forced migration, both internal and cross-border. Because of available resources and timeframe this study focuses exclusively on the former. Civil society organisations, academic institutions and the media have increasingly documented cases and patterns of forced internal displacement caused by drug cartel violence. That said, aside from two cases of mass displacement - in Tamaulipas in 2010 and in Michoacan in 2011 - most people have fled individually, and as a result information is scattered. This study aims to fill that information gap. Firstly, it documents an empirical link between drug cartel violence and forced displacement at the national level, distinguishing it from economic migration and where possible identifying patterns of displacement. Secondly, it identifies and describes the vulnerabilities of those affected, focusing on access to the basic necessities of life and livelihood opportunities in places of displacement, and housing, land and property rights. Thirdly, it maps government responses at both the federal and state level. Details: Geneva, SWIT: IDMC, 2012. 42p. Source: Internet Resource: Accessed January 28, 2016 at: http://www.internal-displacement.org/assets/publications/2012/2012005-am-mexico-Mexico-forced-displacement-en.pdf Year: 2012 Country: Mexico URL: http://www.internal-displacement.org/assets/publications/2012/2012005-am-mexico-Mexico-forced-displacement-en.pdf Shelf Number: 137705 Keywords: DisappearancesDrug CartelsDrug ViolenceDrug-Related ViolenceForced MigrationHomicidesOrganized Crime |
Author: Witte, Eric A. Title: Undeniable Atrocities: Confronting Crimes Against Humanity in Mexico Summary: This report focuses on the nine-year period of December 1, 2006 to December 31, 2015. This covers the entirety of Felipe Calderon's presidency (December 1, 2006 to November 30, 2012), and just over half of the six-year term of current President Enrique Pema Nieto. To put statistics and institutional developments in context, however, the report includes some information from previous years, and especially the final years of the Vicente Fox presidency (December 1, 2000-November 30, 2006). The current crisis is the most intense period of violence in Mexico's modern history, but not its first. Accordingly, the report includes a brief overview of prior periods in which the government was also implicated in atrocity crimes for which there has been no accountability - including the period of the so-called "Dirty War," waged by the government against left-wing students and dissidents from the late 1960s to 1980s - in order to situate the recent surge in violence within a broader historical and political context. WHAT ARE "ATROCITY CRIMES"? The United Nations defines the term as encompassing the crimes of genocide, crimes against humanity, and war crimes. This report uses the term to refer to particular forms of violent crime that have affected many tens of thousands of civilians and may amount to crimes against humanity. Those affected include not only Mexicans but migrants from Central America, who travel a perilous path through the country and are increasingly the victims of vicious cartel violence. Specifically, the report examines three types of atrocity crimes: killings, disappearances, and torture and other ill-treatment. The report attempts to paint a composite picture based on a good-faith effort to synthesize all available statistics on and documentation of atrocity crimes in Mexico from December 2006. But that picture is only partial. Only accurate and complete data can reveal the full nature and scale of these crimes. The bulk of the data on which the analysis rests necessarily comes from government sources. This creates a considerable methodological challenge because government data on atrocity and other crime in Mexico is notoriously incomplete, skewed towards minimization, and therefore often unreliable. Collection of crime data is decentralized; states vary in their capacity and will to collect and share data with the federal government and public; some states keep data electronically and online, while others still keep records on paper, which are difficult to access. Particularly for atrocity crimes, data suffers from inaccurate and inconsistent categorization, itself a symptom of enduring denial about the scope and gravity of the situation. For instance, if charged at all, torture is often categorized as a lesser crime, such as "abuse of authority," and enforced disappearances may instead be classified as "kidnappings." Decades of impunity have engendered popular distrust in the justice sector, culminating in one of the greatest barriers to collecting accurate crime statistics: the fact that over 90 percent of crimes in Mexico are never reported to authorities in the first place. All of this has contributed to widely varying assessments of the scale and nature of atrocity crime, and confusion over the adequacy of the justice system's response. Some government data used here comes from public reports and statements from agencies including the federal Attorney General's Office (PGR), the Executive Secretariat of the National System of Public Security (SNSP), the autonomous government statistics office (INEGI), the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (SRE), and the Defense Ministry (SEDENA). Reports and publications of Mexico's National Human Rights Commission (CNDH) provide another important, if flawed, source of data. BEYOND PUBLIC REPORTS FROM GOVERNMENT ENTITIES, this report relies on information obtained through extensive use of Mexico's progressive legal regime on the right to information. Although critical public information is still too often withheld, the Open Society Justice Initiative, its partners, and others have been able to gain new insight into atrocity crime data, specific cases, and the functioning of justice institutions through information requests submitted to the federal and state governments. This report also relies on an extensive review of United Nations and Inter-American treaty body jurisprudence and reports; federal and state human rights commissions; national, regional, and international civil society reports; legal scholarship by Mexican and non-Mexican academics and political analysts; as well as investigative reports from Mexican and international media. These resources were augmented by over 100 first-hand interviews conducted by Mexico-based and international Justice Initiative staff and consultants, in person and by email and telephone, over the course of 2013-2015. Most in-person interviews were conducted in Mexico City, Coahuila, Guerrero, Nuevo Leon, Oaxaca, and Queretaro, although a small number were conducted in Morelos and Geneva. Almost all interviews were conducted in Spanish; for some, there was simultaneous interpretation into English, with the Spanish version considered definitive. All interviews were conducted with the verbal consent of the interviewee. Some sourcing has been anonymized at the request of the interlocutor. Those interviewed included government officials at the federal and state levels, including prosecutors, police, judges, members of congress and congressional staff, and officials at human rights and truth commissions. Research also included numerous interviews with Mexican and international experts and civil society representatives, as well as diplomats and academics. Details: New York: Open Society Foundations, 2016. 220p. Source: Internet Resource: Accessed June 7, 2016 at: https://www.opensocietyfoundations.org/sites/default/files/undeniable-atrocities-en-20160602.pdf Year: 2016 Country: Mexico URL: https://www.opensocietyfoundations.org/sites/default/files/undeniable-atrocities-en-20160602.pdf Shelf Number: 139298 Keywords: Crime Against HumanityDisappearancesHomicidesHuman RightsKidnappingsOrganized CrimeTortureViolenceViolent Crime |
Author: Ali, Fathi Title: Consequences of Torture and Organized Violence: Libya Needs Assessment Survey Summary: The data collection was completed in October 2013. 2,692 household interviews were included in the national survey. Every fifth household responded to having a family member disappeared, 11% reported having a household member arrested and 5% reported one killed. Of those arrested, 46% reported beatings, 20% positional torture or suspensions, 16% suffocation and from 3 to 5% reported having suffered sexual, thermal or electrical torture. In short our data support the allegations that widespread human rights violations and gross human rights violations have taken place in Libya. The consequences at the level of the population are massive: 29% of individuals report anxiety and 30% report depression, while PTSD symptoms were reported by 6%. These results indicate that the respondents at the time of interview could still be in an acute or post-acute stage and have yet to reach the post-trauma stage, hence we predict that the prevalence of post-traumatic stress reactions will increase over time, if or when the internal conflict subsides. Furthermore, our data show that internal displacement is major concern in Libya. A total of 18% of the respondents reported being internally displaced during the internal conflict, and 16% remains so at the time of the interview, indicating a major source of long-term human suffering and political instability. In these times of distress and crisis respondents have had almost no access to international humanitarian assistance. Only 2% report having been helped by NGOs. Libyans overwhelmingly have resorted to local resources for social support: 72% indicate they used family networks and 48% friends, 43% Libyan medical doctors, 24% used religious leaders and 18% used traditional healers. Overall, we conclude that both the short-term consequences of the internal conflict as well as the long-term consequences of the Gaddafi regime are in large measures still unaddressed. In order to deal with life stress, 59% indicated they needed assistance in terms of justice, legal remedy and compensation, while 44% indicated they needed health and medical assistance. Thus, the report concludes that any future government of Libya faces massive challenges in alleviating human suffering and improving mental health. However, as the internal conflict continues more and more people are affected by human rights violations aggravating mental health afflictions, straining the social fabric and the capacity of the Libyan state. Details: Copenhagen: Danish Institute Against Torture (DIGNITY), 2015. 45p. Source: Internet Resource: DIGNITY Publication Series No. 8: Accessed June 13, 2016 at: https://dignityinstitute.org/media/2065868/pubseries8_libya_final.pdf Year: 2015 Country: Libya URL: https://dignityinstitute.org/media/2065868/pubseries8_libya_final.pdf Shelf Number: 139430 Keywords: DisappearancesTorture Violence |
Author: Human Rights Watch Title: "Such a Brutal Crackdown": Killings and Arrests in response to Ethiopia's Oromo Protests Summary: Since mid-November 2015, Ethiopia's Oromia region has been rocked by largely peaceful protests triggered by Ethiopian government plans to expand the capital, Addis Ababa, and displace ethnic Oromo farmers. State security forces have used excessive and lethal force to respond to the protests, killing an estimated 400 people and injuring thousands. Security forces have also arrested tens of thousands of people and hundreds of others have been forcibly disappeared. Based on more than 125 interviews conducted inside Ethiopia and abroad, "Such a Brutal Crackdown" describes and analyses a grossly underreported crisis that poses a massive political challenge for Ethiopia's government. Although the demonstrations initially concerned the government's expansion plans, the killings and arrests, coupled with longstanding grievances from the Oromo community, have further fueled the protests. Many of those killed or detained were students under 18. The authorities have also arrested opposition politicians, musicians, teachers and other influential Oromos. Some have been prosecuted under Ethiopia's draconian counterterrorism law. The government has also sought to restrict information about the protests by detaining journalists covering the events and blocking social media and other means of communication. Although the protests have largely subsided since mid-April, thousands of students and others have fled their homes or are in detention, education has been disrupted in many locations, and tensions remain high. This underscores the need for the Ethiopian government to support a credible investigation into the events, release those who have been wrongfully detained, and take other urgent measures to redress the serious abuses that have been committed. Details: New York: HRW, 2016. 86p. Source: Internet Resource: Accessed July 25, 2016 at: https://www.hrw.org/sites/default/files/report_pdf/ethiopia0616web.pdf Year: 2016 Country: Ethiopia URL: https://www.hrw.org/sites/default/files/report_pdf/ethiopia0616web.pdf Shelf Number: 139838 Keywords: Deadly ForceDisappearancesHuman Rights AbusesProtest MovementsUse of Force |
Author: Bennett, Darcie Title: Blueprint for an inquiry : learning from the failures of the Missing Women Commission of Inquiry Summary: From the perspective of the hundreds of marginalized women who protested the Missing Women Commission of Inquiry ("the Inquiry") everymorning for the first month of hearings, the Inquiry was an absolute failure. The Inquiry was set up to examine the problems arising from investigations of the disappearance and murder of dozens of women in Vancouver’s Downtown Eastside ("DTES"), and particularly the investigation of serial murderer Robert William Pickton. Out of the failures of the Inquiry, which are well documented and understood in the affected communities, the hope of the authors is that a positive legacy can still be uncovered. The report, written by experts in community legal processes from the B.C. Civil Liberties Association, Pivot Legal Society and West Coast LEAF, makes a number of recommendations that focus on ways Commissioners of inquiry can facilitate the participation of marginalized groups. The report also addresses basic procedural issues that dogged the MWCI, including full and transparent document disclosure, timely decisions on applications made by lawyers, and issues of conflict of interest. This report does not focus on the nuances of B.C. provincial law, but instead on broad trends and procedural approaches that future commissioners of inquiry and their staff may usefully adapt to the particularities of their own jurisdictions. Details: Vancouver, B.C. : B.C. Civil Liberties Association, 2012. 57p. Source: Internet Resource: Accessed November 11, 2016 at: https://d3n8a8pro7vhmx.cloudfront.net/pivotlegal/pages/189/attachments/original/1353022676/Missing_Women_Inquiry_web_doc.pdf.pdf?1353022676 Year: 2012 Country: Canada URL: https://d3n8a8pro7vhmx.cloudfront.net/pivotlegal/pages/189/attachments/original/1353022676/Missing_Women_Inquiry_web_doc.pdf.pdf?1353022676 Shelf Number: 130135 Keywords: DisappearancesHomicides Missing Persons Violence Against Women |
Author: Amnesty International Title: Human Slaughterhouse: Mass Hangings and Extermination at Saydnaya Prison, Syria Summary: At Saydnaya Military Prison, the Syrian authorities have quietly and methodically organized the killing of thousands of people in their custody. Amnesty International's research shows that the murder, torture, enforced disappearance and extermination carried out at Saydnaya since 2011 have been perpetrated as part of an attack against the civilian population that has been widespread, as well as systematic, and carried out in furtherance of state policy. We therefore conclude that the Syrian authorities' violations at Saydnaya amount to crimes against humanity. Amnesty International urgently calls for an independent and impartial investigation into crimes committed at Saydnaya. Details: London: AI, 2017. 48p. Source: Internet Resource: Accessed February 15, 2017 at: https://www.amnesty.org/en/documents/mde24/5415/2017/en/ Year: 2017 Country: Syria URL: https://www.amnesty.org/en/documents/mde24/5415/2017/en/ Shelf Number: 145306 Keywords: DisappearancesMurderPrisonersPrisonsTorture |
Author: Haugaard, Lisa Title: Breaking the Silence: In Search of Colombia's Disappeared Summary: Colombia has one of the highest levels of forced disappearances in the world. Mention the word "disappearance" in the Latin American context and most people think only about Chile, where 3,000 people were killed or disappeared, or Argentina, where some 30,000 people were disappeared in the "dirty war." Yet new information is emerging that is unveiling the tragic dimensions of Colombia's missing. Little attention has been paid to disappearances in Colombia. This may be simply because the death toll from assassinations, massacres, criminal murders, and battlefield casualties- where there are bodies-is so high that disappearances have remained out of focus. The government's ability to project an image of success has also served to make disappearances, along with other human rights abuses, less visible. That the conflict is still raging makes it hard to bring attention to a crime where the proof is by definition invisible. The Colombian government and international community's response to the problem of disappearances has been delayed and inadequate, even in contrast to the limited programs and legal recourses available to other victims of the conflict. Since 2007, the Colombian government has begun to improve the ways in which disappearances are registered. As new and older cases are entered into a consolidated database, numbers are increasing dramatically by the month. As of November 2010, Colombia's official government statistics list over 51,000 disappearances, a figure that includes missing persons who may be alive, while the Attorney General's office speaks of over 32,000 "forced disappearances." More than 1130 new cases of forced disappearance have been officially registered in the last three years. However, the full total remains unknown. Many cases have yet to be entered in the database, and many disappearances are not registered at all. Earlier claims by associations of families of the disappeared of some 15,000 forced disappearances, far from being an overestimation, now look to have vastly undercounted the tragedy's enormous scope. Details: Washington, DC: Latin America Working Group Education Fund and U.S. Office on Colombia, 2010. 32p. Source: Internet Resource: Accessed march 20, 2018 at: http://lawg.org/storage/documents/Colombia/BreakingTheSilence.pdf Year: 2010 Country: Colombia URL: http://lawg.org/storage/documents/Colombia/BreakingTheSilence.pdf Shelf Number: 149527 Keywords: DisappearancesHomicidesHuman Rights AbusesMissing Persons |
Author: International Federation for Human Rights (FIDH) Title: Mexico Coahuila: ongoing crimes against humanity Communication to the International Criminal Court Summary: This report, along with a series of confidential annexes, will be submitted on July 6th as a communication to the Office of the Prosecutor (OTP) of the International Criminal Court (ICC) under Article 15 of the ICC Statute. It details a number of crimes committed against the civilian population in the State of Coahuila de Zaragoza, Mexico, including murder, illegal imprisonment, enforced disappearance, torture and sexual violence. The crimes detailed herein are limited to a certain number of representative cases occurring between 2009 and 2016. However, these cases are non-exhaustive and indicative of broader patterns of abuse, both in the state of Coahuila and in other regions in Mexico, pushing this situation past a matter of organised crime and into the field of crimes against humanity. The present communication to the Office of the Prosecutor of the ICC is presented by the FIDH, Familias Unidas en Busqueda y Localizacion de Personas Desaparecidas, Fuerzas Unidas por Nuestros Desaparecidos en Mexico, and Centro Diocesano para los Derechos Humanos Fray Juan de Larios, in partnership with Red Todos los Derechos Para Todas y Todos (which gathers more tan 80 non governmental organizations in Mexico), la Comision Mexicana de Defensa y Promocin de los Derechos Humanos (PDH), I(dh)eas Litigio Estrategico en Derechos Humanos, la Fundacion Para La Justicia y el Estado Democratico de Derecho, el Centro de Derechos Humanos Juan Gerardi, la Iniciativa Mesoamericana de Mujeres Defensoras de Derechos Humanos, las Asociadas por lo Justo, el Instituto Mexicano de Derechos Humanos and Democracia, Fundar Centro de Analisis e Investigacin, Casa del Migrante de Saltillo, Pastoral Penitenciaria de Saltillo Pastoral Social de la Diocesis de Saltillo. Mexico ratified the Rome Statute on October 28, 2005. Accordingly, the ICC has subject matter jurisdiction and temporal jurisdiction over the crimes committed in Mexican territory or by Mexican nationals from January 1, 2006 forward, according to Article 2 (2) and Article 126 (2) of the Rome Statute. Our organisations respectfully request the OTP to consider this Communication according to its obligations under Article 15 of the ICC Statute by opening a preliminary examination into the situation in Mexico, with a view towards a future investigation, as there is a reasonable basis to believe that crimes within the jurisdiction of the ICC have been committed. Details: Paris: FIDC, 2017. 70p. Source: Internet Resource: Accessed August 31, 2018 at: https://www.fidh.org/IMG/pdf/angmexico_coahuila_ongoing_crimes_against_humanity_fidh-final_a_revisar-1.pdf Year: 2017 Country: Mexico URL: https://www.fidh.org/IMG/pdf/angmexico_coahuila_ongoing_crimes_against_humanity_fidh-final_a_revisar-1.pdf Shelf Number: 151511 Keywords: DisappearancesHomicidesHuman Rights AbusesOrganized CrimeSexual Violence |
Author: Fernandez Davalos, David Title: Violencia y terror. Hallazgos sobre fosas clandestinas en Mexico. ( Violence and terror Findings about clandestine graves in Mexico) Summary: The discovery of clandestine graves in Mexico has become a recurring fact during the last ten years, within a context of violence and violations human rights that has spread throughout the country. The appearance of one or several clandestine graves represents in itself a practice where various crimes and / or violations against people who have been smuggled in a clandestine manner, starting clearly with the right to life. Also, its possible relationship with serious violations of human rights and other individual and collective rights that are compromised shows the importance of understanding this phenomenon from different angles With this in mind, the Human Rights Program of the Universidad Iberoamericana Mexico City and the Mexican Commission for the Defense and Promotion of Human Rights, A.C. In 2015, they undertook the task of carrying out a research with the aim of knowing a little more about the magnitude of said problem, which seemed to be increasingly present in public opinion, as well as its implications in social terms. To achieve the above, we set ourselves the goal of generating a database and a mapping of clandestine graves reported by the media between the years 2007 to 2014, to later contrast the information with the official data achieved through transparency mechanisms. The relevance of the objective of this report is to point out that the finding of clandestine graves reflects, on the one hand, the differentiated patterns of violence in the states and municipalities of the country and, on the other, the low institutional capacity and political will of the different levels of government to find, register and identify the bodies of the people whose rights were absolutely denied. In the same way, behind each clandestine grave are the stories of victims direct and indirect that have been affected by the violence generated by different state and non-state agents throughout these last ten years. Indication of the magnitude of this problem is one more step, among others, to know better the complex reality in which we are immersed; generate information on the context that facilitates access to justice and the reduction of impunity through the determination of responsibilities; produce inputs for the design of prevention policies; contribute to the access to truth, and create new ways of memory with a view to the non-repetition of the atrocious acts involved in the burial clandestine. First, readers will find a section on methodology adopted for obtaining and processing the information sources used for our analysis, as well as the scope and limits of the research carried out. After that, a section with the results of the analysis of said sources about the clandestine graves registered and reported in the national territory in a period of certain time. In the latter it is indicated what data are with the that is counted with respect to the appearance of clandestine graves; It will be detailed how this problem has evolved at the national level; the observable peaks of violence; the states that concentrate the greatest number of graves, bodies and / or remains, and how These data are compared with the official figures available. Once the results of the quantitative analysis and the contrast of figures have been reported, The second section of the report addresses the issue of clandestine graves from two different approaches, with the aim of understanding the implications of this form of violence in the country. First a section is presented that summarizes briefly the discussion that took place in a seminar organized in the Universidad Iberoamericana Mexico City, where some axes were delineated that can serve as a proposal to understand the problem of clandestine graves from various academic disciplines. The following section details how the discovery of clandestine graves relates to serious human rights violations - extrajudicial executions, summary or arbitrary, torture and other cruel treatment or punishment, and disappearance forced, taking into account that various international bodies have already shown your concern about these practices in the country. Details: Del. Cuauhtemoc: Comision Mexicana de Defensa y Promocion de los Derechos Humanos, 2018? 112p. Source: Internet Resource: Accessed September 18, 2018 at: http://www.pdh.org/publicaciones-pdf/violencia-y-terror-hallazgos-sobre-fosas-clandestinas-en-mexico.pdf Year: 2018 Country: Mexico URL: http://www.pdh.org/publicaciones-pdf/violencia-y-terror-hallazgos-sobre-fosas-clandestinas-en-mexico.pdf Shelf Number: 151579 Keywords: Clandestine Graves DisappearancesHomicides Human Rights Abuses Violent Crime |