Today is the International Day of the Disappeared, a day to remember those who have been imprisoned without their friends and families knowing where or why.

In 2008, approximately two people were announced as ‘disappeared ‘every day.

The day originates from the efforts of the Latin American Federation of Associations for Relatives of Detained-Disappeared, a Costa-Rican NGO founded in 1981 that officially started the fight against secret imprisonment and forced disappearances. Today, larger organizations such as Amnesty International and the International Committee of the Red Cross are also doing valuable work in this field. International Day of the Disappeared is not only a day to mourn those missing, but also to highlight the work of these NGOs, raise awareness, and to raise funds for future ventures and campaigns against secret imprisonment.

Currently, around the world, there are 41,257 unsolved, on-going cases of ‘disappeared’ people.

This moving clip demonstrates the International Day of the Disappeared in images.

 

Also in August:

Raksha Bandhan – 2nd

International Day for World’s Indigenous People – 9th

Krishna Janmashtami – 10th

International Youth Day – 12th

Laylat al Qadr – 14th

World Humanitarian Day – August 19th

Eid-Ul-Fitr: Ramadan Ends

International Day for the Remembrance of Slave Trade and Its Abolition – 23rd

Tags: Day of the Disappeared, Latin America, missing, NGO, secret imprisonment

This entry was posted on Thursday, August 30th, 2012 at 10:00 am and is filed under Central America, conflict & resolution, days of significance, General, South America . You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.