On the International Day of the Victims of Enforced Disappearances, the United States stands with all victims of the crime of enforced disappearance, and we call upon those who perpetrate this crime to immediately cease the practice and return victims to their families.
Enforced disappearance is an egregious human rights violation that inflicts the trauma of indeterminate detention or disappearance on its victims, whom all too often are targeted for their dissent or advocacy for human rights and democracy. Families of those forcibly disappeared also suffer immensely, not knowing where their loved ones are, or whether they are alive or dead. The agony that enforced disappearance inflicts on the victims and their families is unimaginable.
Today we remember the victims of this practice around the world – including in the People’s Republic of China, where members of religious and ethnic minority groups, lawyers, activists, and others are targeted; in Russia-occupied parts of Ukraine, where thousands of civilians have been disappeared or held incommunicado by Russian authorities, with their whereabouts and wellbeing unknown; and in Syria, where over 110,000 persons remain forcibly disappeared or arbitrarily detained, including thousands of children and women. The United States urges governments everywhere to put an end to this practice, hold perpetrators accountable, and respect the human rights and fundamental freedoms of all.