August 30th: The Day of the Disappeared

International Day of the Disappeared is an annual commemorative event that aims to raise awareness and support for those who are secretly imprisoned and to stress the shocking facts behind forced disappearances around the world. August 30th is an opportunity to think of the ill-fated unfortunate people who have lost their family or friends to unknown circumstances like secret imprisonment, and the actual prisoners themselves who are lost to their loved ones.

Honouring the lost:
International Day of the Disappeared

   The idea rooted from the Latin America Federation of Associations for Relatives of Detained-Disappeared. This is a supportive organisation for the families and those affected by secret imprisonment in Latin American countries, with the aim of working against such horrific occurrences. Various human rights activists such as Amnesty International and International Committee of the Red Cross strive towards preventing such cases of disappearance and human cruelty. August 30th is also a day dedicated to campaigning, donating and supporting these organisations who work hard to stop secret imprisonment around the world.
   An example of August 30th events back in 2007 involved relatives of the Disappeared and supporters of the organisation in the Philippines protesting against the government for the incidents of (mainly) activists being missing after abduction or murder by Philippine security forces. It is so shocking to learn the situation of human rights in some countries. I, for one, do not realise how lucky I am to live in a country (England) that practices human rights in law and order. What do you think?