HISTORY

 The DESAPARECIDOS was formed to cater to the need of a support system of families who are victims of enforced disappearances; cases rooting from the Marcos dictatorship up to the present administration. The organization’s battle cry is to surface the victims, their loved ones and stop disappearances; justice to all victims of human rights violations. The organization was formed in 2005. 

ORGANIZATION

• Member organization of KARAPATAN (Alliance for the Advancement of People’s Rights) Philippines

• The word “desaparecidos” is a Spanish word which means “the lost.” In Argentina, this word has been popularized in the context of people’s active participation against the military dictatorship of Jorge Rafael Videla. Since 1976 until 1983, there had been 9,000 disappearances recorded. Those who were accused of subversion were captured and killed in the command of the dictator and their bodies were buried inhumanely.

• In the Philippines, DESAPARECIDOS is a coalition of family members of victims of enforced disappearances. This is a collective expression of the yearnings of families in pursuit of finding their lost loved ones through comforting, empathizing, helping out and drawing strength from one another.

Vision / Mission/ Objectives

• Surface victims of enforced disappearances
• Support system for the families of victims of enforced disappearances
• Justice for all victims of human rights violations
• A stop to the militarization of the country-side and the forcible displacement of peoples in their communities 

      And other thrusts such as:

• Stop Extrajudicial killings
• Freedom for all political prisoners
• A stop to the demolition of urban poor houses and communities as well as

      the violent dispersal of workers’ picketlines

• An end to attacks on civil liberties and people’s rights