- A Resolution - 

[Ed. Note. Following is the Resolution passed by the Gathering of Families of the Disappeared Persons held in Kwangju, South Korea on 14-19 May 2000, to mark the 20th anniversary of the Kwangju Uprising. The UN Draft Convention that this Resolution refers to is available on AHRC's Disappearances website at www.disappearances.org/undocs/index.html]

We, the participants from Burma, Cambodia, East Timor, India, Indonesia, South Korea, Sri Lanka and Thailand at this gathering recall the 1980 uprising of Kwangju people in Korea against the military dictatorship and remember those who were brutally killed as they opposed the imposition of this dictatorship on the people of Korea.

We also recall the memories of other such massacres in our countries and tens of thousands of people who have been tortured, killed or disappeared by the actions of military and other regimes including pseudo-democratic regimes and other authorities.

We also recall that in none of these instances justice has been adequately done to the victims of such massacres and to the family members of these persons.

We, the participants, state that effective action for bringing to justice all perpetrators of such massacres or those who caused such involuntary and forced disappearances is a fundamen-tal obligation of all societies, states, international community and inter-national organisations such as the United Nations.

We further state that bringing such perpetrators to justice is a matter or urgency. The unchecked perpetrators of such violence enjoy impunity in almost all Asian countries. Such im-punity obstructs the development of democratic societies and encourages collapse into anarchy and barbarism. Persons who exercise freedom of thought and expression and other rights become victims of such disappearances.

In these circumstances, we, the participants of this gathering, welcome the Draft International Convention on the Protection of All Persons from Forced Disappearances, which has been brought before all the state parties by the United Nations.

We, the participants of this gathering, endorse this Draft Convention.

We, participants of this gathering, call upon:
all state parties to support and to endorse this Draft Convention by becoming signatories to it;
the UN to expedite the process of transforming the Draft Convention into an international treaty by taking effective action for that purpose;
the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights to give priority to the adopting of this Convention as soon as possible;
to all civil society organizations and all concerned persons to take an active part in lobbying with their governments as well as the United Nations for the speedy adoption of this Convention;
specifically call upon all the civil rights movements, democratic movements, human rights move-ments and particularly women's movements to give priority to the promotion of this Convention with the view of its speedy adoption and quick implementation.
We, the participants of this gathering, are of the view that the process of causing of involuntary and forced disappearances must be brought to an end as soon as possible. This must become not only a matter of priority in the international law, but it must also become a primarily important moral issue that needs to be addressed.

The participants of the Gathering:
BURMA: National League for Democracy (NLD) (Liberated Area) Korea Branch
INDONESIA: KONTRAS (Commission for Disappearances and Victims of Violence)
SRI LANKA: Kalape Api (We in the Zone)
SOUTH KOREA: Family Association of Killed and Disappeared During the 1980 Kwangju Uprising
THAILAND: The Relatives Committee of May 1992 Heroes
AND Representatives from Cambodia, East Timor and Kashmir
Asian Human Rights Commission, Hong Kong