August 30 is observed each year worldwide as the International Day of the Disappeared. While it is important to draw attention to those who have disappeared and their families and friends, it is necessary to demand that perpetrators of enforced disappearances be bought to justice.
In 1980 the Commission on Human Rights decided to establish United Nations Working Group on Enforced or Involuntary Disappearance. Since then, the Working Group has submitted more than 50,000 individual cases to governments in more than 90 countries. It is estimated that secret imprisonment is practiced in about 30 countries. In 1992, the General Assembly of the United Nations adopted a Declaration on the Protection of all Persons from Enforced Disappearance. The Declaration states that
Article 1
° Any act of enforced disappearance is an offence to human dignity. It is condemned as a denial of the purposes of the Charter of the United Nations and as a grave and flagrant violation of the human rights and fundamental freedoms proclaimed in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and reaffirmed and developed in international instruments in this field.
° Any act of enforced disappearance places the persons subjected thereto outside the protection of the law and inflicts severe suffering on them and their families. It constitutes a violation of the rules of international law guaranteeing, inter alia, the right to recognition as a person before the law, the right to liberty and security of the person and the right not to be subjected to torture and other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment. It also violates or constitutes a grave threat to the right to life.

What is a Forced Disappearance?
By Latin American Federation of Associations for Relatives of Detained-Disappeared

A forced disappearance consists of a kidnapping, carried out by agents of the State or organized groups of private individuals who act with State support or tolerance, in which the victim "disappears". Authorities neither accept responsibility for the deed, nor account for the whereabouts of the victim. Petitions of habeas corpus or "amparo"- legal mechanisms designated to safeguard the liberty and integrity of citizens - are ineffective, and the kidnappers remain anonymous.
The objective of forced disappearance is not simply the victim's capture and subsequent maltreatment, which often occur in the absence of legal guarantees. Because of the anonymity of the captors, and subsequent impunity, a forced disappearance also creates a state of uncertainty and terror, both in the family of the victim and in society as a whole. Uncertainty exists because people do not know what to do or where to turn. From the first moment, relatives have doubts about the victim's actual fate and the benefits of searching for their loved one. Terror is caused by the unknown, yet undoubtedly terrible, fate of the victim, and the realization that anyone can be subjected to a forced disappearance and any motive may be used to justify the disappearance. A forced disappearance violates a series of fundamental human rights, including: the right to liberty and security of the person; the right to recognition everywhere as a person before the law the right to legal defense; and the right not to be subjected to torture. In addition, forced disappearance constitutes a grave threat to the right to life.
Forced disappearance paralyzes opposition activities by individuals, as well as by society. The victim of forced disappearance is neither a simple political prisoner nor--as the abductors would like him/her to be considered--a dead person, although many times their corpses are later found.