The First World Congress on Enforced Disappearances (WCED) was held in Geneva, Switzerland on 15-16 January. The issue of enforced disappearances, or abductions, is one of the most intense forms of state repression used against Baloch militants, activists, women, and elderly people in occupied Balochistan. The Baloch National Movement (BNM) highlighted the ongoing cases of enforced disappearances in Balochistan. On average, 50 people are abducted per month by the Pakistani Security forces in Balochistan.
A delegation led by Dr. Naseem Baloch, Chairman of the Baloch National Movement, participated in various events and discussion panels throughout the two-day congress. In these sessions, members of the Baloch National Movement raised critical questions regarding how affected individuals and their families could receive support and assistance, especially when state services can not be trusted to assure such support. In addition to attending the sessions, BNM representatives met with the Rapporteur of the Working Group on Enforced or Involuntary Disappearances, to draw international attention to the issue of enforced disappearances in Balochistan.
The BNM also highlighted the campaign for the liberation of Baloch political and militant leader Wahid Qambar Baloch, who was abducted by Pakistani agents in Kerman, Iran, on 19 July 2024. Walid Qambar, aged 74, was in Kerman receiving medical treatment for serious cardiac problems. The appeal was made to the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) and other international humanitarian and legal institutions, including organs of the United Nations. Wahid Qambar Baloch is a political leader and former commander of the Baloch Liberation Front (BLF), and was previously abducted, imprisoned, and tortured in 2007. He was eventually released in 2011, and his family members state that before this most recent abduction, he still bore the marks of torture on his face and skin from his imprisonment in 2007. His family, as well as the BNM insist that international human rights organisations pressure Pakistan to respect his fundamental rights and end the practice of enforced disappearances.
The International Convention for the Protection of All Persons from Enforced Disappearance, introduced in 2006, is a United Nations convention which seeks to eradicate the practice of political abductions and forced disappearances, but only 76 member states of the UN are official signatories of this convention. It is one of the least ratified United Nations General Assembly Resolutions. Neither Pakistan, Iran, nor Afghanistan are signatories of the convention, while all of these countries occupy the territory of Balochistan. For this reason, the BNM held a protest to conclude the WCED in which family members and loved ones of abducted persons rallied for justice for the forcibly disappeared, not only in Balochistan but around the world.
#EndEnforcedDisappearences in #Balochistan!
You took them alive, we want them alive! #WCED2025 ended on a very emotional note, where families, friends and colleagues of forcibly disappeared people have chanted slogans for their abducted loved ones. pic.twitter.com/QVLrXp1FCY— Hakeem Baloch (@HakeemWadhela) January 17, 2025
