In a particularly high-profile case, Muslim human rights lawyer Somchai Neelaphaijit was reportedly harassed, threatened, and finally forcibly disappeared in March 2004 following his allegations of torture by state security forces.

Shakhid Baysayev (1939-2000) was Chechen civilian who was forcibly disappeared (and presumably summarily executed) after being detained by Russian special police forces on the outskirts of Grozny, Chechnya in March 2000.

The period from the 1960s to the late 1980s was labelled as the "years of lead" and saw thousands of dissidents jailed, killed, exiled or forcibly disappeared.

He has criticized the lack of judicial independence and arbitrary procedures that have systematically resulted in violations of the right to fair trial, and described Syria's multi-layered security apparatus which continues to detain people without arrest warrants and frequently refuses to disclose their whereabouts for weeks and sometimes months - in effect forcibly disappearing them.

He is a writer and former forcibly disappeared.

The NCC spokesman Khalaf Dahowd described this detainment as "kidnapping", with the NCC executive further elaborating that they believed the three members to have been "forcibly disappeared" by the Syrian Air Force Intelligence Directorate.

In addition, Human Rights Watch reported that Ministry of Interior officials have arbitrarily arrested, beaten, tortured, and in a few cases, forcibly disappeared Palestinian refugees.

In front of the cathedral stand a series of 12 pillars, solemnly remembering the names of thousands of people forcibly disappeared or murdered during the counterinsurgency violence of Guatemala's internal armed conflict, which began in 1960 and lasted until the final peace accord was signed in 1996.

Harassment of dissidents was commonplace and several outspoken anti-government activists were jailed and tortured or forcibly disappeared by government forces or died mysteriously.

The group, Avaaz, claims 2,918 people have been "forcibly disappeared" since anti-government demonstrations began in Syria on 15 March.