Justice Must be Secured for Hundreds of Thousands of Victims and Survivors of the Assad Regime
Marking Human Rights Day
The Hague, 10 December 2024 – Events now unfolding in Syria have renewed hope among the families of an estimated 150,000 people who are missing as a result of the conflict. Some families have already experienced the joy and relief of being reunited with relatives who have been held in incommunicado detention. In the coming days, we hope that more prisoners will be released and reunited with families and that over the longer term their rights to justice and truth will be secured.
On Friday, as news came from Syria hour by hour, the International Commission on Missing Persons (ICMP) held a conference in The Hague that brought together representatives of CSOs and International Organizations working on the issue of missing Syrians. One of the participants, Batoul Karbijha, the co-founder of the Families of Missing Asylum Seekers association, spoke eloquently about the need for victims of disappearance and the families of victims to tell their own story. She stressed that the narrative of what has happened to tens of thousands of Syrian families should not be dictated by others.
In many cases, this is a narrative of resilience and courage in the face of unimaginable odds.
Karbijha established the association of missing asylums seekers after the disappearance of her sister Maysoon, who went missing – at the age of just 20 – in August 2014 while attempting to cross the Mediterranean from Libya to Italy. She was among 170 Syrians who disappeared in the same incident and whose fate remains unknown.
Karbijha pointed out that organizations have been collecting data on missing Syrians for years but that these efforts will not bear fruit without a clear and agreed strategy among different Syrian and international agencies. “When we talk about migration, we know where mass graves are; we have data from the families but we are not connecting the data.”
It is imperative in the light of what has now taken place in Syria, that all stakeholders cooperate. This cooperation will make it possible to set in place an effective missing persons process capable of addressing the huge number of cases related to Syria. Such a process will make use of genetic science and database technology hopefully within a new Syrian legislative and institutional framework. It will have the support of authorities inside and outside Syria and it will sustain momentum through the direct engagement of families of the missing.
For justice to prevail in Syria, steps must be taken now – in the midst of present events – to protect evidence that will shed light on the circumstances in which people were detained, the charges or the absence of charges that were brought against detainees, the conditions of detention and – in cases where detainees have not survived – the circumstances of death. Places where executions and other human rights violations have occurred are crime scenes. They must be sealed and in due course examined, to protect the truth and bring those responsible for crimes to justice.
Today – International Human Rights Day – there is a window of opportunity to take a giant step forward in accounting for Syria’s missing, including those who have disappeared in the mass displacement, at home and abroad, caused by the conflict.
Working with Syrian families of the missing and Syrian civil society organizations, ICMP has collected data from more than 76,200 relatives from Syria who have reported more than 28,200 missing persons. ICMP has also received reports concerning the location of 66 sites of mass graves in addition to two detention sites, through ICMP’s Online Inquiry Center (OIC) Site Locator and encourages those with information to use these resources to help find the missing.
ICMP looks forward to enhancing its cooperation with the UN Independent Institution on Missing Persons in Syria as it becomes fully operational. And, in the light of what has happened in recent days, ICMP looks forward to working with all stakeholders in Syria to ensure that the present opportunity to bring truth and justice to victims of enforced disappearance and their families is not missed.
On International Human Rights Day it is important to underline the fact that effective action can be taken quickly. Batoul Karbijha has spent years working with various organizations, investigating her sister’s disappearance. She and tens of thousands of Syrians have sought the truth – it is incumbent on all of us to work constructively and cooperatively to help them uncover that truth and to help them secure justice.
