“Eleven months after the autumn of the previous authorities in Syria, we proceed to obtain worrying experiences about dozens of abductions and enforced disappearances,” Spokesperson Thameen Al-Keetan mentioned at a press briefing in Geneva.
Syria is present process a political transition following the overthrow of the Assad regime in December 2024 and 13 years of brutal civil warfare.
Households in misery
In response to a journalist’s query, Mr. Al-Kateen mentioned OHCHR had managed to doc no less than 97 folks who’ve been kidnapped for the reason that starting of the yr.
This is along with the greater than 100,000 folks who went lacking through the father and son rule of the Assads, which lasted some 5 a long time.
Whereas some households have been reunited with their family members, “many nonetheless stay with the misery of not understanding the place they’re, or what occurred to them,” he mentioned.
He confused that “the destiny and whereabouts of all those that have gone lacking, each earlier than and after the autumn of the previous authorities, should urgently be clarified.”
On this regard, he underscored OHCHR’s assist for the work of the Impartial Establishment on Lacking Individuals within the Syrian Arab Republic (IIMP).
Karla Quintana, who leads the UN physique, lately mentioned that “everybody in Syria is aware of somebody who has gone lacking.”
Lacking assist employee
Mr. Al-Keetan highlighted the case of Hamza Al-Amarin, a volunteer with the Syria Civil Protection, generally often called the White Helmets.
He went lacking on 16 July of this yr whereas supporting a humanitarian evacuation mission throughout violence in Suweida, situated in the south, and stays unaccounted for.
“We stress that each one armed actors – each exercising State energy and in any other case – should respect and shield humanitarian employees always, in every single place, as required by worldwide human rights legislation and relevant humanitarian legislation,” the Spokesperson mentioned.
“Accountability and justice for all human rights violations and abuses, previous and current, are important for Syria to construct a sturdy, peaceable and safe future for all its folks.”
