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The Syrian Network for Human Rights (SNHR) has briefed the UN Working Group on Enforced or Involuntary Disappearances on the case of siblings Mahmoud Abdul Hamid Rez, born in 1994, who was a ninth-grade school student at the time of his arrest, and Yousef, born in 1984, who was a blacksmith at the time of his arrest. Mahmoud and Yousef, both from Aleppo city, who were living in al Sha’ar neighborhood in Aleppo city at the time of their arrest, were arrested by Assad regime forces on Saturday, April 28, 2013, while they were passing through one of the Assad regime’s checkpoints in New Aleppo neighborhood in Aleppo city. They were taken to an undisclosed location. They have been forcibly disappeared since that date. Their fate remains unknown to SNHR, as well as to their family.
SNHR has also briefed the UN Special Rapporteur on torture and other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment, and the Special Rapporteur on the promotion and protection of human rights and fundamental freedoms while countering terrorism, as well as briefing the UN Special Rapporteur on the right of everyone to the enjoyment of the highest attainable standard of physical and mental health, specifically in regard to Mahmoud and Yousef’s case.
The Assad regime has consistently denied its enforced disappearance of Mahmoud and Yousef Rez. As such, neither SNHR nor their family have been able to determine their fates.
SNHR must stress the paramount importance of addressing the issue of enforced disappearance in Syria. Crimes of enforced disappearance constitute a violation of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR) and the Arab Charter on Human Rights, both of which have been ratified by Syria. These crimes are also not subject to the statute of limitation.
