SNHR has briefed the UN Working Group on Enforced or Involuntary Disappearances on the case of the citizen, Hussam Ramadan, from Tadmur city in the east of Homs governorate, who was aged 24 at the time of his arrest. SNHR urged the UN body to demand that the Syrian authorities release him immediately. Mr. Ramadan was arrested arbitrarily on April 27, 2015 in a raid on his place of residence in al Jam’iah al Gharbiah neighborhood in Tadmur city by gunmen from the Syrian Regime’s Military Security forces. His fate remains unknown to SNHR as well as his family.
The Syrian authorities have denied any connection with the disappearance of Hussam Ramadan. SNHR has been unable to determine his fate, as have his family members, who fear that they may be arrested and tortured themselves if they continue to ask about his whereabouts and fate, as has happened in numerous previous cases.
SNHR has called on the United Nations Committee on Enforced Disappearance to intervene and to demand that the Syrian authorities release Mr. Ramadan immediately, as well as to expedite investigations into the fate of thousands of other forcibly disappeared citizens whose whereabouts and current conditions must also be revealed.
And despite the fact that the Syrian government is not a party of the International Convention for the Protection of All Persons from Enforced Disappearances, but in contrast Party on Civil and Political Rights, the International Covenant, and the Arab Charter on Human Rights, which enforced disappearances violates both provisions.