The New Syrian Authority Must Give the Missing Persons Issue Top Priority and Focus on Meeting With Victims’ Families and Seriously Addressing Their Issues
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The Hague – The Syrian Network for Human Rights (SNHR) today released a statement calling on the new Syrian authorities to issue an official invitation to the International Commission on Missing Person (ICMP) to urgently begin operations in Syria, in addition to stressing the need to give the missing persons issue top priority in the next stage.
The statement underlines the vital importance of utilizing the ICMP’s extensive expertise in issues of discovering the fate of missing persons and dealing with the many issues around mass graves over the course of multiple complex conflicts, including Syria. The statement also stresses the importance of promoting ongoing cooperation with other international organizations in dealing with issues of missing persons, including the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC), the Independent International Commission of Inquiry on the Syrian Arab Republic (COI), and the UN Independent Institution on Missing Persons in the Syrian Arab Republic.
Enforced disappearance and its devastating effects
The statement also notes that the Assad regime used enforced disappearance as one of the many monstrous instruments of torture and oppression it employed against Syrian society, leaving devastating effects that are not limited to the victim, but also devastate the lives of the families and friends of forcibly disappeared persons, who will continue to endure constant agony as long as their loved ones are missing. Since its foundation in 2011, the Syrian Network for Human Rights (SNHR) has worked diligently to document arbitrary arrests, the majority of which are subsequently categorized as enforced disappearances.
Why it is important to cooperate with the ICMP
The statement highlights the instrumental role to be played by the ICMP in addressing the issue of missing persons in Syria in numerous fields, including:
- Effective documentation
The ICMP has extensive expertise in documenting missing persons’ data, using a rigorous working methodology, making it a reliable and credible source of information.
- Use of modern techniques: The ICMP relies on the latest cutting-edge technology, including DNA analysis, to identify victims and retrieve their remains, all in accordance with international standards.
- Enhance trust and national reconciliation
Collaboration with the ICMP helps build trust between the people and the new government through determining the fate of missing persons and providing answers to the families, which opens a window to national reconciliation and a reduction of social divisions.
- Improve international relations
Cooperation with the ICMP would demonstrate the new government’s commitment to upholding international human rights standards, which improves the chance of receiving support from donor states and international organizations.
Recommendations to the new Syrian government
- Invite the ICMP
Issue a formal invitation to the ICMP that determines the framework of cooperation to ensure the discovery of the fate of missing persons and handling the issue of mass graves.
- Protect crime sites
Take immediate measures to prevent any tampering with prisons and mass graves, ensuring the preservation of evidence and documents related to crimes of enforced disappearance.
- Ensure psychological and social support and counselling are provided to the families of the missing.
Offer sustainable psychological and social support to families of the missing in coordination with local and international organizations.
- Develop transitional justice strategies
Adopt comprehensive strategies, including holding those responsible for enforced disappearances and torture accountable, ensuring victims’ rights, providing fair compensation to their families, and rebuilding trust between the government and society.
- Coordinate international efforts
Work to enhance cooperation with the international community and relevant institutions to improve mechanisms for addressing the missing persons issue and support local efforts.
Recommendations to the ICMP
- Enhance cooperation with the future Syrian government
Provide technical and technological support to ensure the use of modern techniques in documenting cases of missing persons and identifying victims.
- Build local capacities
Organize training programs for local organizations to teach evidence collection methods and documentation of enforced disappearance cases in accordance with international standards.
- Include civil society
Strengthen collaboration with victims’ families and civil society organizations by involving them in documentation and search operations and supporting them in coping with any psychological and legal challenges.
- Advance international advocacy
Highlight the importance of the missing persons issue in Syria through coordination with international organizations and donor countries, supporting transitional justice efforts and national reconciliation.
- Utilize the expertise of human rights organizations
Establish partnerships with human rights organizations that possess extensive databases and documented expertise regarding violations, arbitrarily detained individuals, and forcibly disappeared persons.
Recommendations to the international community
- International cooperation
Support the ICMP’s efforts by providing the necessary resources and training local personnel to use modern technologies for identifying missing persons.
- Expand support for transitional justice
Provide the necessary backing to establish national institutions specializing in addressing missing persons cases and prosecuting those responsible for crimes and human rights violations.
- Promote national reconciliation
Support initiatives aimed at enhancing national reconciliation by offering psychological and social assistance to families of the missing and working to reduce societal divisions.
- Freeze and confiscate funds of the former regime
Work on freezing and confiscating funds held by Assad and his close associates, redirecting these to the new government to support transitional justice and reconciliation efforts.
- Bring the Assad family to justice
Pressure the Russian government to hand over Assad and his family to international courts, in order to hold them accountable for crimes committed during their rule, including enforced disappearances and torture.