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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 the student, Maher Muhammad Beilouna, born in 1994, who was a high school student at the time of his arrest. Maher, from the Qnainis neighborhood in Latakia city, was arrested by Assad regime forces in May 2012 in Qnainis neighborhood. His mother was able to visit him for the first and last time in 2014 in Seydnaya Military Prison in Rural Damascus governorate. He has been forcibly disappeared since that date. His fate remains unknown to SNHR, as well as to his 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 the case of the student, Maher Muhammad Beilouna.
The Assad regime has consistently denied its enforced disappearance of student Maher Mohammad Beilouna. As such, neither SNHR nor his family have been able to determine his fate.
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.