“Eleven months after the fall of the former Syrian government, we continue to receive disturbing reports of dozens of kidnappings and enforced disappearances», Spokesperson Thameen Al-Keetan said during a press briefing in Geneva.
Syria is undergoing a political transition following the overthrow of the Assad regime in December 2024 and 13 years of brutal civil war.
Families in distress
In response to a reporter’s question, Mr. Al-Kateen said OHCHR had managed to document at least 97 people who have been kidnapped since the start of the year.
Added to this are the more than 100,000 people who went missing during Assad’s father-son regime, which lasted around five decades.
While some families have reunited with their loved ones, “many still live in the distress of not knowing where they are or what happened to them“, he said.
He stressed that “the fate and whereabouts of all those missing, before and after the fall of the former government, must be urgently clarified.”
In this regard, he underlined the support of OHCHR for the work of the the Independent Institution on Missing Persons in the Syrian Arab Republic (IIMP).
Karla Quintana, who heads the UN body, recently said that “everyone in Syria knows someone who has disappeared.”
Aid worker missing
Mr. Al-Keetan highlighted the case of Hamza Al-Amarin, a volunteer with the Syrian Civil Defense, commonly known as the White Helmets.
He disappeared on July 16 this year while supporting a humanitarian evacuation mission during the violence in Suweida, located in the south, and remains missing.
“We emphasize that all armed actors – whether or not they exercise state power – must respect and protect humanitarian workers at all times and in all places, as required by international human rights law and applicable humanitarian law,” the spokesperson said.
“Accountability and justice for all human rights violations and abuses, past and present, are essential for Syria to build a sustainable, peaceful and secure future for all its people. »
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