At the end of June, the UN General Assembly will be called to vote on a resolution to establish an independent institution to clarify the fate and whereabouts of missing people in the Syrian Arab Republic, a milestone in the international community’s response to the Syrian conflict.
Since 2011, more than 100,000 individuals have gone missing or been forcibly disappeared by Syrian authorities and other parties to the conflict, including armed groups such as ISIL. In 2021, Syrian families and survivors called for the creation of a new independent, humanitarian institution that will focus on victims’ inalienable right to know the truth about their loved ones.
The call to establish such a new institution is supported by the UN Secretary-General, the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, the Working Group on Enforced Disappearances, and the International Committee of the Red Cross.
The independent institution will be the first-ever response to the Syrian conflict to be entirely imagined and developed by Syrian victims and survivors of enforced disappearance and families of missing persons. The efforts made by Syrian families need the broadest and strongest support possible.
We, therefore, call on UN member states to support the families’ right to truth by voting in favor of the resolution. Voting for the resolution will constitute a major step towards bringing long-awaited answers to thousands of families who have been suffering loss and uncertainty.
Progress on this issue is fundamental to families, communities and society as a whole. The international community must extend a hand of practical support and assistance to families and victims in need. The people of Syria deserve no less.
Signatories
- Association of Detainees and Missing Persons in Sednaya Prison
- Caesar Families Association
- Coalition of Families of Persons Kidnapped by ISIS (Massar)
- Families for Freedom
- Ta’afi Initiative
- General Union of Internees and Detainees
- Release Me
- Hevdesti-Synergy Association for Victims
- Adra Detainees Association
- Families of Truth and Justice
- Afrin Platform
- Afro-Middle East Centre
- Ali Mourad (Academic & Legal Researcher)
- Amnesty International
- Anti-Discrimination Centre Memorial Brussels
- Austausch – For a European Civil Society, Berlin
- Avaaz
- Association de Parents et Amis de Disparus au Maroc
- Building Blocks for Peace Foundation
- Budapest Centre for Dialogue and Mass Atrocities Prevention
- Cairo Institute for Human Rights Studies (CIHRS)
- Cameroon O’Bosso
- CCFD-Terre Solidaire
- Center for Civilians in Conflict
- Center for Victims of Torture
- Centro de Estudios Legales y Sociales (CELS)
- Child Rights International Network (CRIN)
- Civic Assistance Committee
- Collectif des Familles de Disparu.e.s en Algérie (CFDA)
- Committee of the Families of the Kidnapped and Disappeared in Lebanon (CFKDL)
- Consortium on Gender, Security and Human Rights
- Dawlaty
- Democracia Global
- Denis Hurley Peace Institute
- Donde Estan?-Où sont-ils? France
- Dozana
- Egyptian Commission for Rights and Freedoms
- Euro-mediterranean federation against enforced disappearances
- FIDH – International Federation for Human Rights
- Finjan
- Global Centre for the Responsibility to Protect
- Global Justice Center
- Global Network of Women Peacebuilders (GNWP)
- HAKI Africa
- Heinrich-Böll-Stiftung
- Human Rights Center “Viasna”
- Human Rights Solidarity Organisation
- Human Rights Watch
- Hurras Network
- Impunity Watch
- Independent human rights and media project OVD-Info
- International Alert
- Institute for Genocide and Mass Atrocity Prevention
- International Center for Transitional Justice
- International Partnership for Human Rights (IPHR)
- International Service for Human Rights (ISHR)
- Jacob Blaustein Institute for the Advancement of Human Rights
- Justice and rehabilitation
- Justice for life
- Kharkiv Human Rights Protection Group
- Khulumani Support Group
- Khwendo jirga
- Legal Action Worldwide
- Lelun Association for Victims
- Mazdoor Kisan Shakti Sangathan
- Middle East and North Africa Partnership for the Prevention of Armed Conflict (MENAPPAC)
- Montreal Institute for Genocide and Human Right Studies
- Movement for Democracy, Development and Transparency Cameroon
- Network of independent Commission for Human rights in North Africa.
- Nobel Women’s Initiative
- PAX for Peace
- Peace Direct
- Permanent Peace Movement
- Ras-ALAIN platform
- Russi contro la guerra
- Salam For Yemen
- Solidarity 2020 and Beyond
- Stand with Syria Japan (SSJ)
- Syrian American Medical Society (SAMS)
- Syrian Lawyers Aggregation
- Syrians for Truth and Justice (STJ)
- Syrian Memory Institution (SMI)
- Syrian Network for Human Rights (SNHR)
- Syrian Welsh Society
- TERRE ET LIBERTE POUR ARAUCO
- The association Syrian Sweden
- The Syrian Swedish Democratic Network (SSDF)
- The Day After
- The Syria Campaign
- The Syrian Center for Media and Freedom of Expression (SCM)
- The Syrian Legal Development Programme (SLDP)
- Truth Hounds
- VDSH
- VSI Action4life
- WANEP NIGER
- Wheat Olive Platform
- WILDAF
- Women’s International League for Peace and Freedom (WILPF)
- Women Now for Development
- Women’s Refugee Commission
- World Uyghur Congress
- World Federalist Movement – Canada
- YouthHubAfrica