The Syrian Observatory For Human Rights

International Day of the Victims of Enforced Disappearances | SOHR renews appeals to disclose the fate of thousands of detainees and forcibly disappeared people

On August 30 every year, the world commemorates the “Day of the Victims of Enforced Disappearances”, at a time when tens of thousands of people have been forcibly disappeared or missing in Syria just for calling for freedom, justice and dignity.

 

All through the past years, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights monitored and tracked the issue of the forcibly disappeared people in Syria, relying on very reliable reports and information. SOHR has documented tens of thousands of enforced disappearances in regime prisons, as these people, including Khalil Ma’touq, Abdulaziz al-Khair, Faten Rajab, Hussein Iso, tens of intellectuals and defenders of freedom of opinion, have been detained for “opposing the Syrian regime and calling for freedom and justice”.

 

Moreover, thousands of people abducted by ISIS, and their fate remains unknown, including Father Paolo Daololio, Bishops John Ibrahim and Paul Yazji, Abdullah Al Khalil, a British journalist, Sky News journalist, other journalists, and hundreds of abductees from Ain Al Arab (Kobani), Afrin, and Deir Ezzor.

 

The Syrian Observatory also documented hundreds of people held in the prisons of Hayyaat Tahrir Al-Sham, Turkish-backed factions and Syria Democratic Forces.

 

We, at the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, renew our appeals and calls to the international community, international courts and all relevant actors to spare no effort to disclose the fate of tens of thousands of forcibly disappeared people and announce the results to the Syrian, regional and international general opinion, and most importantly to their grieving families.

 

We also call upon the international courts to put prioritise bringing all criminals, perpetrators and all those who aided and abated such heinous crimes to involved in the disappearance and killing of thousands to justice so that they can be held accountable for their crimes against the Syrian people.