Introduction

More than a decade into the Syrian conflict, millions of Syrians are looking for their missing loved ones and seeking information on their fate and whereabouts. In December 2021, the UN General Assembly adopted resolution 76/228, in which it requested the Secretary-General to produce a study on how to bolster efforts, including through existing measures and mechanisms, to clarify the fate and whereabouts of missing people, identify human remains and provide support to their families. The General Assembly specifically requested that the study be based on the recommendations of the Independent International Commission of Inquiry on the Syrian Arab Republic (hereinafter the Commission). In this paper, the Commission sets out some of its views on ways to address this issue, in line with its prior recommendations and the wishes of family members, victims, and survivors of the Syrian conflict.

As the Commission’s 2021 special report on detention (A/HRC/46/55) sets out, the fate of tens of thousands of Syrian victims subjected to enforced disappearance by Government forces and by other armed actors, remains largely unknown. On the cusp of the twelfth year of the conflict, the Government, Hay’at Tahrir al-Sham, the Syrian Democratic Forces and the Syrian National Army continue to hold thousands of detainees incommunicado and in appalling detention conditions. To be detained in Syria is to be missing. Those who have survived detention describe executions and deaths from neglect and appalling prison conditions, suggesting that those still in incommunicado custody may slowly die unless released expeditiously.

The evidence shows that the Government is aware of and meticulously registers information about those it has detained. However, rather than investigate the crimes committed in its detention facilities, it continues to withhold information from family members, as do other parties to the conflict. In doing so, they are intentionally prolonging the suffering of hundreds of thousands of family members – and leaving pressing legal issues related to civil status and property rights unresolved, with severe consequences for families’, not least women-headed households’, ability to deal with fundamental aspects of their daily lives and to fully enjoy their human rights. Enforced disappearances represent a national trauma that will affect Syrian society for decades to come.

In addition, thousands of others are missing for reasons other than incommunicado detention. In relation to those who went missing or are presumed dead as a consequence of conduct of hostilities, the sheer scale of damage and destruction, together with the massive displacement that has taken place on the ground, greatly complicates the ability of families to locate their missing relatives. The multitude of actors involved in the conflict – and their shifting lines of territorial control since 2011 – raise further difficulties, as set out in the Commission’s recent retrospective report (A/HRC/46/54). The complex transnational nature of the issue of the missing and disappeared is also apparent in the context of Yezidis missing as a result of genocide, most of whom were originally from Iraq but were last heard of in Syria. Adding another transnational layer of complexity, ten years of conflict has resulted in millions of Syrian seeking refuge outside the country, with many dying or going missing en route. Families of missing and disappeared persons, as well as survivors, are largely concentrated in neighbouring countries but form part of a now global refugee and diaspora community.

Source: UN Human Rights Council