The Syrian Center for Media and Freedom of Expression (SCM) welcomed the UN Secretary-General’s affirmation, coinciding with the International Day of Victims of Enforced Disappearances, on the need to establish an independent international mechanism to uncover the fate of the forcibly disappeared in Syria.
The center pointed out that this came “in implementation of UN General Assembly Resolution 228/76, issued on November 17, 2021, which requested the Secretary-General of the United Nations to “prepare a study on how to strengthen efforts, including through existing measures and mechanisms.”
This aims “to clarify the fate and whereabouts of the missing persons in the Syrian Arab Republic, to identify human remains and to provide support to their families, with the full and meaningful participation of victims, survivors and their families”;
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The Center considered in a statement that the recommendation issued by the Secretary-General is a victory for the efforts of the survivor and the families of the victims, as well as Syrian human rights organizations. Lawyer Mazen Darwish stressed that “the recommendation of the Secretary-General to establish a special mechanism to reveal the fate of the missing in Syria, came as a culmination of the struggle of the families of the missing, victims and Syrian civil society, throughout the previous years. The international community should respond to this recommendation and take practical steps to establish the mechanism.”
The publication by the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) of a policy paper entitled “The Right to Know and the Issue of Missing Persons in the Syrian Arab Republic” aimed at clarifying the definition and scope of the right to know, under both international humanitarian law and international human rights law, and its relationship to violations and the families of missing persons as victims. It established their right to information on their missing persons, thus contributing to the international mechanism recommended by the Secretary-General.
This article was translated and edited by The Syrian Observer. The Syrian Observer has not verified the content of this story. Responsibility for the information and views set out in this article lies entirely with the author.
