Articles for Syria

(L-R) Mohamad Tabanja, Ahmad Haj-Bakri, Ahmad Zanbelkji

On February 16, 2018, Alkarama and Human Rights Guardians submitted four more cases of individuals who disappeared following their arrests at checkpoints in Syria to the United Nations Working Group on Enforced or Involuntary Disappearances (WGEID).

On October 18, 2017, Alkarama and Urnammu for Justice and Human Rights sent an urgent appeal to the Working Group on Enforced or Involuntary Disappearances (WGEID) regarding the case of Ruba Bakkar and her two young children, all of whom remain missing following their arrests by Syrian government forces in 2013.

On October 13, 2017, Alkarama and Urnammu for Justice and Human Rights Foundation sent an urgent appeal to the Working Group on Enforced or Involuntary Disappearances (WGEID) regarding the case of Salma Abdul Razzaq, a 27-year-old Palestinian student who has been missing since her arrest near Yarmouk refugee camp on December 30, 2012.

On September 15, 2017, Alkarama submitted two cases of disappearances in Syria to the United Nations Working Group on Enforced or Involuntary Disappearances (WGEID). Both Jamil Samin and Lama Basha were forcibly disappeared by pro-government forces between 2013 and 2014.

Syrian-American businessman Jamil Samin disappeared since 2013

On September 6, 2017, the UN Commission of Inquiry released its latest report addressing the major trends and patterns of international human rights and humanitarian law violations committed between March and July 2017.

On August 28 and 29, 2017, Alkarama wrote to the United Nations Working Group on Enforced Disappearances (WGEID ) regarding the cases of Yasin Issa and his son, Ahmad Issa, as well as Abdul Rahman Al Mushasha, all of whom remain missing since their abductions in Damascus and its surrounding area between 2013 and 2014. The Syrian authorities must provide information on these victims’ whereabouts or fates, or at the least, put them under the protection of the law.

Freedom of expression activist Bassel Khartabil was executed soon after his disappearance from Damascus’ Adra prison on October 3, 2015, his widow has confirmed.

Jamil Al Nimr, former head of the General Intelligence in Jisr Al Shughur, Idlib governorate, was detained in Sednaya Military Prison since his arrest in June 2011 for having disobeyed orders to fire live bullets on peaceful protesters. He suddenly disappeared in December 2012, after his wife’s last visit.

Since the beginning of the six-year long armed conflict, thousands people have become victims of enforced disappearances and security services have abducted many of them at checkpoints.

On 4 April 2017, more than 92 Syrian citizens, including women and children, were killed by sarin gas during a Syrian army airstrike on Khan Sheikhoun, north-western Idlib Governorate.