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On 12 May 2026, Alkarama submitted to the United Nations Working Group on Enforced or Involuntary Disappearances (WGEID) the cases of three Syrian brothers, Fouad Ahmed Doum, Maher Ahmed Doum and Reda Ahmed Doum, who were arbitrarily arrested and subsequently disappeared in Homs in September 2011. 

The Unknown Fate of the DOUM Brothers 

Alkarama has learned that the Syrian authorities have managed to bring back the young Syrian Azmi Derri Mohamed Al Haddar to his country after 18 years of arbitrary detention and hardship in Iraqi prisons, linked to allegations of illegal border crossing and involvement with an armed group, for which he had been sentenced to 15 years in prison. 

The fate of Emirati activist Jassem bin Rashid Al-Shamsi remains unknown following his arrest in Syria on Thursday, November 6, 2025, at a checkpoint in the capital, Damascus. He was reportedly taken to a security facility without a judicial warrant or clear charges, and all contact with him has since been severed. 

Syria
Our concerns
  • Serious violations of international humanitarian law and human rights law and devastating effects of the armed conflict on the civilian population;
  • Systematic and widespread practice of enforced disappearances and extrajudicial executions in detention;
  • Impunity of perpetrators of war crimes and crimes against humanity;
  • Arbitrary detention in inhuman conditions of tens of thousands of civilians in camps, including families of former ISIL combatants.

 

Human Rights Instruments
International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR)
ICCPR Ratified ?
ICCPR Ratification Date
Individual Complaint procedure with the Human Rights committee (ICCPR Optional protocol 1) Ratified ?
Second Optional Protocol of ICCPR (abolition of death penalty) ratified ?
Date last Concluding Observations by Human Rights Committee
Next Human Rights Committee State Report due
OVERDUE - State party did not submit report on time
Convention against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment (UNCAT)
UNCAT Ratified ?
UNCAT Ratification Date
OPCAT (National Preventive Mechanism) Ratified ?
National Preventive Mechanism (OPCAT) created ?
UNCAT Art 20 (confidential inquiries) ratified ?
UNCAT Art 22 (Individual Complaint procedure) Ratified ?
Date of last Concluding Observations by Committee against Torture (CAT)
Next CAT State Report Due
OVERDUE - State party did not submit report on time
International Convention for the Protection of All Persons from Enforced Disappearance (ICPPED)
ICPPED Ratified ?
Human Rights Council
Date last Universal Period Review (UPR)
UPR Next Review