Articles for Syria

On 13 November 2014, Alkarama solicited the intervention of United Nations Special Rapporteur on the Situation of Human Rights Defenders, Michel Forst with the Syrian authorities to ensure the immediate release of two Syrian human rights defenders, Jadia Abdallah Nawfal and Omar Al Shaar, who went missing after their arrest at the Syrian Lebanese border on 31 October.

On 31 October 2014, Alkarama sent a communication to the United Nations Working Group on Enforced and Involuntary Disappearances (WGEID) concerning the case of four persons disappeared since their arrest by the Syrian Military Intelligence on 24 November 2012.

On 28 October 2014, Alkarama sent a communication to the United Nations Working Group on Enforced and Involuntary Disappearances (WGEID) to raise the case of Qamar Awad, disappeared since her arrest by a patrol of the Syrian Air Intelligence Forces on 2 October 2012.

On 29 September 2014, Alkarama and Human Rights Guardians wrote to the Working Group on Enforced Disappearances to alert them on the case of Ahmed Shaar, a 62 year-old Syrian shopkeeper from the port of Latakia, disappeared over a year ago after being abducted by pro-government militia, and asking the Working Group to urgently intervene with the Syrian authorities so they release him or put him under the protection of the law.

Any further intervention in the Middle East must include plans to address the suffering of Syrian civilians, said today a global coalition of over 40 leading human rights and humanitarian organizations, including Alkarama.

Alkarama, in collaboration with Human Rights Guardians, referred eight cases of enforced disappearance to the Working Group on Enforced or Involuntary Disappearances – Mssrs Khaled Awda, Abdul Rahman Al Hamraoui, Mohammed Noor Zada, Deibo Al Khalif, Jamil Al Najjar, Mohamed Rami Ramla, Mr Sabaie Sharkeyia and his brother Mr Alaa Sharkeyia. They all disappeared after being arrested by the State forces in Homs, Aleppo and Damascus, between September 2012 and July 2013.

Alkarama has sent an urgent appeal to the United Nations Working Group on Enforced Disappearance regarding the case of human rights defender, Faten Rajab Fawaz, arrested by a Syrian Air Force Patrol on 26 December 2011. Recently transferred to an unknown location, Fawaz, who has reportedly been severely tortured in detention has not been seen since mid-July 2014.

Alkarama has referred the case of a Syrian citizen, Azad Abdo, to the UN Commission of Inquiry on the Syrian Arab Republic, regarding Abdo's secret detention by the Islamic State in Iraq and al Sham (ISIS) since his abduction in November 2013.

Abducted by Syrian army officers at a military checkpoint on 3 September 2012, Mohammed Hayel Bakour and Yassin Ammouna have disappeared for almost two years. Despite various actions taken by their families to locate them, they are yet to receive information from the Syrian authorities.

Alkarama referred to the UN Working Group on Enforced Disappearances the case of Anas Al Kayal, aged 32, arrested by soldiers in August 2013 and whose family remains unaware of his fate to date.

Arrest and enforced disappearance of Anas
On 4 August 2013, Anas was returning home, in Aleppo where he works as an electrical engineer after visiting his sister in Gaziantep, Turkey.