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Syria: Enforced Disappearance of Activist from Homs since August 2012

On 28 July 2015, Alkarama and Human Rights Guardians sent a communication to the United Nations Working Group on Enforced Disappearances (WGEID) regarding the case of Hassan Saeed, an activist from Homs who disappeared following his arrest by members of the army and the Military Intelligence in August 2012.

On 29 August 2012, 30-year-old Hassan was arrested by members of the army and the Military Intelligence at a checkpoint in the district of Al Inshaat in Homs, the Al Nakhla roundabout in Brazil Street. Hassan had been participating to peaceful protests in his city since the outset of the Syrian revolution in 2011, and had once been shot by a sniper and briefly arrested for his involvement in the demonstrations that same year. It is only in 2012 that the security forces started to look for him. In June, the security officers raided his house but could not find him.

Since his arrest on 29 August, his relatives have not heard from him and, fearing for their security like in the majority of cases in instances of enforced disappearances in Syria, did not undertake any official step to locate him. Left with no other resort at the national level, they contacted Human Rights Guardians and Alkarama in the hope that they could help shed light on Hassan's fate and whereabouts. Alkarama and Human Rights Guardians in turn seized the UN Working Group on Enforced or Involuntary Disappearances (WGEID), calling upon it to ask the Syrian authorities to release him immediately or, at the very least, to put him under the protection of the law by disclosing his whereabouts and allowing his family to visit him without restriction.

"Most people who were demonstrating peacefully back in 2011 and 2012 have been arrested, detained and tortured for their involvement in the protests," says Inès Osman, Legal Officer for the Mashreq at Alkarama. "Not only the fate of those who were abducted by the security services and consequently disappeared has yet to be clarified, three to four years later, but it has also become more difficult for the families to take any step to find out what happened to their relative. Most have fled their home due to the conflict, while those remaining prefer to keep silent as they fear for their safety."

In view of the widespread and systematic practice of enforced disappearance in the country, Alkarama calls upon the Syrian authorities to put an end to it in accordance with their obligations under international law, including by:
• Opening investigations into all reported cases of disappearances;
• Prosecuting the perpetrators of these crimes; and
• Providing reparations to survivors and their families.

For more information or an interview, please contact the media team at media@alkarama.org (Dir: +41 22 734 1008).