2023-06-29 20:27:09
The United Nations General Assembly agreed, in a vote Thursday, to establish an institution that is the first of its kind to work on revealing the fate of an estimated 100,000 people missing or forcibly disappeared during the civil war in Syria.
The resolution adopted by the General Assembly by 83 votes out of 193 countries, 11 against and 62 abstentions, states that “after 12 years of conflict and violence” in Syria, “no progress has been made to alleviate the suffering of the families” of the missing.
This vote comes as a result of intense pressure exerted by the families of the missing, as well as groups and organizations to open this file and reveal the fate of the missing and forcibly disappeared in Syria, since 2011.
Before the vote, Amnesty International Secretary General Agnès Callamard said that UN member states can provide a way to realize families’ right to the truth by creating a victim-focused foundation dedicated to providing them with long-awaited answers about what happened to their loved ones.
It called on UN member states to heed the calls of Syrian families and survivors who have been at the forefront of efforts to establish such a body and vote in favor of the resolution, according to a statement by Amnesty International.
For more than a decade, families of the missing and forcibly disappeared have faced enormous challenges in obtaining any information about the fate of their loved ones, and not all parties to the conflict have been willing to address the issue, leaving relatives in a state of suffering and permanent uncertainty, according to Amnesty International.
By creating a foundation focused on this very issue, the UN can help them find some of the answers they deserve, as at least 100,000 people are believed to have gone missing or forcibly disappeared in Syria since 2011, at the hands of the regime’s security services. Primarily Syrian.
The true number of people missing or disappeared is likely to be higher because the parties to the conflict have never disclosed who is in their custody, Amnesty International said.
This institution will provide a single means for recording cases, consolidating available information and coordinating with other existing mechanisms to address this problem.
Therefore, Member States decided to establish, “under the auspices of the United Nations, the Independent Institution for Missing Persons in the Syrian Arab Republic, to clarify the fate and whereabouts of all missing persons” in Syria.
The text does not specify the working modalities of this institution, whose “framework of reference” will have to be developed by the UN Secretary-General within 80 days in cooperation with the High Commissioner for Human Rights.
But he points out that it will have to ensure “the full participation and representation of victims, survivors and families of missing persons” and be guided by a victim-centered approach.
The General Assembly also calls on states and “all parties to the conflict” in Syria to “cooperate fully” with the new institution.
However, Syria, as well as Russia and China, expressed their explicit opposition, stressing that they were not consulted about the decision.
Syria’s ambassador, Bassam Sabbagh, considered that the decision reflects “flagrant interference” in the country’s internal affairs, referring in particular to the United States.
The vote on the resolution followed a report by the Secretary-General, António Guterres, in August, in which he recommended the establishment of this body.
The report stresses that “the families are conducting the searches themselves at the present time, which exacerbates their trauma and puts them at risk.”
“As one person representing a family association said, ‘Just imagine having to watch leaked videos of massacres over and over (on social media) to see if your loved ones are among the decapitated and mutilated corpses, and desperately do your own research’.”
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