QAMISHLI, Syria (North Press) – The UN General Assembly voted on Thursday, June 29, to establish an independent body to determine the fate of Syria’s disappeared.
The resolution, spearheaded by the government of Luxembourg, was adopted by 83 votes in favor, 62 abstentions and 11 opposed, including Russia, China, Iran, and Syria.
The resolution authorizes the establishment of an Independent Institution of Missing Persons in Syria, under UN auspices, “to clarify the fate and whereabouts of all missing persons … and to provide adequate support to victims, survivors and the families of those missing.”
Syria has among the highest global figures of forcefully disappeared, with estimates ranging between 100,000-130,000. Many of these disappearances have been connected to the ongoing war. However, several actors – above all Syria’s government – have been accused of employing forceful disappearance as a political tool. In its assessment on Thursday, the UN made clear that mass disappearances were “already an issue before 2011” and not merely a consequence of war.
The UN’s attempt to establish a body to investigate the fate of Syria’s disappeared is nearly as old as the country’s 12-year conflict. In August 2011, the UN Human Rights Council established the Independent International Commission of Inquiry on Syria in order “to establish the facts and circumstances that may amount to … violations and of the crimes perpetrated and, where possible, to identify those responsible with a view of ensuring that perpetrators of violations, including those that may constitute crimes against humanity, are held accountable.”
In its first report, the Commission of Inquiry called for the “creation of a national mechanism to investigate cases of disappearances by allowing relatives of disappeared persons to report the details of their cases, and to ensure appropriate investigation.” Since 2016, the same body has recommended this mechanism take on an international character, given the Syrian government’s inaction.
In 2021, an alliance of victims and victims’ families, supported by Syrian activists and human rights groups, released the Truth and Justice Charter that put forward a new mechanism. These calls grew into the presently adopted independent body.
Reactions
International human rights groups have welcomed the move, but warned that the fact-finding body will need teeth to properly investigate any crimes committed. “UN member countries should ensure that this new institution has the staff and resources necessary to determine what happened to so many thousands of people who vanished during Syria’s 12 years of conflict,” Louis Charbonneau, the UN Director for Human Rights Watch, said in a statement. “The people of Syria deserve no less,” he added.
Notable among the member state vote was the near unanimous abstention of Arab-majority nations. Merely Qatar and Kuwait, who have remained antagonistic towards Damascus, favored the motion. In recent months, Middle Eastern governments, like Saudi Arabia, the UAE and Jordan, have welcomed Syrian President Bashar al-Assad back into the fold of regional politics. On the other hand, Turkey, which has been pushing for cooperation with Damascus against Syria’s Kurds, voted in favor.
Syria’s ambassador to the UN, Bassam Sabbagh, called the resolution “politicized” and a “flagrant interference in our internal affairs.” It also “provides new evidence of the hostile approach being pursued by certain Western States against Syria,” he added.
The Syrian representative further rejected the “bizarre mysterious mechanism with no precise definition of the concept of missing persons, a mechanism that is not time limited or geographically bound” and warned it could be used to target UN member states, particularly developing countries.
What it will look like
Though clearly biased, Sabbagh’s remarks do not miss the mark completely. The resolution which established the fact-finding body says it will “clarify the fate and whereabouts of all missing persons in the Syrian Arab Republic and to provide adequate support to victims, survivors and the families of those missing, in close cooperation and complementarity with all relevant actors,” as well as to provide aid to those affected through a “victim- and survivor-centred approach.”
According to previous resolutions, on which Thursday’s is based, the time frame for disappearances begins with the outbreak of Syria’s civil war, in March 2011, though it does not offer an end date.
The UN offers a definition of “missing people in the Syrian Arab Republic” that includes “all persons whose fate or whereabouts have become unknown for various reasons and causes ‘as a result of the situation in the Syrian Arab Republic’, whether there is a link or not to the armed conflict.” The resolution makes special mention of “individuals arbitrarily held in and forcibly disappeared from official and makeshift detention facilities run by Government and pro-Government forces across the Syrian Arab Republic,” as well as non-state groups and people who disappeared in “other contexts, such as displacement and the conduct of military operations.”
Notably, the resolution makes clear that it applies to non-Syrians who disappeared while in Syria, as well “Syrians who fled the conflict and violence at home and went missing after crossing an international border.”
The newly-established body faces a mammoth task of investigating crimes that span a decade, include thousands of Syrians who disappeared into secret prisons or unmarked graves, and potentially involve fact-finding missions in any number of countries where Syrian refugees may have fled to. It will have to be conducted even as some of the worst perpetrators – such as Syria’s government or extremist groups in northwest Syria – are still in power.
Such an endeavor will need to be properly funded and outfitted if it is to have any effect at all. Even if it succeeds, by its own mission statement, it will only be able to establish the fate of the disappeared. Holding the perpetrators accountable is a task onto itself.