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In Syria, people demanding freedom, justice and the release of prisoners face enforced disappearance and arbitrary detention. This must change! Read our joint statement at HRC54 below.
During HRC54, human rights defender Mahmoud Alhamwi delivered a statement on behalf of ISHR and the Truth and Justice Charter group urging States to support the funding for the new institution on the missing, particularly in relation to support for the families of the missing and/or disappeared. Read and watch the statement below:
I speak on behalf of the Truth and Justice Charter, the mothers and families of the disappeared in Syria, and the International Service for Human Rights. We thank the Independent International Commission of Inquiry (CoI) on the Syrian Arab Republic for its reports.
The CoI confirmed in its previous report that there was ‘no end in sight’, confirming ‘continuing widespread and systematic patterns of torture and ill-treatment, including enforced disappearances’.
We raise our deepest concern regarding the fate of the protesters in all the regions in Syria – those who are demanding freedom, justice and the release of all prisoners – that their fate will be the same as those who were forcibly disappeared and arbitrarily detained.
The Syrian regime did not stop the policies of enforced disappearances, arrest and torture in its prisons despite all its claims, and it has not taken any positive action with regards to this issue.
The Truth and Justice Charter called for the establishment of an independent institution to reveal the fate of the missing persons in Syria. Following the establishment of this mechanism, we reiterate the recommendation of the commission of inquiry to ‘support the funding for the new institution on the missing, particularly in relation to support for the families of the missing and/or disappeared’.
We urge States to support the institution politically and financially, and to ensure the mechanism is able to conduct its work to attain its objectives.
We thank you for your support to this humanitarian cause.
On 4 April 2025, the UN Human Rights Council adopted by consensus a substantive resolution to enhance the protection of human rights defenders in the face of the specific challenges posed by new and emerging technologies.
The UN Human Rights Council has extended the mandate of the Group of Human Rights Experts on Nicaragua for two years, doing so with a larger majority compared to the body’s 2023 renewal, and including a reporting mechanism to the UN General Assembly in New York.
In collaboration with ISHR, the Coalition ivoirienne des défenseurs des droits humains (CIDDH) delivered an oral statement before the Human Rights Council (HRC) on the situation of human rights defenders in Côte d’Ivoire during the session on the adoption of the country’s Universal Periodic Review (UPR) report. The statement called for, among other things, the inclusion of human rights defenders in the country’s national human rights defenders protection mechanism.
