“Law for Life – No to Enforced Disappearance” Campaign in Syria

Amal Center for Advocacy and Healing launched a focused awareness campaign to highlight the crime of enforced disappearance as a systematic violation affecting individuals, families, and society as a whole. The campaign is based on three main messages: defining the crime and its actors, showing its direct impact on children, and affirming that justice does not expire with time unless the truth is revealed and perpetrators are held accountable.

What is the crime of enforced disappearance?

• A person is deprived of their freedom through arrest, detention, or abduction..
• The state refuses to acknowledge what happened, or hides the person’s fate and whereabouts.
• The result: the victim enters a state of enforced absence outside any legal protection.

International conventions oblige states to investigate crimes of enforced disappearance and punish perpetrators, whether the acts were carried out with official approval or not. The responsibility to uncover the fate, guarantee reparation, compensation, and rehabilitation remains at the core of the state’s duties.

Impact of enforced disappearance on children

The effects of disappearance do not stop at the moment of absence. Children are deeply affected psychologically, socially, and educationally, and they need a protection umbrella and multidisciplinary services. Estimates indicate that thousands of children have been directly affected by the disappearance of one parent since 2011.

• Fear and anxiety disorders, stuttering or difficulties in speech and learning.
• Dropping out of school or major decline in achievement.
• Loss of the breadwinner, resulting in economic pressure on the family.
• Identity and documentation problems due to absence of legal proof.
• Increased risks of exploitation and trafficking in the absence of protection.

What do children need? A safe environment, specialized psychosocial support, legal assistance to protect rights and documents, and educational and material support to prevent dropouts and reduce gaps.

A continuing crime… and justice does not expire

Enforced disappearance is an ongoing crime as long as the fate and whereabouts remain unknown. Time does not erase rights, and dignity does not expire. The search for truth, accountability, and reparation are inalienable rights. Every day of delay is an additional violation of the rights of families and victims.

• Affirming families’ right to know and to full access to the truth.
• Prosecuting perpetrators through available criminal, civil, and administrative avenues.
• Integrating the file of the missing into any transitional justice process and compensation programs.

Our Call

Amal Center calls for the establishment of independent and professional national mechanisms to uncover the fate of the missing, ensure families’ participation in designing related policies, provide protection services and legal, psychological, and social support, and full commitment to international standards to combat enforced disappearance.