Families in Iraq, Lebanon, Syria and Yemen persevere in their struggle for justice, truth and reparation for their disappeared loved ones. Read the stories of their struggle and share in solidarity.
Families of the disappeared wage a struggle for justice, truth and reparation in the face of state apathy
Across the Middle East, both state authorities and non-state actors, such as armed opposition groups, abduct and disappear people as a way to crush dissent, cement their power, and spread terror within societies, often with total impunity. Human rights defenders, peaceful protesters, journalists, and political dissidents are often specifically targeted.
Families and loved ones of the disappeared are left in limbo and experience constant mental anguish for many years and, sometimes, even decades. Most often, it is women who lead the struggle for truth, justice, and reparation, putting themselves at risk of intimidation, persecution and violence. And it is women who are left to shoulder the financial burden of providing for their families and caring for them, often with little to no state support and while facing oppressive patriarchal norms. They can neither organize a dignified burial nor properly grieve, and they spend their lives campaigning for the authorities to reveal the fate and whereabouts of their relatives.
In Iraq, Lebanon, Syria and Yemen alone, families have waited and campaigned more than a million years collectively for news of their missing loved ones
While the governments of most those states have not investigated disappearances nor provided accurate numbers of those missing or disappeared, family associations, human rights organizations and UN bodies have published estimates for the number of people abducted and disappeared in each country. In Iraq, the numbers range between 250,000 to one million disappeared. In Lebanon, the official figure is 17,415. In Syria, human rights organizations estimate the number to be over 100,000. In Yemen, human rights organizations have documented 1,547 cases of disappearance. When these numbers are multiplied by a conservative estimate of how many years these individuals have been missing, a tragic picture emerges of the agonising number of years families have spent waiting for answers – more than a million years.
In the absence of effective state action, families of the disappeared have united under victim and family associations to demand their rights – often at great costs and personal risks. The right to truth for individuals and societies is recognized in international law and in the context of enforced disappearances, meaning “the right to know about the progress and results of an investigation, the fate or the whereabouts of the disappeared persons, and the circumstances of the disappearances, and the identity of the perpetrator(s)”.
To commemorate the International Day of the Victims of Enforced Disappeared, Amnesty International is sharing the stories of extraordinary sacrifice and persistence by the families of the disappeared and by human rights organizations in each of these countries. The quest for truth, justice and reparation looks different for the families in each country, but what unites them is their shared struggle and their vision for a more free, safe, and cohesive society.
Share these stories in solidarity with the families of the disappeared and demand that meaningful action be taken to reveal the fate and whereabouts of their loved ones.
MORE THAN A MILLION YEARS
Families of the disappeared in the middle east wait more than a million years collectively for their loved ones.
Iraq: Campaigning for answers
Iraq has one of the highest numbers of disappearances in the world, with people abducted and forcibly disappeared during the Ba’ath era (1968 – 2003), the US-led invasion and occupation of Iraq (2003-2011), the years of sectarian violence (2006-2008), the conflict with the armed group self-identified as the Islamic State (IS) (2013-2017), and the crackdown against protestors during the nationwide anti-government protests in 2019 and its aftermath.
Despite Iraq’s ratification of the International Convention for the Protection of All Persons from Enforced Disappearances, consecutive Iraqi governments have repeatedly failed to take meaningful steps to investigate disappearances, reveal the fate and whereabouts of those missing, or hold accountable those suspected of criminal responsibility. Crucially, the Iraqi authorities have still not recognized enforced disappearance as an autonomous crime in national legislation, and there have been no prosecutions for those suspected of criminal responsibility for enforced disappearance.
In April 2022, families of the disappeared launched the #DeadorAliveWeWantThem campaign to demand answers regarding the fate and whereabouts of their loved ones who were disappeared during the conflict with the Islamic State. The campaign was supported by Al Haq Foundation for Human Rights, which is helping families organize themselves nationwide and unify their demands across their locations, their backgrounds and the circumstances under which their loves ones went missing. On 15 August 2023, in the lead up to the International Day for the Victims of Enforced Disappearances, Iraqi families of the disappeared, survivors of enforced disappearances and human rights organizations came together in nationwide protests demanding truth and justice for abductions and enforced disappearances.
TO
According to the UN Committee on Enforced Disappearances, Iraq has an estimated 250,000 to
1 million missing persons since 1968, making it one of the countries with the highest number of missing persons worldwide.
Demands to the Iraqi authorities:
- Ensure timely, independent and thorough investigations into enforced disappearances and provide regular and transparent updates to the public about the progress of these investigations;
- Ensure protection from reprisals for those seeking justice.
Lebanon: A hard-fought victory for Law No.105
Every year, on 13 April – the anniversary of the start of the Lebanese Civil War – the families of the missing and disappeared gather to mark the beginning of Lebanon’s civil war and repeat the mantra, “Let it be remembered, not repeated.”
Thousands of individuals went missing or were disappeared during Lebanon’s 15-year civil war (1975 – 1990). Enforced disappearances continued to be committed after the end of the war in 1990, but on a smaller scale. Key laws and agreements passed following the civil war, including the Amnesty Law 84/91 in 1991 and Ta’ef Agreement in 1989 which ended the civil war, are silent about the fate and rights of those disappeared or missing.
In 1982, families of the missing joined forces to establish the Committee of the Families of the Kidnapped and Missing in Lebanon, unifying themselves and demanding that the authorities identify the fate and whereabouts of their loved ones and return their remains for burial. After years of action, including weekly sit-ins in front of the Council of Ministers and Parliament, letters to the President, and campaigns in the media, the Committee succeeded in pressuring the Lebanese authorities to take their first step in acknowledging the widespread enforced disappearances which took place during the civil war. The Lebanese parliament passed Law No.105 in November 2018 and established the National Commission for the Missing and Forcibly Disappeared with a mandate to investigate individual cases, locate and exhume mass graves and enable a tracing process.
Although the passage of the law was a huge milestone for the families, the law fails to criminalize enforced disappearance and provides no avenue for holding those suspected of enforced disappearance accountable. Until today, the government has failed to provide a physical office for its operations. Moreover, over the past three years members have resigned and the government has failed to appoint replacements.
Following the Lebanese civil war which took place between 1975 to 1990, a police report issued in 1991 recorded 17,415 cases of disappearances during the armed conflict. Until today, the families of the missing cannot confirm if their loved ones are dead or alive.
Demands to the Lebanese authorities:
- Implement Law No.105 and activate the National Commission by allocating a budget for its work, providing a physical office for its operations, and appointing new members following the resignation some of its members;
- Take concrete steps to identify the fate and whereabouts of the disappeared by locating and ensuring protection for mass graves and for exhumations and preservation in a DNA database in line with international standards.
Syria: Demanding action from the international community
The Syrian government has forcibly disappeared tens of thousands of its actual or perceived opponents, including political activists, protestors, human rights defenders, journalists, lawyers, doctors, and humanitarian aid workers. While enforced disappearances pre-dated the conflict that began in 2011, the Syrian government ramped up disappearances as a tool of punishment and intimidation since then. The wave of enforced disappearances carried out by the Syrian government since 2011 has been committed as part of a widespread as well as systematic attack against the civilian population and, therefore, amounts to a crime against humanity. Thousands have also gone missing after being detained by armed opposition groups and the so-called Islamic State (IS).
Since 2011, the families of the disappeared and survivors have been leading global advocacy efforts to realize their right to know the fate and whereabouts of their loved ones. They have led protests across many countries and lobbied governments for answers about their loved ones, meticulously documenting and collecting evidence of the crimes committed in the context of the Syrian conflict.
Given the Syrian government’s role in orchestrating the campaign of enforced disappearances, there has been total impunity for these crimes in Syria. The families have therefore resorted to international justice mechanisms. Although the UN Security Council has been so far unable to refer the situation in Syria to the Prosecutor of the International Criminal Court, due to Russian and Chinese vetoes, in December 2016, the UN General Assembly adopted a resolution establishing an international, impartial and independent investigative mechanism (IIIM) with a mandate to compile evidence of atrocity crimes, but with no designated venue for prosecution. However, the IIIM has been collaborating with several jurisdictions in Europe, including in Germany, Sweden, the Netherlands and France, who have exercised universal jurisdiction, allowing their courts to prosecute grave international crimes regardless of where they were committed.
In a momentous victory for the families, on 29 June 2023, the UN General Assembly voted to establish an international institution dedicated to clarifying the fate and whereabouts of those missing and disappeared since the start of the armed conflict in Syria. The proposed entity, to be set up in the coming months under the auspices of the UN, will allow for more systematic and coordinated efforts to determine the fate of more than 100,000 missing persons. Moreover, it will provide much-needed support to victims, survivors and their families.
Since 2011, tens of thousands of individuals have vanished without a trace after being arrested by the Syrian government. According to reporting by Syrian human rights organizations, 100,000 are reported missing or have been disappeared at the hands of the Syrian government and armed opposition groups.
Demands to the Syrian authorities:
- Immediately end enforced disappearances, arbitrary arrests, torture and other ill-treatment and extrajudicial executions.
- Inform families of the fate, whereabouts and legal status of all persons in their custody and respond to all outstanding requests;
- Facilitate family reunion, including sharing coordinates of mass graves and handing over remains to families for proper burial;
- Grant independent international monitors, such as the UN-mandated Independent International Commission of Inquiry on the Syrian Arab Republic, with unhindered access to all persons deprived of their liberty and allow them to investigate and monitor conditions in all detention facilities.
Yemen: Rallying outside detention centres
All parties to the eight-year-long armed conflict in Yemen continue to commit crimes under international law and human rights violations with impunity, including enforced disappearances and abductions. Men and women have been disappeared for their political and religious beliefs and journalists, humanitarian aid workers, and human rights defenders have often been a target. Survivors of enforced disappearance and abduction have detailed how they were held incommunicado, and subjected to torture and cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment.
In Yemen, the Abductees’ Mothers Association, a civil society organization formed by the mothers, wives, and female relatives of those forcibly disappeared, have been campaigning for years for their loved ones and documenting cases of enforced disappearances. The Abductees’ Mothers rallied outside detention centres, protested across the country and kept records of people detained and forcibly disappeared in the country. The families of the disappeared in Yemen are fighting for justice at great personal risk.
Yemeni families are campaigning for justice, truth and reparation in the absence of a domestic law criminalizing enforced disappearance and repeated failures by the international community to set up an independent, international and criminally focused investigative mechanism to gather and preserve evidence of crimes under international law and serious human rights abuses and violations in Yemen. In October 2021, the UN Human Rights Council failed to renew the mandate of the Group of Eminent Experts, further dampening efforts to hold those suspected of criminal responsibility accountable.
Amnesty International and other human rights organizations have documented numerous cases of enforced disappearance against civilians by all parties to the conflict. Mwatana for Human Rights, a Yemeni civil society organization based in Sana’a, has documented 1,547 cases of enforced disappearance and abduction since 2015.
Demands to the Yemeni authorities:
- Establish an independent and impartial commission to identify the fate and whereabouts of the missing, including by disclosing location of and ensuring access to all prisons and ensuring accountability and redress to the victims.
- Providing protection and assistance to families and relatives seeking truth and justice for the loved ones who have been disappeared or abducted.
Spotlight
IRAQ: 643 MEN AND BOYS FORCIBLY DISAPPEARED IN IRAQ SINCE JUNE 2016
READ MORE
LEBANON: “YOU TOOK OUR SONS ALIVE, GIVE THEM BACK TO US, ALIVE”
READ MORE
SYRIA: FORMER REFUGEES TORTURES, RAPED, DISAPPEARED AFTER RETURNING HOME
read more
YEMEN: BAHA’IS FORCIBLY DISAPPEARED BY THE HUTHI DE FACTO AUTHORITIES
read moreDemands to Iraq, Lebanon, Syria and Yemen authorities:
Investigate and publicly report on findings regarding the fate and whereabouts of the missing;
Prosecute those suspected of criminal responsibility for enforced disappearances in fair trials before ordinary civilian courts and without recourse to the death penalty;
Make enforced disappearance criminal under national law and punishable by appropriate penalties.
Ensure families of the missing and disappeared receive adequate reparations, including compensation, rehabilitation, restitution and guarantees of non-repetition;
Identify and preserve mass graves, facilitating restitution of remains to the families;
Ratify the International Convention for the Protection of All Persons from Enforced Disappearance without making any reservations and implement it fully into national law;
Promptly ratify the Rome Statute and become a party to the International Criminal Court;
What can you do?
Share these stories in solidarity with the families of the disappeared and demand that meaningful action be taken to reveal the fate and whereabouts of their loved ones.