National Commission for the Missing and Forcibly Disappeared Persons (NCMFD) announced that it has formally requested from the United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres, the “inclusion of the Commission in the structures and mechanisms of the independent institution that will be formed under United Nations General Assembly Resolution 77/301 concerning the establishment of the independent institution for missing persons in the Syrian Arab Republic (A/RES/77/301 dated June 29, 2023).”
In a statement, the commission reminded that “Lebanese individuals who have been forcibly disappeared in Syria or at the hands of Syrian forces in Lebanon during the past decades are considered among those covered by the relevant General Assembly Resolution, based on the report of the Secretary-General issued in August 2022 (A/76/890 dated August 2, 2022), without distinction of the nationalities of the forcibly disappeared individuals or the dates of their disappearance.”
In this context, the commission “encouraged all parties to consider this national importance regarding the issue of forcibly disappeared individuals in Syria as a progressive step towards completing the process of revealing the fate of all missing and forcibly disappeared individuals in Lebanon. “
The NCMFD had also reiterated its commitment to the cause at an earlier date. “The right of the families of missing persons to know the fate of their loved ones is a natural right enshrined by legislation No. 105/2018.”
It should be remembered that on June 29, Lebanon abstained from voting at the UN on a bill to create this body, which aims to clarify the fate of the 100,000 or so people who disappeared in Syria. This abstention could be explained by Syria’s return to the Arab League on May 15, but also by the fact that Hezbollah could be involved in these disappearances.
