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August 30 of each year marks the International Day of the Disappeared, established to raise awareness about the whereabouts of individuals held in undisclosed locations under harsh conditions without informing their families or legal representatives.
The inspiration for this day was provided by the Latin American Federation of Associations for Relatives of Detained-Disappeared, an NGO established in 1981 in Costa Rica to combat secret imprisonment, forced disappearances, and abductions in various Latin American countries.
Engaging in addressing secret imprisonment is a crucial aspect of the work carried out by various global entities and groups focused on human rights advocacy and humanitarian assistance, such as Amnesty International (AI), the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR), and the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC). The observance of the International Day of the Disappeared serves as a chance to showcase the efforts of these organizations, raise awareness among the general public, and appeal for contributions and support from volunteers.
Among those organizations, the ICRC holds extra benefits thanks to its unique position as an independent, non-governmental entity and its unwavering commitment to impartiality.
In certain situations, the ICRC is the sole organization allowed to visit certain prisoners, giving way for at least some level of contact and monitoring of their conditions. Messages from the ICRC are usually the only information families of the prisoners receive about their loved ones’ well-being.
In its 13th annual report on enforced disappearance in Syria, the Syrian Network for Human Rights notes that since March 2011, at least 113,218 of the people arrested by the parties to the conflict in Syria, including 3,129 children and 6,71 women, have forcibly disappeared.
The report adds that the Syrian regime has used enforced disappearance as a strategic instrument to consolidate control and crush its opponents. To achieve this objective, the regime has utilized this strategy in a deliberate and direct manner against all those who became activists or participated in the popular uprising for democracy, particularly in its early years that saw the highest rates of enforced disappearances, in order to crush and undermine the anti-regime protests.
While the report holds the Syrian regime forces responsible for the vast majority of arrests and enforced disappearances, it also stresses that ISIS, Hay’at Tahrir al-Sham (HTS), and all armed opposition factions have also been responsible for thousands of enforced disappearances, including children and women.
In Lebanon, the problem of missing and forcibly disappeared individuals continues to be a painful unresolved issue, greatly impacting many families still searching for answers about their missing loved ones who disappeared in past conflicts over several decades.
Meetings by the ICRC with Lebanese presidents and prime ministers haven’t yielded any results in the file of Lebanese people in Syrian prisons.
During last year’s memorial event, multiple parliamentary groups and the Association of Lebanese Political Detainees in Syria submitted a request to the United States to add the issue of these detainees to a UN resolution passed last summer.
The resolution received support from 83 votes and was adopted. It asks for information on the whereabouts of hundreds of missing people to be released if they are alive and returned to their families if they are deceased. The resolution also demands an inquiry into the reasons for the deaths of some and the individuals accountable.
Afterward, 44 Lebanese parliament members, in partnership with NGOs, presented a petition to UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres asking for “the missing Lebanese” to be covered by this independent mechanism.
The petition was showcased at a press briefing in Achrafieh. MPs from the Lebanese Forces, Kataeb, the Democratic Gathering, the Renewal Movement, and a few independent MPs signed the document.
Unfortunately, all trials came to no avail, as the number of abducted and missing Lebanese, according to human rights organizations, “numbered around 17,000 people from 1975 until 1990 during the Lebanese civil war.”
Cases of these disappeared vary from being kidnapped by Lebanese, Syrian, or Palestinian militias. However, their outcome is similar; their families have no clue where they are or if they are still alive.
