Newsletter: Edition number: 5 (From January 1, 2025, to March 31, 2025)

Newsletter: Edition number: 5
(From January 1, 2025, to March 31, 2025)

The fall of the Assad regime in Syria brought significant changes in the issue of the missing. Prisons and detention centers formerly operated by the regime were emptied, and several mass graves were discovered. This also created opportunities for international organizations and victims’ groups, to enter Syria and engage directly with the families and loved ones of the missing.

Despite these developments, thousands of Syrian families continue to suffer from ongoing crimes of enforced disappearance, torture, and ill-treatment at the hands of various de facto authorities across Syria. Meanwhile, dozens of mass graves still require efforts to uncover, in order to achieve justice for all victims and their families.

Amid these transformations, civil society organizations and victims’ groups are striving to rebuild the social fabric and support transitional justice efforts. In recent months, victims’ groups have intensified their efforts on the issue of the missing, including documentation of violations, and implementing advocacy campaigns at both the local and international levels to pressure all relevant actors to reveal the fate of the missing and to demand the establishment of a national body responsible for addressing this file inside Syria.

This document has been produced with the financial assistance of the European Union. The contents of this document are the sole responsibility of SCM and can under no circumstances be regarded as reflecting the position of the European Union