Relief Web

Security Council Failing Thousands of People Detained, Abducted in Syria, Civil Society Speakers Say, Demanding Information about Missing Persons’ Whereabouts
JUERGEN SCHULZ (Germany) said that according to the Syrian Network for Human Rights, at least 140,000 individuals are still detained or have disappeared at the hands of the main parties to the conflict. Syrian regime forces account for around 90 per cent of these cases; more than 14,200 have allegedly died due to torture — almost 99 per cent at the hands of the regime. In 2019 alone, some 1,700 persons were arbitrarily arrested and more than 140 persons died under torture in Syrian regime prisons. The regime continues to arbitrarily detain thousands of innocent Syrians merely because they dare to make use of their freedom of expression. “We’re talking about ordinary people,” he said, pressing the regime to immediately release all political prisoners and arbitrarily held detainees, and establish a timetable for identifying and releasing them. It must publish a comprehensive list of the names of all detainees and inform the families of missing persons about the fate of their loved ones. Calling summary killings in regime prisons a clear violation of international humanitarian principles, he stressed that resolution 2254 (2015) calls on parties to immediately release any arbitrarily detained persons, and that national reconciliation will be impossible without accountability.
07-08-2019

https://reliefweb.int/report/s …