According to a report by the Syrian Network for Human Rights (SNHR), enforced disappearance has been used as a systematic weapon by the regime of Bashar al-Assad since 2011, serving as a tool of intimidation and collective punishment. When the regime fell in December 2024, fragments of truth began to surface, yet tens of thousands remained unaccounted for.
The SNHR database records at least 177,057 disappeared persons, including 4,536 children and 8,984 women; numbers that represent not statistics, but thousands of personal tragedies embedded in the collective memory of every Syrian household.