UN Syrian Commission Releases Report on Missing Persons (November 27, 2018) [1]
On November 27, 2018, the United Nations Independent International Commission of Inquiry on the Syrian Arab Republic released a report [3] entitled, “Death Notifications in the Syrian Arab Republic,” in which it discusses the high number of missing and detained people within Syria and stresses the need to account for the fate and whereabouts these individuals. As noted in the press release [4], the Commission was mandated by the Human Rights Council to investigate and record all violations of international law since March 2011 within Syria. The report notes that arbitrary detention is widespread throughout Syria and has been conducted by all parties, but that “nowhere has the phenomenon been more pervasive than in areas under Government control.” The Commission estimates that pro-government forces have disappeared tens of thousands of Syrians and notes that the government “has not released any information on the whereabouts of bodies, nor provided any restitution of personal belongings.” The Commission also lists a set of recommendations, including that the government suspend capital punishment, reveal the fates of those detained or disappeared, assist families in retrieving bodies or remains of loved ones, and establish a national reparations mechanism.