“Eleven months after the fall of the former government in Syria, we continue to receive worrying reports about dozens of abductions and enforced disappearances,” Spokesperson Thameen Al-Keetan said at a press briefing in Geneva.

Syria is undergoing a political transition following the overthrow of the Assad regime in December 2024 and 13 years of brutal civil war.

Families in distress

In response to a journalist’s question, Mr. Al-Kateen said OHCHR had managed to document at least 97 people who have been abducted since the beginning of the year.

This is in addition to the more than 100,000 people who went missing during the father and son rule of the Assads, which lasted some five decades.

While some families have been reunited with their loved ones, “many still live with the distress of not knowing where they are, or what happened to them,” he said.

He stressed that “the fate and whereabouts of all those who have gone missing, both before and after the fall of the former government, must urgently be clarified.”

In this regard, he underscored OHCHR’s support for the work of the Independent Institution on Missing Persons in the Syrian Arab Republic (IIMP).

Karla Quintana, who leads the UN body, recently said that “everyone in Syria knows someone who has gone missing.”

Missing aid worker

Mr. Al-Keetan highlighted the case of Hamza Al-Amarin, a volunteer with the Syria Civil Defense, commonly known as the White Helmets.

He went missing on 16 July of this year while supporting a humanitarian evacuation mission during violence in Suweida, located in the south, and remains unaccounted for.

“We stress that all armed actors – both exercising State power and otherwise – must respect and protect humanitarian workers at all times, everywhere, as required by international human rights law and applicable humanitarian law,” the Spokesperson said.

“Accountability and justice for all human rights violations and abuses, past and present, are essential for Syria to build a durable, peaceful and secure future for all its people.”