The independent institution for the missing people in Syria

You can join the meeting via this link

“For more than a decade, families of the missing and forcibly disappeared have faced immense challenges in obtaining any information about the fate of their loved ones. All parties to the conflict have been unwilling to address the issue, leaving relatives in a state of perpetual agony and uncertainty. By establishing an institution focused on this very issue, the UN can help them find some of the answers they deserve.”

Said Agnès Callamard, Amnesty International’s Secretary-General, ahead of a vote in the UN general assembly on the establishment of an independent and international institution to clarify the fate and whereabouts of tens of thousands of missing and forcibly disappeared in Syria since 2011.

After the vote, the UN issued its resolution to establish this institution after many demands from the families of the missing people in Syria, human rights defenders and the civil society in Syria, and after the number of missing and forcibly disappeared people has reached more than 100 thousand person.

However, the resolution did not mention any details about the work of the institution and its mechanism. Therefore, this meeting organized by Tevin will focus on discussing the future of the new institution, its executive mechanisms, challenges facing it and how to mitigate them.

The dialogue meeting will gather representatives from the organizations and institutions working on the issue of missing people, activists in monitoring and documenting human rights abuses and journalists.

The discussions will focus on the following questions:

1. How can the new institution clarify the fate and whereabouts of the missing people and defend their rights?
2. How to involve the victims and the relevant organizations in the working mechanism of the new institution?
3. What are the executive mechanisms of the new institution to put pressure on the governments and relevant authorities to clarify the fate of the missing people?
4. What are the challenges facing the work of the new institution?

Facilitator: 

• Lorin Sabri: Journalist.

Speakers:

• Mazen Darwish: CEO of the SCM (Syrian Center for Media and Freedom of Expression).
• Bassam Alahmad: CEO of the STJ (Syrians for Truth and Justice).
• Hasso Hurmi: Chairman of International Yazidis Foundation for the Prevention of Genocide.
• Yasmeen Mishan: Founding member and Communication Officer at the Cesar Family Association.