Syrians demand justice, remember the disappeared amid liberation celebrations

Justice for Syria's forcibly disappeared prisoners, tens of thousands of whom haven't been found, remains at the forefront of Syrian concerns as the country marks one year free from Assad rule.

Several human rights groups have emphasised justice for the prisoners amid the celebrations.

On Monday, the Syria Campaign issued calls for the international community and Syrian government to back a special court to prosecute regime figures for atrocities committed during the war, both for figures within Syria and outside of the country.

"A special court embedded within the Syrian judicial system, supported by international expertise, is urgent to ensure accountability, reconciliation, and long-term peace," the group said in a statement.

The court "would enable access to crucial evidence held by international bodies, protect witnesses, ensure independent justice, and allow for coordinated prosecution of senior regime figures across multiple jurisdictions," it added.

Raya Homsi, a member of The Syria Campaign whose fiancé was forcibly disappeared in 2012, said that the initiative was "about giving families a path to healing."

"For families like mine, every day without justice is another day of torment. We cannot reconcile with those who destroyed our lives until the truth is known and the perpetrators are held to account," she added.

'An emotional crossroads' for families

During late November and early December 2024, as Syrian rebels led by current President Ahmed al-Sharaa made a lightning advance on Damascus, thousands of prisoners and detainees were freed.

Rebels stormed the infamous Sednaya prison just before the Assad regime fell, freeing hundreds of men, women and children who had been held there.

Once the cells were emptied, however, thousands of Syrians whose loved ones never emerged rushed to the prison in a desperate attempt to find them, going through papers and documents to find clues as to their fate. The vast majority however, found no concrete information.

"For many Syrian families, 8 December represents one of the most painful moments of their lives," The Amal Healing and Advocacy Centre told The New Arab.

"For years, parents and relatives held onto hope that their loved ones detained by the regime were still alive… when some families finally learned the truth on this day or in its aftermath, the shock was overwhelming: grief mixed with betrayal and exploitation."

The group, which works on supporting the families of Syria's disappeared, said that the families' pain from is ongoing, and they still don't know the fate of their loved ones.

"These families deserve to have the dignity of their loved ones restored: proper burial, public acknowledgement, and accountability for those responsible for arbitrary detention, torture, and enforced disappearance," the group added.

Kholoud Helmi, General Coordinator at Families for Freedom, an organisation set up to demand the release of forcibly detained persons by the regime, told The New Arab that 8 December "is an emotional crossroads for the families of the forcibly disappeared".

"For the thousands who still do not know what happened to their loved ones, 8 December is a reminder of an open wound. It symbolises both the passage of time and the refusal to give up," she said.

Despite this, Helmi said families were still taking part in celebrations across the country: "This moment carries a deep emotional truth: the machinery of terror that stole our loved ones is no longer in power."

Immediately following the fall of the regime, the families of the disappeared began campaigning, demanding that Syria's new transitional authorities uncover the truth about their loved ones and put in place transitional justice mechanisms to hold members of the former regime to account.

"In the second year of a free Syria, the families of the disappeared hope for one thing above all: truth with full accountability," Helmi said, adding, "their hope is that this new chapter brings real inclusive justice, the kind that restores dignity to victims and acknowledges the scale of suffering Syrians endured.

Demands for transitional justice

In an update to its record on the regime's human rights violations over the course of the war, the Syrian Network for Human Rights (SNHR) said on Monday that it had documented 160,036 people who remain forcibly disappeared, including 3,736 children and 8,014 women.

SNHR also said that 45,032 people, including 216 children and 95 women, were killed under torture.

The group echoed calls for the government to commit to transitional justice, including putting regime officials, including Bashar al-Assad himself, on trial, and adopting "a comprehensive transitional justice process that includes truth-seeking, accountability, reparations, institutional reform, and guarantees of non-recurrence."

Assad fled into exile in Russia shortly before rebels captured the Syrian capital.

Over the past year, Syria's government has formed two bodies, the National Commission for Missing Persons and the National Commission for Transitional Justice, aimed at solidifying its commitment to justice.

The commissions were formed in the context of the look into the Assad regime's crimes as well as post-Assad sectarian violence against Syria's Alawite community on Syria's coast in March and against Syria's Druze community in the south in July.

They have cooperated with the UN's Independent Institution on Missing Persons in the Syrian Arab Republic (IIMP), established in 2023, which reaffirmed on Monday that it "stands in solidarity with families and is ready to collaborate with authorities, civil society organisations, international actors, partners, and every individual committed to this cause."

Amnesty International's Secretary General, Agnes Callamard, said in a statement commemorating Assad's fall: "To build and maintain trust, the commissions must ensure inclusive and transparent processes, undertake regular communication and consultation, provide equal access to victims from all sides of Syria's brutal conflict, and recognise the crucial and complementary role of civil society organisations."

She added that many Syrians have a "hunger for truth and justice for past and current human rights violations," and there was "energy, effort and commitment of those who want to work together to build a new rights-respecting Syria."