UN council adopts resolution calling on Syria to release prisoners, missing people

The United Nations Human Rights Council adopted a draft resolution Friday regarding missing people in war-torn Syria.

The draft resolution "calls for the Syrian authorities to immediately release all those missing and arbitrarily detained in Syria and to provide accurate information to the families regarding their fate and whereabouts," as tweeted by the UN Syria Commission.

Those in favour were 25 countries, including Qatar, while Armenia, Bolivia, China, Cuba, Eritrea and Venezuela voted against. Sixteen countries abstained, including the UAE which has mended ties with Damascus.

#HRC51 | Draft resolution A/HRC/51/L.18 on the situation of human rights in the Syrian Arab Republic was ADOPTED. pic.twitter.com/4hROdd4j81

— UN Human Rights Council 📍 #HRC51 (@UN_HRC) October 7, 2022

The UN recently called for a new institution to be established to help find more than 100,000 people missing and disappeared mostly by the Syrian regime but also some other armed groups in the country, torn apart by 11 years of conflict.

A report by the UN Secretary-General said that new measures urgently needed to be taken as virtually no progress had been made on finding missing persons since war broke out there in 2011, after the regime's brutal suppression of peaceful protests.

Over 100,000 Syrians, mostly protesters and other peaceful suspected activists, are believed to have been detained by the regime during this period.

Syrian President Bashar Al-Assad in June farcically claimed there are no political prisoners in his country, despite tens of thousands of citizens having disappeared in regime prisons.

There is overwhelming evidence of mass executions and harrowing torture - often fatal - of detainees.