Letter to the Security Team for the Release of Detainees of the United Nations Special Envoy
The statement is available in both Kurdish and Arabic
On January 20, 2020, Khawla Matar, Deputy Special Envoy of the United Nations to Syria, revealed in her briefing to the United Nations Security Council - in which she reported a set of developments - that after years of closed and secret meetings between both Iran, Russia and Turkey regarding the issue of detainees/abductees, which have resulted in unsatisfactory results and practices such as prisoner exchange agreements, the United Nations decided to discuss with those three concerned parties this issue in order to reach a sustainable solution and understanding regarding the handover of the bodies and the disclosure of the identities of the missing. This measure will constitute an opportunity - the first of its kind - for civil society institutions to participate through the United Nations in discussions on such a sensitive and painful topic.
In turn, we urge the UN Special Envoy to Syria, Geir Pedersen, to ensure that, while preparing for the upcoming meeting in which the United Nations will meet with representatives of the three active countries and representatives of a group of civil society organizations, that the demands of the victims and their families have been taken into account.
It is essential to include Syrians and put them at the center of this process from which they have been excluded for so long.
Moreover, the non-participation of Syrian civil society organizations and associations of victims and their families in the proceedings of the Working Group constitutes a violation of the right of the families of the detainees and the disappeared and the right of Syrian society as a whole to know the truth about the fate of its children. Whereas, ensuring the right to the truth requires the involvement of families, victims and society at large in any joint institutional initiative aimed at seeking and accessing information about victims, which was emphasized by both the former Special Rapporteur on the promotion of truth, justice, reparations and guarantees of non-recurrence, and the Working Group United Nations Committee on Enforced and Involuntary Disappearances.
Therefore, we recommend the UN Special Envoy to:
Interview the victims and their families to gather their demands before holding the meeting with Iran, Russia and Turkey.
Ensure that victims’ associations and civil society organizations are invited to attend the meeting to convey their messages and share their demands with state representatives.
Ensure that practices that hinder a sustainable solution to the issue of detainees and abductees are not renewed, such as prisoner exchange agreements.
Ensure that the meeting with the concerned states addresses the issues of all detainees, regardless of the identity of the state or non-state actors holding them.
Put the issue of the fate of the disappeared or detained victims by ISIS on the agenda of the meeting.
The undersigned:
Ornamo - for justice and human rights.
Syrian Legal Development Program (SLDP).
my country.
Syrians for Truth and Justice (STJ).
The Syrian Network for Human Rights (SNHR).
guards network.
The Syrian Center for Media and Freedom of Expression (SCM).
The Syrian Justice and Accountability Center (SJAC).
Justice for Life (JFL).