Enforced disappearances: crime of the present, crime of the past

30 Aug 2013

Disappeared

Their families say that they are "neither dead nor alive", and it's as if they are dying a little bit every day... They are the invisible victims of armed conflict, the ones forgotten by the authorities... and they number in the thousands. From the 1970s to today, in Algeria, Syria, all the way to Iraq, Lebanon and Yemen, enforced disappearances transcend the past and reach into the present. Disappearances can take the form of torture, executions or secret detention. It constitutes a crime against humanity when widespread and systematic. But more than that - behind every picture of someone disappeared lies suffering, uncertainty and the torture of a family, affecting entire societies.

On the international day of the disappeared, Alkarama stands alongside the families whose loved ones have disappeared, be it in Algeria, Syria, Iraq Lebanon or Yemen to support them in their combat to obtain their right to truth and justice, and to honor the memory of the people they have lost.

From Algeria....

.... to Syria 

SYR_khalil_maatouqKhalil Matouk, Syrian human rights defender and director of the Syrian Centre for Legal Studies and Research, disappeared since 2 October 2012.

 

SYR_HussamYOUSSEF_Picture1Hussam Youssef, 21 year-old student, arrested on 24 September 2012 by General Intelligence agents in Damascus and disappeared since 24 September 2012.