UN to form body to investigate fate of Syria's missing people

More than 150,000 people have gone missing in Syria since war broke out in 2011

Families and relatives of Syrian detainees and missing people demand information on their loved ones, in the town of Azaz in Aleppo province. AFP

The UN General Assembly on Thursday adopted a resolution to form an independent institution that will try to uncover the fate of thousands of people who have gone missing in Syria during the 13-year conflict.

More than 150,000 people have gone missing or been forcibly disappeared by Syrian authorities, according to the Syrian Network for Human Rights.

Countless families do not know the whereabouts of missing loved ones and more than half a million people have been killed since war broke out in 2011.

The UN resolution seeks to “to clarify the fate and whereabouts of all missing persons … and to provide adequate support to victims, survivors and the families of those missing”.

It also calls for all parties in the Syrian conflict to “co-operate fully with the independent institution, in line with their obligations under international law".

Syria opposed the resolution, along with 10 other nations including Russia, Iran and China. Eighty-three voted in favour and 62 abstained.

UN officials have outlined two primary functions for the body: consolidating existing information and gathering new material; and organising support for the families of missing people, detainees and survivors of detention.

This year, UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres emphasised the importance of aiding Syrians in their healing process and removing obstacles to achieving sustainable peace.

He called on member states to establish the body, highlighting the moral obligation of the international community to ease the plight of those affected.

“People in every part of the country and across all divides have loved ones who are missing, including family members who were forcibly disappeared, abducted, tortured and arbitrarily detained,” Mr Guterres told the 193 member states in March.

The UN stressed that the institution would be a humanitarian initiative and not a legal one, while the families would be free to take the material collected and pursue action through courts.

Before the vote, US ambassador Jeff DeLaurentis told member states the core group and the UN have sought to engage with Damascus on this effort, but “they were rebuffed".

“We hope all parties to the conflict will co-operate with this body and release all unjustly detained people, clarify the fate of those who are missing and return the remains of those who have perished to their families,” Mr DeLaurentis said.

Syria's UN ambassador, Bassam Sabbagh, rejected the “bizarre mysterious mechanism with no precise definition of the concept of missing persons, a mechanism that is not time limited or geographically bound".

“This draft clearly reflects flagrant interference in our internal affairs and provides new evidence of the hostile approach being pursued by certain western states against Syria,” Mr Sabbagh said.