UN holds Assad regime accountable for 85% of enforced disappearances in Syria
UN Human Rights Committee discussed in Geneva a report presented by Assad regime on how it implemented the provisions of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights.
The member of the Committee asked the representatives of Assad regime questions about the high number of cases of enforced disappearance in Syria and the treatment of the Turkish communities.
One of the Committee’s experts said that there are in Syria between 100000 and 120000 forcibly disappeared people since 2011, and Assad regime holds responsible for 85% of them.
He added: “Does the state plan to criminalize enforced disappearance in this way? Is the state considering working with the independent mechanism on enforced disappearances in Syria? Does the state intend to create a national register for disappeared persons?
Another expert pointed out that the Committee received information about violence against communities of Kurdish origin, in addition to repeated and ongoing arrests and ill-treatment to extract confessions.
On the other hand, the Syrian delegation headed by the Assad regime to the United Nations in Geneva, Haydar Ali Ahmad, responded that Syrian law defined the crime of deprivation of liberty as similar to the crime of enforced disappearance, and imposed several penalties in this context.
The delegation accused the Syrian Democratic Forces of stealing Syria’s resources and imposing their methodologies and ideology in the northeast of the country, he said.
