When the Assad regime collapsed in December 2024, its extensive network of detention centers was thrown open. These facilities served as tools of repression, silencing dissent and spreading terror. 

Many families didn’t see their loved ones walk free. In fact, the fates of at least 112,000 people who were detained and disappeared in Syria since 2011 remain unknown and at least 15,393 are documented to have died under torture. 

Nearly all families in Syria have memories of lost loved ones. Their suffering has been made worse by the severe failures of  international organisations and Syria’s interim authorities to support the victims of arbitrary detention since the regime fell. Vital evidence was lost because of lack of political will, delays and neglect — evidence that could have been used to hold perpetrators to account. 

For years, survivors of Assad’s torture chambers and families of the missing have courageously shared their stories with the world, speaking out and campaigning for freedom and justice for the disappeared. They have been left alone, yet again, to find answers about their loved ones. 

Urgent and meaningful steps are now needed to establish the truth for Syria’s families and to hold those responsible accountable in national and international courts.

Inside Assad’s detention centers, detainees faced systematic torture, sexual violence, starvation, and inhumane conditions, often leading to death. Survivors continue to bear lasting scars, while families live with the anguish of not knowing the fate of their loved ones.

How the interim authorities and international community respond now will determine future justice, civil peace, and rebuilding of Syria. Sign our petition to call for truth, justice, and a Syria free from enforced disappearance.

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Demand truth and justice for Syria's disappeared

To the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC), the UN’s Independent Institution on Missing Persons in Syria (IIMP) and and the International, Impartial and Independent Mechanism (IIIM), the international community and interim authorities in Syria:

For years, the Assad regime and other de facto authorities used arbitrary arrest, enforced disappearance and torture to crush dissent in Syria. Families of detainees, survivors and their allies have tirelessly campaigned for justice, despite international failures and indifference.

Now the Assad regime’s detention centers are open but their suffering continues. The fates of at least 112,000 Syrians remain unknown and vital evidence is being neglected or destroyed. 

International institutions and the interim authorities of Syria must urgently support a Syrian-led effort, involving families and survivors, to preserve evidence, investigate crimes and hold all perpetrators to account.

Uncovering the fate of tens of thousands of children, men and women who were forcibly disappeared is essential for a peaceful and truly just Syria and to ensure that these atrocities never happen again.

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