Read the campaign briefing -- A race against time: Demanding the US and SDF find the disappeared by ISIS
Up to 8,000 Syrians have been disappeared by ISIS since 2014.
As the military campaign against the group reaches its final stages, the families of the disappeared are asking whether anyone will help them find out what happened to their missing loved ones.
It’s a race against time. Families are deeply frustrated at the lack of information and concerned that former ISIS detention centres aren’t being handled with care, destroying crucial evidence. ISIS fighters are being released without families learning of what they’ve done with the kidnapped. Meanwhile, mass graves are being exhumed by local teams without the proper funding, expertise and resources to identify all bodies and preserve evidence. There are reports that the bodies of thousands of people have been reburied as unidentified victims. Their families might never obtain answers.
It is time for the US-led coalition and its partners the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) to meet their responsibility to find the people disappeared by ISIS.
If the international community acts fast, there is still the chance to preserve evidence and help families be reunited with their loved ones, or at least learn what has happened to them.
The crisis of forced disappearance has touched almost every Syrian family. No progress can be made towards a lasting peace in Syria without justice for those families, and it starts with their right to know about their loved ones. Let’s help them get answers.
Sign the petition to urge the US-led coalition and its allies to immediately take steps that can uncover the fate of the disappeared by ISIS and give answers to their loved ones.