What is ‘Enforced Disappearance’?
It is an opaque term used when referring to the fate of millions who have been ‘forcibly disappeared.’
In the late hours of the night, a group of armed men storm the office of a human rights organisation and abduct employees on duty.
A political journalist is held at gunpoint, blindfolded then dragged across the street by a group of plainclothes government security officers. They beat him, force him into the back of a car and drive away.
An outspoken law professor is arrested, handcuffed in the middle of his evening class in front of his students, and hauled out by a group of ‘private security’ individuals hired by the government. No arrest warrant is presented.
According to the Declaration on the Protection of All Persons from Enforced Disappearance, enforced disappearance occurs when:
“persons are arrested, detained or abducted against their will or otherwise deprived of their liberty by officials of different branches or levels of Government, or by organised groups or private individuals acting on behalf of, or with the support…of the Government, followed by a refusal to disclose the fate or whereabouts of the persons concerned or a refusal to acknowledge the deprivation of their libert[ies], which places such persons outside the protection of the law.”
This term is is sometimes conflated with detention, but differs from it on several key factors whereby the forcibly disappeared:
- Are arbitrarily removed from their families, loved ones, and communities at large, and the extents of this criminal act are deep and profound.
- Exist outside the parameters of the law (unlike detention which is defined as legal or official) thus they are de facto deprived of their rights, more specifically, their right to not be subject to torture and their right to humane conditions of detention are violated, as is their right to legal counsel and a fair trial.
- Are barred from access to their families and a family life and — in some cases — to the right of life itself.
- Become totally reliant on the mercy of their captors, depending on them for food, water, shelter, medicine and all other factors related to their very existence. They are often tortured and sometimes sexually abused. In some cases, they are killed by their captors. If not, they live under the constant threat of death and daily fearful uncertainty.
These pressures bear a heavy psychological strain on the victims that is likely to remain with them after they are released, if they are lucky enough to be.
Who Else Does it Affect?
Beyond the direct effects on the victims themselves, this crime takes an immense toll on the families of the forcibly disappeared. They do not know what has become of their loved ones and exist in a state of daily uncertainty, continuously wondering about the fate of their disappeared. Are they alive? If so, how are they being treated? Are they being fed? Are they being supplied with insulin? Such questions preoccupy the minds of families of victims as they fluctuate between hope and despair waiting for their loved ones to return. The situation can lasts for years without any word.
The forcibly disappeared person tends to be the sole breadwinner, placing a significant economic burden on the family — women are frequently left to assume the full responsibility of this burden, both economic and domestic, for which they have had no preparation, no warning. Finally this fear affects the community as a whole, which is why enforced disappearance is used as tool of terror, intended to intimidate and subjugate societies to the will of those responsible.
The Syrian Status Quo
Enforced disappearances constitute some of the most widespread and frequently occurring human rights violations in Syria. According to the database of the Violations Documentation Center (VDC), 72,667 cases of arrests and kidnapping have been documented since the beginning of the conflict in 2011.
The vast majority of the forcibly disappeared in Syria are held in government detention centres, however, there are over 2,000 ‘known’ cases of those who have vanished at the hands of armed groups. Perhaps the famous case is that of the ‘Douma 4,’ the activists who were kidnapped from the VDC, their workplace. Their whereabouts remain unknown.
What is alarming about the Syrian case is that those responsible for enforced disappearances seem to act with total impunity. Syrian human rights activists (among others) have been lobbying for the the issue of forced disappearance to be properly heard at Geneva peace talks and in other international forums.
If grave human rights violations are not given sufficient attention at formative peace talks, then prospects for a sustainable and just peace are seriously undermined, as are the processes of social healing and reconciliation. More rights activists must join in solidarity with Syrian activists and the families of victims to demand that members of the Security Council exert pressure on the Syrian regime and other actors to reveal the fate of the ‘forcibly disappeared’ and to prevent further instances of ‘enforced disappearance.’
