
Six
years ago, the joint office of the VDC, LDSPS and Rising for Freedom in Douma
in Eastern Ghouta (north of Damascus) was raided by armed men who abducted four
human rights defenders, Razan ZAITOUNEH, Wael HAMADA, Samira ALKHALIL and Nazim
HAMMADI. The parties controlling the region have changed and tens of thousands
of people have been displaced, but the fate of our colleagues remains unknown.
For
them and for thousands of forcibly disappeared and detainees in Syria, today,
we, the undersigned organizations, renew our commitment to work in every
possible way to reveal their fate and defend their rights to justice and
accountability. We pledge to fight impunity, as a basic guarantee for building
a democratic state based on the separation of powers, the protection of human
rights and citizenship, a state governed by law.
As
efforts continue to be made to achieve truth, justice and accountability for
their abductors and those who perpetrated major crimes against humanity in
Syria, the de facto authorities in diverse regions of Syria retain their
policies of using forced disappearance and arbitrary detention as their main
practice to hide their crimes by committing more crimes. As parties to the
conflict continuously keep on marginalizing and making Human Rights Defenders
disappear, paths towards a political solution are accelerating.
We
remind the parties and guarantors of the political solution negotiations in
Syria that revealing the fate of the missing, releasing the detainees, ensuring
justice and holding the perpetrators of major crimes against humanity
accountable is the best guarantee to end the culture of impunity and lay the
first cornerstone for any future stability and peace in Syria and the region.
From
here, we, the undersigned organizations, emphasize the following:
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