Amnesty International calls for uncovering fate of missing persons in Arab countries

Shafaq News / Amnesty International emphasized the need to reveal the fate of missing persons in four Arab countries, including Iraq, on the occasion of the International Day of the Disappeared.

The organization's Regional Deputy Director, Aya Majzoub, stated during an event in Beirut, attended by families of missing persons from Iraq, Lebanon, Syria, and Yemen, that "these countries in the Middle East have a very large number of missing and forcibly disappeared individuals. Their successive governments have failed to take any action to ensure the rights of the families."

In the absence of effective government measures, families of missing persons in these four countries have formed alliances to raise their voices.

Iraq is considered "one of the countries with the largest number of missing persons in the world" due to continuous crises over decades, according to Amnesty International. A UN-affiliated committee estimated that between 250,000 and one million people have disappeared in Iraq since 1968, with mass graves widespread in the country.

From Syria, where a bloody conflict has been ongoing since 2011 following protests against the regime, former detainee Fadwa Mahmoud criticized the international community for its lack of seriousness in pursuing the cases of the missing. She stated, "We had big dreams in 2011, but we paid a high price," adding, "Our children are not meant for prisons or detention centers."

Yemen, since late 2014, has been enduring a brutal conflict after Houthi rebels seized control of the capital, Sanaa. The conflict escalated in 2015 with the intervention of a Saudi-led military coalition in support of the Yemeni government. Human rights organizations have documented 1,547 missing and disappeared individuals in Yemen since 2015.

In Lebanon, the suffering of families continues to know the fate of over 17,000 missing individuals since the civil war (1975-1990). Although the parliament established an independent national commission in 2018 to investigate the fate of the missing, its work faces numerous obstacles.

The International Committee of the Red Cross issued a statement regarding the families of missing persons in Iraq, reaffirming that the pain continues for these families and the search for answers about their disappeared loved ones persists.

As the world commemorates the International Day of the Disappeared, the International Committee urged all concerned parties to "enhance their efforts to alleviate the suffering of Iraqi families, as time doesn't heal wounds and answers can only contribute to consoling the families."

In 2022, the International Committee of the Red Cross received 1,477 requests from families of missing persons to search for and find them. They clarified the fate of 678 individuals through support from authorities and activities such as exchanging written messages between detainees and their families.

In the first half of 2023, families submitted 994 requests for assistance in locating their missing relatives. The fate of 171 individuals was clarified, and 5 individuals were reunited with their families outside of Iraq.