The Hague, 12 May 2022: Recently circulated videos taken in Syria show blindfolded, unarmed civilians being shot by forces of the Assad regime. The victims are shown falling into a mass grave in the neighborhood of Tadamon. These killings are believed to have been perpetrated during a larger massacre in 2013. They are evidence of extrajudicial killings that reflect the horrors endured by the Syrian people over the past eleven years.
The International Commission on Missing Persons (ICMP) supports the significant work of Syrian civil society organizations and their efforts to document missing persons cases and advocate for victims and their families. ICMP is working to set in place a process that will account for all missing, disappeared and detained persons in Syria. A sustainable and long-term process that holds perpetrators to account is an indispensable element in restoring the rule of law. ICMP maintains a centralized and secure data repository that, to date, has collected information from almost 60,000 relatives of 23,000 people who have gone missing in the Syrian context. ICMP is working with a broad cross-section of family associations, civil society organizations and others to reveal the fate of all missing persons.
About ICMP
ICMP is a treaty-based intergovernmental organization that seeks to ensure the cooperation of governments and others in locating missing persons from conflict, human rights abuses, disasters, organized crime, migration, and other causes, and to assist them in doing so. ICMP also supports the work of other organizations in their efforts, encourages public involvement in its activities and contributes to the development of appropriate expressions of commemoration and tribute to the missing.