Damascus Center for Human Rights Studies (DCHRS)

Years of Fear

The Enforced Disappeared in Syria

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The story of those missing in Syrian prisons is the story of a country that has devoured its own sons. The enforced disappearances of oppositionists and the impunity of the perpetrators is the price paid for the “Kingdom of Silence” established by the authoritarian and abusive Syrian regime. Among the portfolio of human rights violations in Syria, the issue of persons forcibly disappeared in particular has become a national disaster. While the missing number in the thousands, deleterious effects extend to hundreds of thousands of Syrian citizens who were stripped of their political and civil rights. The phenomenon has led to the psychological, social, and economic destruction of many Syrian communities for more than 30 years.