{"id":1872,"date":"2014-10-02T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2014-10-02T00:00:00","guid":{"rendered":""},"modified":"-0001-11-30T00:00:00","modified_gmt":"-0001-11-30T00:00:00","slug":"","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dchrs.org\/?p=1872","title":{"rendered":"Free Human Rights Lawyer Release Khalil Ma\u2019touq Immediately, Unconditionally"},"content":{"rendered":"

\n(Geneva October 2, 2014) – The Syrian government should immediately and unconditionally free the prominent human rights lawyer Khalil<\/strong> <\/strong>Ma’touq<\/strong> <\/strong>and his colleague Mohamed Zaza<\/strong>, 26 organizations said today, on the second anniversary of their enforced disappearance.  \n<\/p>\n

\n Ma’touq, director of the Syrian Center for Legal Studies and Research, is a human rights lawyer who has been defending peaceful activists for more than 20 years. He and his colleague and assistant Mohammed Zaza have been missing since October 2, 2012, when they were en route from Ma’touq’s home in Sahanaya, a Damascus suburb, to his office in Damascus. It is believed that they were arrested at a government security checkpoint solely due to their legitimate and peaceful work in human rights.\n<\/p>\n

\nMultiple reports have indicated that the two men are being held by the Syrian authorities, who appear to move them among various detention facilities in Damascus, including the “Palestine Branch", a detention center run by Military Intelligence. The repeated requests  ​by their families and lawyers for information about their fate and whereabouts and for a visit are rejected. Syrian authorities deny that the men are in custody, placing them at particular risk of torture or other ill-treatment and even extrajudicial execution.\n<\/p>\n

\nUN Security Council Resolution 2139, adopted on February 22, 2014, strongly condemned the "arbitrary detention and torture of civilians in Syria (..)  as well as kidnappings and abductions and enforced disappearances" and demanded "the immediate cessation of such practices and the release of all persons arbitrarily detained."\n<\/p>\n

\nMa’touq suffers from advanced lung disease and has severe breathing difficulties. Reports from former detainees indicate that he is in extremely poor health, a source of great concern for his family, his lawyers and the organizations.\n<\/p>\n

\n The Syrian government should immediately and unconditionally release Ma’touq and Zaza, the organizations said.\n<\/p>\n

\n The UN Security Council should ensure the immediate implementation of Resolution 2139, and use all the related mechanisms at its disposal to ensure that anyone arbitrarily detained as a result of their peaceful political activism, human rights, humanitarian or media work in Syria is released immediately and unconditionally.\n<\/p>\n

\nCo-signing organizations in alphabetical order:<\/strong>
\nAction by Christians for the Abolition of Torture (ACAT)
\nAmnesty International
\nArabic Network For Human Rights Information  (ANHRI)
\nBahrain Centre for Human Rights (BCHR)
\nCIVICUS: World Alliance for Citizen Participation
\nEuro-Mediterranean Human Rights Network (EMHRN) 
\nFreedom House
\nFront Line Defenders
\nGulf Centre for Human Rights (GCHR)
\nHuman Rights Watch (HRW)
\nHumanistic Institute for Development Cooperation (HIVOS)
\nInternational Federation for Human Rights – in the framework of the Observatory for the
\nProtection of Human Rights Defenders (FIDH)
\nIraqi Journalists Rights Defence Association (IJRDA)
\nIraqi Network for Social Media (INSM)
\nLawyers for Lawyers (L4L)
\nMaharat Foundation
\nPAX
\nReporters Without Borders (RSF)
\nSamir Kassir Foundation
\nSyrian Centre for Legal Studies and Research
\nSyrian Center for Media and Freedom of Expression (SCM)
\nSyrian Network for Human Rights (SNHR)
\nSyrian Women’s Network
\nTunisian Initiative for Freedom of Expression
\nWomen’s Studies Centre – Palestine
\nWorld Organisation Against Torture (OMCT) – in the framework of the Observatory for the Protection of Human Rights Defenders\n<\/p>\n

\nSource URL:
\nhttp:\/\/gc4hr.org\/news\/view\/770<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

(Geneva October 2, 2014) – The Syrian government should immediately and unconditionally free the prominent human rights lawyer Khalil Ma’touq and his colleague Mohamed Zaza, 26 organizations said today, on the second anniversary of their enforced disappearance. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":63,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1872","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dchrs.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1872","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dchrs.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dchrs.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dchrs.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/63"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dchrs.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1872"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dchrs.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1872\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dchrs.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1872"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dchrs.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1872"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dchrs.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1872"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}