Relative of Syria’s Disappeared Calls for Justice and Truth
Obeida Dabbagh seeks answers for his brother and nephew, victims of enforced disappearance in Syria.
Obeida Dabbagh continues to seek justice for his brother Mazen and nephew Patrick, both Syrian-French nationals who were arrested by Syria’s Air Force Intelligence in November 2013.
For years, their fate remained unknown as they were held in detention and subjected to torture. In 2018, their deaths were falsely recorded as occurring years after their disappearance. Mr. Dabbagh shared his painful account with the PLACEHOLDER6aef69fff794c1c0 (CED) during a session at the UN Office in Geneva (PLACEHOLDER7355470bf50a13ba).
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Victims of Arbitrary Detention
Mr. Dabbagh emphasized that neither his brother nor nephew had participated in the initially peaceful protests against the Syrian government, which responded with mass arrests, torture, and widespread human rights violations. These actions have been widely condemned by UN officials.
“The Syrian regime not only tortured and executed prisoners but also extorted our family, demanding huge sums in exchange for information or their release,” he told the UN panel. “Later, they forcibly expelled Mazen’s wife and daughter from our family home in Damascus.”
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A Fight Against Impunity
“This fight is bigger than just my family,” Mr. Dabbagh continued. “It is part of a universal movement to seek justice and hold perpetrators accountable for war crimes.”
Mr. Dabbagh’s legal efforts aim not only to obtain justice for Mazen and Patrick but also to contribute to the global fight against the atrocities committed by the Syrian government.
Before their arrests, Mazen worked as a teaching assistant at a French college in Damascus, while Patrick was a psychology student at Damascus University. Desperate to find them, their family sought help from the Syrian and French governments, international organizations, the Red Cross, and the European Union.
In 2016, with support from the International Federation for Human Rights (FIDH), the family filed a complaint with the Paris Prosecutor’s Office, accusing Syrian officials of crimes against humanity.
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French Legal Action Leads to Key Convictions
The legal case allowed French authorities to open an investigation, gathering testimonies—including from Syrian defectors. This led to an indictment in March 2023, charging three senior Syrian officials with complicity in crimes against humanity and war crimes.
Following a trial in France last May, Ali Mamlouk, Jamil Hassan, and Abdel Salam Mahmoud were sentenced in absentia to life imprisonment. They were convicted of complicity in unlawful detention, torture, enforced disappearance, and murder, as well as property confiscation classified as a war crime.
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International Framework for Justice
The UN Committee on Enforced Disappearances oversees the implementation of the International Convention for the Protection of All Persons from Enforced Disappearance. This treaty, adopted by the UN General Assembly in 2006 and enforced since 2010, obligates signatory states to:
– Prohibit secret detention
– Search for missing persons
– Criminalize enforced disappearance
– Prosecute those responsible
However, international prosecution faces challenges. Syria has not ratified the PLACEHOLDERdf080923f118d912, which would allow the PLACEHOLDERe38d2dfc627cc536 to investigate crimes committed there. Additionally, the UN Security Council has not passed a resolution referring the situation in Syria to the ICC.
Given these obstacles, independent rights expert Fidelis Kanyongolo stressed the importance of extra-territorial jurisdiction, which allows other countries to prosecute crimes when the domestic justice system is ineffective.
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A Landmark Global Agreement
The International Convention for the Protection of All Persons from Enforced Disappearance remains the first universally binding human rights treaty addressing the issue.
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