As the world marked the International Day of the Victims of Enforced Disappearances, the Tahrir Institute for Middle East Policy (TIMEP) hosted a virtual event on Tuesday, September 5, 2023 to shed light on the haunting reality of enforced disappearances in Syria, Iraq, Egypt, and Lebanon. For far too long, families have endured the torment of uncertainty, facing the burden of representing their loved ones, not knowing anything about their whereabouts and whether they are still alive.
With deliberate disregard for the rule of law, regimes, security apparatuses, and armed groups across the MENA region have systematically used enforced disappearances to intimidate their own people, arbitrarily targeting journalists, activists, opposition members, and ordinary citizens for baseless charges or no official charges at all. Those affected typically have limited or nonexistent access to legal representation, and the families of those who disappear have precious little information about their loved ones’ cases or none at all. The practice has shattered lives and served as a weapon of oppression and war.
In a discussion moderated by Amnesty International’s Bissan Fakih, speakers Wafa Mustafa (Syria), Widad Halawani (Lebanon), Wadad Hamadi Al-Shommari (Iraq), and Sara Mohamed (Egypt) shared their personal experiences with enforced disappearances and compared the different political contexts within which the tactic has been used. Speakers unpacked questions such as: How do perpetrators use disappearances to wage psychological warfare on their populations? How are families and survivors organizing for justice, accountability, and an end to the crime? What should the international community understand about enforced disappearance as a systematic practice and as a life-altering experience for those whose loved ones have disappeared?
This event took place primarily in Arabic with live English interpretation available.
تزامننًا مع إحياء العالم لذكرى اليوم العالمي لضحايا الاختفاء القسري، بادروا بالانضمام إلى الندوة التي يُنظمها معهد التحرير لسياسات الشرق الاوسط TIMEP وذلك يوم الثلاثاء الموافق ٥ سبتمبر/أيلول في تمام العاشرة صباحًا بتوقيت شرق الولايات المتحدة. تُسلط الندوة الضوء على الواقع المؤلم لحالات الاختفاء القسري في كل من سوريا والعراق ومصر ولبنان، حيث عانت عائلات المختفين قسريًا لفترة طويلة جداً من حالة عدم اليقين حول أماكن ذويهم، وإذا ما كانوا على قيد الحياة أم لا، كما تحمّلت تلك العائلات أعباء البوح والتعبير عن مآسي ذويهم.
قامت الأنظمة والأجهزة الأمنية والجماعات المسلحة في جميع أنحاء منطقة الشرق الأوسط وشمال إفريقيا باستخدام الاختفاء القسري بشكل ممنهج لتخويف شعبها متجاهلةً بذلك سيادة القانون بشكل متعمد، كما استهدفت الصحفيين والناشطين والمعارضين والمواطنين العاديين بشكل تعسفي عبر إلصاق تهم لا أساس لها أو حتى بدون أي اتهامات رسمية على الإطلاق. عادةً ما يكون لدى المتضررين وصول محدود (إن وجد أصلًا) إلى التمثيل القانوني، ولدى أُسر المختفين معلومات بسيطة لكنها ذات قيمة حول ما آلت إليه قضايا أحبائهم فيما لا يملك آخرون أي معلومات على الإطلاق.
في النقاش الذي ستديره بيسان فقيه، ستشارك المتحدثات وفا مصطفى ووداد حلواني ووداد حمادي كاظم وسارة محمد تجاربهن الشخصية مع الاختفاء القسري وسيقمن بمقارنة أوجه السياق السياسي المختلفة التي تم فيها استخدام هذا النهج. كما سيقوم المتحدثون بإماطة اللثام عن بعض النقاط عبر الإجابة عن أسئلة مثل: كيف يستخدم الجناة الاختفاء القسري لشن حرب نفسية على مواطنيهم؟ كيف تسعى العائلات والناجون والناجيات من أجل تحقيق العدالة والمساءلة القانونية وإنهاء الجريمة؟ ما الذي ينبغي أن يفهمه المجتمع الدولي حيال الاختفاء القسري باعتباره ممارسة ممنهجة وتجربة مريرة تُغير حياة أولئك الذين تعرض أحبائهم للاختفاء القسري؟
Watch the discussion in Arabic:
A recording of the English interpretation of the session is forthcoming. Check back soon!
Speaker profiles:
Wafa Mustafa (وفا مصطفى)
Syrian Activist, Journalist, and Nonresident Fellow, the Tahrir Institute for Middle East PolicyWafa Mustafa (she/her) is a Nonresident Fellow at TIMEP focusing on victim-centric justice in Syria. She is an activist, a journalist, and an advocate for Syria’s disappeared. Following her father’s forced disappearance by the Assad regime, Wafa fled Syria to Turkey in 2013 before completing her studies at Bard College Berlin in Germany. Wafa’s advocacy focuses on the impact of detention and enforced disappearance on families, the rights of refugees, and the urgency of international justice and accountability for the crimes of the Assad regime. Recently, she co-founded the Free Syria’s Disappeared coalition, which fights for freedom and safety for all of Syria’s disappeared through awareness-raising efforts and campaigns. Wafa is also a member of civil society communities in Syria and across the region. You can follow her on Twitter: @wafamustafa9.
Wadad Halawani (وداد حلواني)
President and Founder, the Committee of the Families of the Kidnapped and Disappeared in Lebanon (لجنة أهالي المخطوفين والمفقودين في لبنان)Wadad Halawani is the wife of a missing person and the director of the Committee of the Families of the Kidnapped and Disappeared in Lebanon, which she founded in 1982. After 36 years of struggle and several national campaigns, together with the committee and local and international supporters of the cause, the committee succeeded in securing the passage of Lebanon’s Missing and Forcibly Disappeared Law (No. 105 of 2018). The law established an independent National Commission for the Missing and Forcibly Disappeared, and Halawani was appointed a member and a representative of the people to activate the commission and facilitate its efforts to reveal the fate of all the missing and forcibly disappeared.
Sara Mohamed (سارة محمد)
Researcher and Human Rights AdvocateSara Mohamed has been a researcher at the Egyptian Commission for Rights and Freedoms (ECRF) for the last 8 years. Ms. Mohamed has 12 years of on-the-ground experience in grassroots organizing, human rights research and documentation, and advocacy campaigns. Her work with families and victims has provided her with unique expertise in documenting human rights violations and data collection. In this past decade, she has worked on torture, extrajudicial killings, abuses in dentation centers, and enforced disappearances. Her expert opinion on the political and human rights situations in Egypt have been featured in the New York Times, The Washington Post, The Guardian, Le Monde, among other international news and media outlets. Ms. Mohamed had collaborated in different capacities with international organizations such as Human Rights Watch, Amnesty International, and Reprieve.
Wadad Hammadi Kazem Al-Shammari (الاسم وداد حمادي كاظم الشمري)
Iraqi Activist and Volunteer, the Al-Haq Foundation for Human RightsWidad Hammadi Kazem Al-Shammari is a political activist and volunteer with the Al-Haq Foundation for Human Rights, an independent civil society organization based in Baghdad, Iraq.
Bissan Fakih (بيسان فقيه)
Regional Campaigner on Iraq and Yemen, Amnesty InternationalBissan is Amnesty International’s Regional Campaigner on Iraq and Yemen. Before that, she was Senior Campaigner for Digital Action where she worked on the intersection of human rights and tech, advocating for equitable solutions to digital threats to human rights. She also served as Campaign Director for The Syria Campaign where she campaigned on issues of protection of civilians and enforced disappearance and was deeply involved in supporting the Families for Freedom and the White Helmets. Bissan holds an MA in Human Rights from the University in London. She is a board member of SMEX, Dawlaty and The Syria Campaign and an advisory board member of Bread&Net.