The Hague, 20 May 2025 – The International Commission on Missing Persons (ICMP) welcomes the establishment of Syria’s National Transitional Justice Commission and National Commission for Missing Persons, announced by Presidential Decree on 17 May 2025.
These two Commissions offer a critical opportunity to investigate serious human rights violations committed over the last several decades and to determine the fate of up to 200,000 missing persons. The creation of these institutions is an important demonstration of a state assuming its responsibility to investigate atrocity crimes, including those linked to missing persons and is internationally recognized as best practice for locating and identifying large numbers of missing individuals.
ICMP Director-General Kathryne Bomberger said: “The establishment of Syria’s National Transitional Justice Commission and National Commission for Missing Persons is an important first step towards justice and accountability. We hope these institutions will support securing the rights of survivors of atrocity crimes, including families of the missing, to justice, truth and reparations.” She added, “Syria has a daunting task ahead of it, but proper coordination among all stakeholders, including the Syrian authorities, Syrian civil society, families of the missing and the international community, will be key to addressing this enormous undertaking, including building these two institutions through a consultative process. ICMP stands ready to work with its partners to support these initiatives and to provide the newly established Syrian Commissions with practical and targeted assistance.”
Estimates of the number of people missing from Syria run as high as 200,000. This includes persons missing as a consequence of summary execution, arbitrary and incommunicado detention, kidnapping and abduction, enslavement, sarin gas attacks, forced displacement and migration, as well as other human rights abuses. The fighting and day-to-day ravages of war have also resulted in combatants and civilians of many nationalities going missing. Syrians have sought refuge in Jordan, Lebanon and Turkey, or have joined the dangerous migration across the Mediterranean. The conflict in Syria, like conflicts in Iraq, Libya and elsewhere in the MENA region, has therefore had a major impact on neighboring countries and countries throughout the Mediterranean.