‘Don’t give up’: The search for missing Syrian women continues

He found a photo of his brother, Uqba, among the “Caesar photos,” a collection of images smuggled out of Syria in 2013 that documented the deaths of thousands of people in government custody. It was that discovery, he said, that prompted him to act.

“I took the initiative to seek the truth for all victims who do not know the fate of their loved ones,” said Ms. Al-Mashaan, who serves on Syria’s National Commission for Transitional Justice.

That drive has made him one of the country’s leading figures in the search for the truth about missing persons in Syria.

She was among those at UN Headquarters on Monday when the General Assembly adopted a resolution designating December 19 as the International Day of Recognition for Women Searching for Missing Persons.

Read the full General Assembly resolution Here.

‘Award for courage’

Estimates suggest that the number of missing people ranges between 130,000 and 300,000, according to the Independent Foundation for Missing Persons in Syria.

“Women searching for their missing loved ones bear the burden of uncertainty for years, often decades, because they refuse to let their missing people be forgotten,” said Carla Quintana, president of the foundation. UN News.

He said the General Assembly resolution reflected “this international recognition is a tribute to the courage, perseverance and extraordinary contributions of these women in the search for truth.”

Endurance and sacrifice

said Mrs. Al-Mashaan UN News that the new General Assembly resolution means “all the resilience and sacrifices made have been honored by recognizing women’s right to search for their loved ones.”

She described her long journey searching for the truth and rallied support for a resolution honoring women searching for missing people around the world.

She also founded the Caesar Families Association with the families of victims of enforced disappearances in Syria: she has a message to all female fighters and those searching for their loved ones.

“Don’t give up.”

‘A truly active role’

Amina Khoulani, a member of the National Commission for Missing Persons of Syria, never gave up after her arrest and detention – along with members of her family – by the overthrown Bashar Al-Assad regime in 2003.

“At the beginning of the Syrian revolution, I was involved in the struggle for human rights, and as a result of this involvement, my husband, my four brothers and I were arrested and imprisoned in regime prisons,” she said.

When she, her husband and one of her brothers were released from detention, three other family members were executed in Sednaya prison, she recalled, explaining her journey to leave Syria and settle in Lebanon and then England.

Ms Khoulani, who helped found the first Syrian women’s association to search for missing people in Syria, said the new Assembly decision reflected “an affirmation that the role of women is not a secondary one, but a truly active one”.

The power of hope

For Debra Tice, mother of missing US journalist Austin Tice, the General Assembly’s decision was important and courageous.

Describing the special pain mothers experience when they lose their loved ones, he told all those searching to “maintain your desire to find them and know exactly where they are.”

“The best thing you can hope for is to embrace them [the missing] again, if possible, if they are found, if they can get out of somewhere and back into the arms of their loved ones,” he said. UN News.

Highlighting the power of hope, Ambassador Ibrahim Al-Ulabi, Permanent Representative of Syria to the UN, said the many Syrian women involved in the search for missing and missing persons have shouldered enormous burdens and undertaken extraordinary tasks.

“We don’t just want to remember the suffering, we also want to remember the resilience and efforts that have been made,” he said. “And we hope that, as we move forward in this new chapter of Syria’s history, we can also recall that hope.”