A hundred days pass on betrayal of the Syrian revolution, which started its fourth year on March 15, 2014. A hundred days since November 09,2013, the date of Kidnapping the writer and the human rights activist Razan Zaitouneh and her husbsand the peaceful activist Wa’el Hammada , with the former political detainee Samira Al Khalil (1987-1991) for being a member of the Labor Party for Communist , and the poet and lawyer Nazim Hammadi. When unidentified veiled men break into the joint office of the (VDC) – Violations Documentation Center – and (LDSPS) – Local Development and Support of Small Enterprises – in Duma, which is a part of the East Gouta- Damascus suburb . This area is under the control of a number of armed opposition groups and surrounded by the government troops.
A hundred days witnessed European Union and several international human rights organizations denounce (more than 16 Syrian, Arabic and international organizations), also widely condemnation by intellectuals and activists – Syrians and Arabs – for the kidnapping, which is a crime against humanity. That According to the ” Declaration on the Protection all persons from Enforced Disappearance ” which was adopted by the General Assembly of the United Nations on December 18, 1992, No. 47/133 , which mentions the protection afforded for the victims in armed conflicts given by Geneva Conventions of August 12 , 1949 and their Additional Protocols of 1977, its first Article says:
(Each act of enforced disappearances is a crime against the human dignity).
We – at the ” Syrian Center for Media and Freedom of Expression ” emphasize on the duty of dominant groups ( armed and political ) in areas out of governmental control- as East Gouta – of protecting Civilians, and we hold them the responsibility for the lives and safety of the four forcibly disappeared, and we demand them to disclose their detention place immediately, and to refer the kidnappers to a public fair trial, and these authorities should bear all the subsequent legal accountability that is caused by their silence or sharing this crime, as :
( – In addition to the criminal applicable penalties, the acts of enforced disappearances must be followed with civil liability for the perpetrators and the civil liability for the State or its authorities that organized, approved or condoned the disappearance acts mentioned.
– May not be invoked by any order or instruction of any public authority, civilian or military, or otherwise to justify an act of enforced disappearance. And everyone receives such orders or instructions has the right not to obey it.
– May not take any circumstances whatsoever, whether a threat of war, a state of war, internal political instability or any other emergency circumstance, as means to justify enforced disappearances.(
Materials 5-6-7 – from the Declaration: The Protection all Persons from Enforced Disappearance.
We also lay stress on the stipulated in the first paragraph of Article 17 ( Each act of the enforced disappearance acts is considered as continuous crime continued as long as the perpetrators continue to be reticent about the fate of the victims of disappearance and there hiding place, and as these facts remain without clarification ).
Note that Razan Zaitouneh is prosecuted since the revolution first months because of her activity and participation in supporting of the protests for change in Syria , and later for her work in documenting human rights violations committed by the Syrian government in the context of the conflict in Syria through the ” Violations Documentation Center” which finally forced her to Go to Gouta , where she founded an office (Local Development and Support of Small Enterprises) LDSPS which cares about providing a human assistance, in particular supporting the women in Gouta area.
Zaytouneh, who has many international awards, graduated from Faculty of Law, Damascus in 2000, and was a member of the defense team for political prisoners and prisoners of conscience since that. In 2005, she founded, ” Human Rights Information Link in Syria” to serve as a database system for violations of human rights by Syrian government in the country, as well as the lawyer Nazim Hammadi is known for his voluntary work in defending the detainees in ” Damascus Spring ” and the ” Damascus Declaration “.
The delay of uncovering the fate of the four Kidnapped persons , and the continued silence about this action , which is an essence for a clear violation of both the values and principles that has launched the revolution demanding change in Syria , more than in the connotations goals direct from being pursuant aims to eliminate any civil and peaceful voice , diverse religiously, intellectually and culturally, as is Syria , and becoming a threat to the future of Syria to remain the cockpit of violations of human rights and dignity .
