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Proposals by Mizan Regarding the Procedural Elements Framework of the Institution on Missing Persons

Proposals by Mizan for Legal Studies and Human Rights

Regarding the Procedural Elements Framework of the Institution on Missing Persons

Mizan for Legal Studies and Human Rights welcomes United Nations General Assembly Resolution No. 79/— of April 2023, which established an independent international institution on missing persons, with the mandate to clarify their fate and whereabouts and to provide support to victims, their families, and survivors, with their meaningful participation as a structural component of the institution.

Mizan considers this resolution a landmark precedent in international law, as it adopts a practical, victim-centered approach. We commend the proposal put forward by the International Commission of Inquiry in its initial reports, the efforts of the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights, the support of the UN Secretary-General, and the positions of the 83 States that voted in favor of the resolution. We also express our deep appreciation for the courage, determination, and awareness demonstrated by victims’ families and associations, and affirm that this resolution would not have come into existence without their sustained struggle for truth and justice.

In light of the participation of Mizan’s legal advisor in separate consultative sessions with the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights in Geneva in early April 2022—which resulted in a set of proposals submitted to the OHCHR office in Beirut—and following our meeting with OHCHR on 23 August 2023, Mizan hereby submits the following proposals for consideration and inclusion in the procedural elements framework of the newly established institution.

I. Institutional Structure

In order to strike a balance between the need for effective participation of victims’ representatives and the technical and professional requirements entrusted to experts—similar to the structure of the IIIM—we propose designing the institution under a model distinct from investigative mechanisms, as follows:

  1. Commissioners: A body of seven commissioners, including the Chair, three of whom shall be representatives of victims. These representatives shall be selected on a rotating basis by victims’ associations and families, with due consideration to the inclusion of one woman representing families and one woman representing survivors.
  2. Operational Teams: Teams responsible for outreach, investigation, documentation, verification, information gathering and analysis, and drafting reports and outputs shall be appointed by the United Nations from among its specialized staff, as well as qualified Syrian activists and experts.
  3. Advisory Council: An advisory council comprising representatives of Syrian human rights organizations working on the issue, as well as relevant international organizations. The council shall meet periodically with the commissioners and management to discuss findings and provide recommendations, ensuring meaningful participation of women.

II. Scope of Mandate

  1. Geographical Scope: The mandate shall cover all missing persons in Syria, including Syrians and non-Syrians, as well as all missing persons who left Syria after 2011, including Syrians and Palestinians similarly situated.
  2. Temporal Scope: The mandate shall cover all missing persons since 2011, and extend to include missing persons in Syria dating back to 1970.
  3. Case Intake and Prioritization: The institution shall adopt an inclusive standard for receiving and registering reports, while applying a phased and prioritized approach to investigation, starting with incidents that occurred on Syrian territory after 2011.

III. Funding

  1. The institution shall be allocated a dedicated line item within the UN regular budget. Relevant actors within the Fifth Committee should ensure a rapid response that fully covers operational costs, including capacity-building for victims, families, and Syrian organizations.
  2. Donor States shall be encouraged to increase contributions to the United Nations Voluntary Fund for Victims of Torture, with a recommendation that the Fund allocate a proportion reflecting the scale and severity of suffering of Syrian victims, recognizing enforced disappearance and affected families as victims of torture.
  3. OCHA and other UN humanitarian actors, donor governments, and international and Syrian organizations shall be encouraged to prioritize families and victims in a manner sufficient to secure livelihoods, education, healthcare, and other basic needs.
  4. The new institution shall establish coordination mechanisms with donors and implementing partners of protection, documentation, governance, awareness-raising, training, and capacity-building projects, to ensure priority access for victims, including allocating a percentage of project positions to survivors and affected families.
  5. Donors shall be encouraged to prioritize funding within the institution’s mandate to cooperating civil society organizations, and to increase allocations for projects supporting Syrian victims within governmental and international donor budgets.

IV. Working Modalities

  1. The institution shall be enabled to receive and examine satellite imagery—both historical and live—of all potential sites of official and unofficial detention facilities, checkpoints, places of detention, military and exceptional courts, hospitals, and mass graves, at intervals determined by the institution.
  2. International documentation entities shall be encouraged to share data relevant to the institution’s mandate.
  3. Syrian documentation organizations shall be invited to share missing persons’ case files with the institution, subject to the informed consent of witnesses and families.
  4. The institution shall employ modern technologies and develop dedicated digital tools or artificial intelligence systems for data collection, analysis, and secure storage.
  5. The institution shall provide accessible reporting mechanisms, both electronically and physically, through its offices or field teams in areas where witnesses and families are located.
  6. The institution shall work with human rights organizations to promote awareness of the importance of documentation for truth, redress, accountability, and guarantees of non-recurrence, and shall provide the necessary human and logistical resources.
  7. The institution shall issue periodic reports and brief the Secretary-General, the Security Council, the General Assembly, and the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights every three months, publish its findings on its website, and specifically inform families of any results concerning the fate of their loved ones.

V. Effectiveness

  1. Friendly States and UN bodies shall use all available means under international law to compel cooperation by the Assad regime with the institution, including enabling access to and inspection of official and unofficial detention facilities, hospitals, cemeteries, and examination of detainee, deceased, and patient records.
  2. The United Nations shall recommend that governments of neighboring, host, and transit countries cooperate with the mechanism by sharing relevant data and facilitating the work, movement, and access of its teams and witnesses.
  3. The institution shall respond to requests from international courts, as well as courts and prosecution authorities in European States exercising universal jurisdiction, and shall share relevant case files concerning matters under consideration.