Disappearance in Syria: A Moment of Truth

The Syrian Network for Human Rights recently estimated that 136,000 people were forceably disappeared during the Bashar-al-Assad régime. This would be a staggering number for any nation, but in a country with population of roughly 23 million, it implies that the vast majority of Syrians personally know someone who was disappeared.

The scale and scope of these facts became visible immediately after the fall of Assad, when people turned to the country's prisons in the hope of finding their loved ones still alive, and then subsequently to military barracks, police stations and archives, and finally to public squares seeking answers. Photos of the faces of the disappeared circulate on sheets of paper, with their relatives' contact information. The whirl of all of this searching, and the accompanying push to document what actually happened to those who are missing has thus become a moment for piecing together local and national events of the past dozen years, and the search for friends and family is leading a push to discover a collective truth. Indeed, such a moment of truth-building is a requirement for the construction of any real peace, and Syria's disappeared are, today, providing the threads of truths that must be discovered, recognized and socially processed in order for the nation to build on a new and hopeful moment.

Recognizing this, our "Disappearances in Syria" conference shall address questions that are both "large" and "small." "Small," because one of our objectives is to familiarize our audiences with some of the bare facts of disappearances in Syria, and "large" because we also wish to understand how the disappeared are being sought, how the various cases and patterns of disappearances are being documented, and how the truth that is emerging during this moment of catharsis is being discussed in a deeply fractured, wounded, society.

• Fadel Abdulghany, Founder and Executive Director, Syrian Network for Human Rights (SNHR)
• Yasmen Almashan, Founding Member, Caesar Families Association
• Mais Atassi, Campaigner & Human Rights Activist
• Kinan Azmeh, Clarinet Player and Composer
• Fadi A. Bardawil, Associate Professor, Asian and Middle Eastern Studies, Duke University
• Nousha Kabawat, Head of the Syria Program, International Center for Transitional Justice (ICTJ)
• Amneh Khoulani, Executive Director, Adalaty Centre
• Sana Mustafa, Movement Leader in the Forced Displacement Sector; Feminist Human Rights Activist; Former Chief Executive Officer, Asylum Access
• Karla Quintana, Head of the Independent Institution on Missing Persons in the Syrian Arab Republic
• Joumana Seif, Legal Expert at the European Center for Constitutional and Human Rights
• Yassin Swehat, Cofounder and Editor, Aljumhuriya.net
• Sana Yazigi, Founder and Editor-in-Chief, Creative Memory of the Syrian Revolution

• Nadia Abu El-Haj, Ann Whitney Olin Professor, Departments of Anthropology, Barnard College & Columbia University
• Claudio Lomnitz, Campbell Family Professor and Chair, Department of Anthropology, Columbia University
• Saphe Shamoun, PhD Candidate, Department of Anthropology, Columbia University
• Lisa Wedeen, Mary R. Morton Distinguished Service Professor of Political Science and the College and Director of the Chicago Center for Contemporary Theory at the University of Chicago

Claudio Lomnitz and Lisa Wedeen

Moderator: Lisa Wedeen

Speakers:

Sana Mustafa – Disappeared but Never Forgotten: Syria's Disappeared Persons Future

Yasmeen Almashan – The Search for Truth and Justice: How Can Victims and Their Families Participate Effectively?

Mais Atassi – The Role of Syria’s Grassroots Groups in Seeking Truth and Justice for the Disappeared

Nousha Kabawat – From Advocacy to Action: Steps in the Search for Syria’s Missing and Disappeared

Moderator: Saphe Shamoun

Speakers:

Amneh Khoulani – Women's Role in Transitional Justice in Syria

Yassin Swehat – Evading Erasure: How Forced Disappearance Shaped the Politics of Visibility in Syria’s Political and Cultural Activism During the Revolution

Sana Yazigi – Does Art Hinder Tyranny and Prevent It from Happening Again?

Moderator: Fadi Bardawil

Speakers:

Joumana Seif – Understanding the Legal, Economic, and Social Challenges of Families of the Disappeared

Fadel Abdulghany – Towards Political Pluralism: Forming a Transitional Justice Body?

Fadi Bardawil – Reconciliation, Reconstruction, Remembrance: The View from Lebanon

Karla Quintana – The Independent Institution on Missing Persons in Syria: Mandate and Future Steps

Notes:

• Registration is required.
• Breakfast and lunch will be provided on a first come, first served basis.
• SSDL will livestream the event on your YouTube channel.

This event is organized by the Social Study of Disappearance Lab, co-sponsored by the Middle East Institute at Columbia University.

Event Venue & Nearby Stays

Columbia University, Schermerhorn Extension, Scheps Seminar Room, 1200 Amsterdam Avenue, New York, United States