Nizar Al Hirakey (second right), Ambassador of Syria to Qatar, with embassy officials and other guests touring the “Syrian Detainees, Freed in Death” exhibition organised by the Syrian Embassy and the Syrian Human Rights Network at the Diplomatic Club on
DOHA: No less than 118,829 persons are still under arrest or have been forcibly disappeared since the onset of the Syrian crisis, latest figures from Syrian Network for Human Rights (SNHR) have revealed.
To emphasise the urgent need for states to take action in order to save the remaining detainees imprisoned in the Syrian regime’s detention centers, SNHR in cooperation with the Syrian Embassy in Qatar has launched a travelling exhibition in Doha. Founded in 2011, SNHR is a non-government, independent group considered a primary source of United Nations’ Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) on all death toll-related analyses in Syria.
Titled “Syrian Detainees, Freed in Death,” the exhibition features artistic rendering of 39 photos of victims from among thousands of enforced disappearance in Syria, fates of whom are unknown to their families to date while some are believed to have died in detention centres.
Fadel Abdul Ghani, Director of the Syrian Network for Human Rights, speaking to The Peninsula on the sidelines of the exhibition.
Speaking to The Peninsula on the sidelines of the exhibition’s launch on Monday, Fadel Abdul Ghani, Director of SNHR, stressed the urgent need for states to get involved in this crucial humanitarian issue. “We at Syrian Network for Human Rights have issued tens of reports about the detainees in Syria for almost eight years. Now we move to the art side since art sees different types of audience and the impact of art itself is different from that of report and research,” said Abdul Ghani. He stressed, “We need more engagement from the government level and sympathy from the population as well. This is the core idea of this exhibition.”
“This will be a travelling exhibition. Doha is just the beginning. It will move around the world, from to Paris to London to New York and DC to Istanbul, to several other countries in order to emphasise the message to different audiences. We also need to engage the government to follow up on this important issue,” he said. The exhibition sheds light on the latest data from two extensive SNHR reports outlining the details of the issue since the start of the uprising in Syria, compiled through exhaustive analysis and cross-checking of data. According to SNHR database, to date at least 95,056 individuals are still forcibly disappeared in the hands of the parties to the conflict between March 2011 and August 2018. It also said a total of 14,024 individuals died due to torture in the hands of the parties to the conflict, from March 2011 to September 2018 and that no less than 118, 829 individuals are still under arrest or forcibly disappeared by the main parties to the conflict.
The exhibition also details the various methods of tortures believed to have been used in Syrian detention centres. The event also witnessed victims of arbitrary arrest and detention share their experiences including Nizar Al Hirakey, Ambassador of Syria to Qatar, and Amna Khulani, a mother of three and activist in the Syrian revolution.
Khulani was detained along with her husband and her three brothers arrested and died due to torture. She along with other female Syrian activists founded Families for Freedom whose goal is to demand freedom for all the detainees, to reveal the fate of the missing and justice for the martyrs in Syrian detention centres. The exhibition was held at The Diplomatic Club on Monday and, according to Abdul Ghani, will be open again for the public for ten days, details of which will be announced later.
