Syria is marking its first International Day of the Victims of Enforced Disappearances since the fall of former President Bashar al-Assad, as the country grapples with lingering questions over the fate of the many thousands who disappeared during the country’s civil war.
In a report released on Saturday to coincide with the annual commemoration, the Syrian Network for Human Rights (SNHR) said this year holds “particular significance” as it received a major increase in the number of cases since al-Assad was toppled in December.
Desperate families flocked to former detention centres, prisons, morgues, and mass grave sites to try to find their missing relatives after al-Assad’s removal, and investigators gained unprecedented access to government documents, witness accounts and human remains.
“A limited number of detainees were released alive, while the fate of tens of thousands remained unknown, rendering them forcibly disappeared,” SNHR said on Saturday. “This revealed a major tragedy that affected Syrian society as a whole.”
The rights group said in its report that at least 177,057 people, including 4,536 children and 8,984 women, were forcibly disappeared in Syria between March 2011 and August 2025.
It estimated that the former government was responsible for more than 90 percent of those cases.
“Al-Assad’s regime has systematically adopted a policy of enforced disappearance to terrorize and collectively punish society, targeting dissidents and civilians from various regions and affiliations,” SNHR said.
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