A 32-year old physics teacher from Douma, a suburb of Damascus, Fawaz was abducted because of her human rights activism, including organising peaceful demonstrations for the women of Douma and keeping records of detainees and missing people at the start of the Syrian revolution. Connected to local human rights organisations, she volunteered on numerous humanitarian missions, including travelling to the besieged city of Homs in 2011 to help provide food and medicine.

A few days after her she disappeared, her family tried to locate her and went to see Government representatives. However, as in other cases of enforced disappearances documented by Alkarama in Syria, the authorities denied Fawaz' detention. Fearing reprisals, her relatives chose not to take any further steps to find her. Alkarama is extremely concerned with Fawaz' transfer, as she was probably was moved to another Intelligence Services' branch where she is likely to be tortured again.

Alkarama therefore called on the UN Working Group on Enforced or Involuntary Disappearances to intervene with the Syrian authorities and ask that Fawaz be immediately released or, at the very least, placed under the protection of the law and allowed visits by her family. Moreover, if the reports of torture on her person are confirmed, a thorough and impartial investigation should be opened and those responsible brought to justice. The Syrian crisis will and shall never be an excuse to abduct, secretly detain and arbitrarily execute civilians. The authorities should urgently put an end to these grave practices.

For more information or an interview, please contact the media team at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. (Dir: +41 22 734 1007 Ext: 810)