In 2013 a UN panel concluded that the crime of enforced disappearances in Syria was widespread and used as "tactic of war." Amongst the patterns identified, the panel was concerned over the prevalence of disappearance of individuals at checkpoints and highlighted that such practice was used by the government to punish those they suspect of supporting the opposition. Inside the Syrian military, enforced disappearance is also used as a tool to punish all those suspected of planning to defect.

Entrance of Adra Prison in Damascus. Credit photo: Reuters Ammar Tellawi, a 36-year-old peaceful activist and PhD student at Damascus University disappeared in July 2014 from Adra prison where he was detained. After family visits were denied, Ammar was transferred to another unknown location, and the prison administration refused to give his relatives any information on his fate and whereabouts. Therefore, on 22 April 2016 Alkarama seized the United Nations Working Group on Enforced or Involuntary Disappearances (WGEID), in the hope that it will help shed light on his whereabouts.

In April 2016, Alkarama documented two more cases of enforced disappearance that took place in Syria in 2012 and 2013. The first case is that of Rami Al Jadi, a 25-year-old worker, who on 23 July 2012, was with two of his friends in a Damascus neighbourhood, when they were arrested by officers of the Syrian Army, who did not give any reason for the arrest. The families never received any official information on their fate and whereabouts. However, a former co-detainee reported that Al Jadi was detained in Sednaya prison, a prison under the control of the Military, where torture is routinely practiced, resulting in a high number of deaths, as documented by a recent report of the Independent International Commission of Inquiry on the Syrian Arab Republic (CoI). Nevertheless, when they reached out to Sednaya’s prison authorities, Al Jadi’s relatives had to face their refusal to provide any information.

In April 2016, Alkarama wrote to the United Nations Working Group on Enforced Disappearances (WGEID) regarding the cases of three Syrian citizens, Qassab Jamal, Mohammad Saleem al Sharqa – who had already been arrested in 2012 for their participation in peaceful demonstrations – and Nassir Al Nuaimi. All three Syrian citizens disappeared after their arrest by the security services between 2012 and 2014. Alkarama hopes that the WGEID will be able to help disclose their whereabouts.