Rights Organisations call for human rights defenders in Syria to be released

A prominent human rights defender and three of her colleagues believed to be in the custody of an armed opposition group should immediately be freed, 45 civil society organizations said today. Razan Zeitouneh, Wael Hamada, Samira Khalil, and Nazem Hammadi were abducted on December 9 2013, in Douma, outside Damascus.

The organisations said that “the armed groups exercising de facto control over Douma should release the activists if they are in their custody, or investigate their abduction and work for their release… Countries supportive of these groups, and religious leaders who can influence them, should also press for the immediate and unconditional release of the activists and for an end to abductions.”

A group of armed men abducted Zeitouneh; Hamada, Zeitouneh’s husband; Khalil and Hammadi from their office at the Violations Documentation Center (VDC) in Douma. A statement by the VDC said that “an unknown armed group” had stormed into the office, confiscated laptops and documents, and abducted the rights defenders on December 9. Since then, there has been no information on the health, status or whereabouts of Zeitouneh and her team, and no group has claimed responsibility for their abduction or made requests in return for their release.

A coalition of organisations including Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch and the Arabic Network for Human Rights Information urged both government and armed opposition groups to stop arbitrarily arresting, abducting and detaining people for their peaceful, journalistic, and humanitarian activities – in line with United Nations Security Council resolution 2139, which demands the release of all arbitrarily detained people in Syria.

Co-signing organizations in alphabetical order:

1. Amnesty International
2. Arabic Network for Human Rights Information (ANHRI)
3. Association Tunisienne des Femmes Démocrates (AFTD)
   
4. Dawlaty Foundation
5. Damascus Center for Human Rights Studies
6. Cairo Institute for Human Rights Studies
7. Center for civil society and democracy in Syria (CCSDS)
8. Collectif des Familles de Disparus en Algérie (CFDA)
9. Euro-Mediterranean Human Rights Network
10. Egyptian Initiative for Personal Rights (EIPR)
11. Etana Syria
12. Fraternity Center for Democracy and Civil Society
13. Free Syrian Lawyers
14. Front Line Defenders
15. Freedom Days
16. Friends for a NonViolent World
17. Gulf Centre for Human Rights, Lebanon
18. Human Rights Watch
19. Human Rights Association of Turkey (Insan Haklari Derneği – IHD)
20. Hivos
21. Institute for War and Peace Reporting
22. International Media Support (IMS)
23. KISA Action for Equality, Support, Anti-racism
24. Kvinna till Kvinna
25. Kurdish Organization for Defending Human Rights and Public Freedoms (DAD)
26. Lawyers for Lawyers
27. Ligue Algérienne pour la défense des droits de l’Homme (LADDH)
28. Reporters Without Borders
29. Right to Nonviolence
30. Samir Kassir Foundation
31. Syrian Network for Human Rights
32. Syria Justice & Accountability Center
33. Syrian Nonviolence Movement
34. Syrian Center for Media and Freedom of Expression (SCM)
35. Solicitors International Human Rights Group
36. Syrian Observatory For Human Rights
37. Syrian Organization for Human Rights (Sawasyah)
38. Syrian Kurdish Center (S.K.C)
39. The Day After (TDA)
40. The Lebanese Center for Human Rights (CLDH)
41. The Syrian Center for Democracy and Development Rights SCDR
42. The International Federation for Human Rights (FIDH), within the framework of the Observatory for the Protection of Human Rights Defenders
43. Violations Documentation Center (VDC)
44. World Organization against Torture (OMCT), within the framework of the Observatory for the Protection of Human Rights Defenders
45. Women’s International League for Peace and Freedom