Survivors of torture in Syrian prisons and families of those still detained or missing launched their first collective appeal to the international community on Wednesday.
Their message is simple: stop torture in detention facilities immediately and reveal the fate of tens of thousands who are still missing.
Only then, can a path to end the Syrian conflict be found, the drafters of the charter of Truth and Justice said.
Conservative estimates by rights groups indicate that at least 149,000 Syrians are detained or forcibly disappeared, more than 85% of them at the hands of the Syrian government.
Families and relatives are stuck in time and in a loop of bureaucracy and legal limbos, in desperate search with no official words of their loved ones.
Despite a push by the U.N. to make this a priority, no progress has been made on the issue so far.
The Syrian regime denies it is holding any political prisoners and calls any opposition terrorists.
After major military wins, the government and various armed groups have arranged limited prisoner exchanges which families say offer partial solutions to a very select group of detainees.
And in recent years, Damascus began updating civil registries and sending death notices with no causes of deaths to families, a move many rights groups saw as an attempt to close the issue without any accountability or no closures for the families.
AP
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