The massacres committed by the ouster Syrian regime in Hama, Palmyra, Jisr al-Shughur, and Aleppo during the 1980s systematically targeted families.
Parents were arrested and killed under torture or summary execution, leaving children without support or identity.
These children, who were supposed to live with their families, were abducted or transferred to regime-run orphanages, where their names and identities were changed in an attempt to obscure the traces of the crime and erase their memory.
The same scene has been repeated later with a new generation of children since 2011.
Under international human rights law, what happened to these children constitutes a flagrant violation of the following rights:
- The right to identity: Every child has the inherent right to know their true name, lineage, and family origins, and this identity may not be obliterated for any reason.
- The right to family: A child may not be separated from their family except in cases of extreme necessity, and efforts must be made to reunite families whenever possible.
- The right to protection from trafficking and exploitation: The exploitation of children in any form is prohibited, including forced adoption, identity change, or their use in trafficking networks.
- The right to documentation and memory: The stories of these children must be included in the archive of crimes and violations, to preserve national memory and ensure their non-recurrence.
"Zaman al-Wasl" Project: Protectors of Eastern Andalusia, and Palmyra: Prison of the Syrian Nation
The project stems from a moral and humanitarian commitment to these children, who have become symbols of an ongoing crime.
Child victims have the right to:
- To search for them and uncover their fate.
- To restore their real names and connect them to their families and ancestors.
- To enable them to claim their legal and human rights.
- To include their cases in the files of crimes against humanity before international courts.
- To expose the chain of command of those responsible for the crime, from perpetrators to planners.
- To restore the dignity of the bereaved families by telling their stories and documenting them in the archive of justice.
- To demand the rights of orphans to regain their identity and join their normal society.
- To exert international pressure to activate accountability mechanisms and expose child trafficking networks that operated under the cover of "care" institutions loyal to the former regime.
Zaman Al-Wasl not only documents the crime, but also issues a nation's call and the cry of a father searching for his children in the darkness of prisons and orphanages. It is a testament that the sun will rise, that memory will triumph over oblivion, and that orphans will regain their names, their families, and their right to a dignified life.
Anyone with information about these victims, please contact us at the following email:
Zaman Al-Wasl
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