Project
Enforced disappearance is one of the most widespread crimes committed in Syria. Since 2011, an estimated 180,000 Syrians have been forcibly disappeared, the vast majority by the former Assad regime. Although the fall of the regime in December 2024 led to the release of more than 30,000 detainees from prisons and detention centres, most disappeared persons remain unaccounted for, their fate and whereabouts still unknown.
Following the Assad regime’s repression of the 2011 uprising, civil society organisations, victim/survivors and families of the disappeared mobilised to document enforced disappearance, search for the truth about the missing, and preserve evidence. The efforts of Syrian justice actors have been crucial in keeping the crisis of enforced disappearance visible. Justice actors have also contributed to the emergence of a transnational justice movement and to the establishment of the Independent Institution on Missing Persons. As Syria entered a transitional period in December 2024, addressing enforced disappearance became one of the most pressing priorities facing the new authorities.
This project examines the role of informal actors involved in documenting enforced disappearance, including victims’ groups, civil society organisations, and artists. Beyond documenting violations, these actors contribute to the search for the truth about the missing, support forensic and archival efforts, create spaces for memorialisation, and advocate for meaningful victim participation. While documentation and justice efforts in Syria have received significant scholarly attention, research has largely focused on formal mechanisms. Less attention has been paid to informal documentation practices, including artistic initiatives, and their contribution to truth-seeking, memorialisation, and accountability.
By examining documentation practices, the project seeks to understand how informal actors document enforced disappearance, how they envision the impact of their work, and how they engage with formal Syrian and international institutions. In doing so, it highlights the central role of victim/survivors, and grassroots actors in resisting the erasure of enforced disappearance and overcoming the justice impasse in Syria. The project is carried out by Dr. Brigitte Herremans, postdoctoral researcher at Justice Visions and a research fellow at GrounDoc. Her work explores the relationship between art and justice in the Syrian and Palestinian contexts, with a particular focus on how artistic practices can challenge the erasure and invisibilisation of injustices
Advisory Board
The project is supported by an interdisciplinary advisory board composed of leading experts on human rights, transitional justice, artistic practices, civil society activism and Syria studies. The advisory board provides strategic guidance throughout the project, to ensure its academic rigour and societal relevance.
Dr. Abdullah Alkafri is a founding member and the current Executive Director of Ettijahat- Independent Culture, an organization established in 2011 and dedicated to supporting Syrian artists and cultural practitioners. Since 2015, he has lectured at Saint Joseph University in Beirut and regularly contributes to regional and international conferences on arts, social practices, and political change. A theatre practitioner and scholar, he has published and directed several theatrical works. He holds a PhD on the history of independent performing arts in Syria, Lebanon, and Egypt, as well as a Master’s degree in Theatre from Saint Joseph University.
Professor Dr. Yazan Badran is an Assistant Professor of International Media and Communication Studies at Vrije Universiteit Brussel. His research examines the intersections of media, journalism, and politics in the MENA region and its diasporic communities. Yazan holds an MSc in Communication Studies from VUB and a Bachelor of Engineering degree in Computer Science and has been a visiting scholar in Turkey and Tunisia.
Razan Brghol is an independent consultant specializing in program development and management. Since 2013, she has collaborated with prominent Syrian civil society organizations, including the Center for Civil Society and Democracy, IMPACT CSRD, and Baytna, where she served as Head of Programs. Razan holds a diploma in physics from Aleppo University and completed a fellowship in Citizenship and Public Affairs in 2014 at the Maxwell School of Syracuse University, New York.
Dr. Joseph Daher is an academic and researcher specialised in political economy and contemporary history of the Middle East. Joseph taught at Lausanne University and the University of Ghent and led research projects at the European University Institute, Florence. He is the author of Syria after the Uprisings, The Political Economy of State Resilience (Pluto, 2019) and Hezbollah: The Political Economy of Lebanon’s Party of God (Pluto, 2016). He worked for various UN Agencies, NGOs and research centres.
Lina Ghoutouk is a researcher and human rights specialist whose work centres on documenting and analysing human experiences in contexts of conflict and displacement. She brings over ten years of experience across the humanitarian and research sectors, producing evidence-based analysis that informs advocacy, policy, and programming. Her work spans transitional justice, gender justice, economic and social recovery. She holds a Master’s degree in Human Rights from Saint Joseph University in Beirut, where her academic research examined the gendered impact of enforced disappearance on Syrian victims. After more than a decade of forced displacement, Lina returned to Syria in 2025. She currently works as an Advocacy Coordinator at the Syria Community Consortium, a resilience project based in Damascus, where she contributes to the rebuilding of her country.
Melvyn Ingleby is an investigative journalist and author based in Istanbul. Educated at University College London and the École Normale Supérieure in Paris, he has worked as a Turkey and Middle East correspondent for the Dutch newspapers Trouw and NRC Handelsblad for nearly a decade. As a journalist, Melvyn carried out multiple investigations into enforced disappearance, the Tadamon massacres, the shabiha and the inner workings of Assad’s prison system. He is currently writing a book on the aftermath of regime atrocities and continues to cover Syria on a freelance basis for, amongst others, The Guardian and Al Jumhuriya.
Habib Nassar is a lawyer and researcher with more than twenty years of experience in human rights, transitional justice, and victim participation in the MENA region. Most recently, he led victim participation initiatives at the Independent Institution on Missing Persons in Syria. Previously, he served as Director of Policy and Research at Impunity Watch and held leadership positions at PILnet and the International Center for Transitional Justice. Habib has taught human rights and transitional justice at Hunter College in New York and is a member of the Law and Peace Practice Group at the Institute for Integrated Transitions. Nassar holds advanced law degrees from New York University, Université Paris II, and Université Saint-Joseph in Beirut.
