Madam Chair,  

Excellencies, 

Thank you for convening this timely discussion during a week in New York that places the focus on Syria and the Syrian people and reaffirms the commitment of the United Nations and its Member States to support them in their quest for a better future. 

Transitional justice—and within it, making the right to truth a reality—is an essential component of that quest. Of the many truths that Syria must confront, none is more consequential—or more heart-rending—than the truth about the missing. 

Disappearance, we are often told, is harder than death. Death allows for grief. Disappearance does not. It leaves families suspended between hope and despair, unable to mourn, unable to heal, and unable to move forward. 

Today, hundreds of thousands remain missing in Syria. Almost every Syrian family has been touched directly or indirectly by this tragedy. Nearly every community continues to live with unanswered questions. 

Addressing the issue of the missing is, of course, a humanitarian obligation. But it is also indispensable for stabilization, reconciliation and lasting peace. A society cannot rebuild its social fabric while hundreds of thousands of families continue to live without answers. 

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I look forward to updating the General Assembly tomorrow, in my annual briefing, on the progress that we at the Independent Institution have made in implementing our mandate, in coordination and complementarity with relevant actors. 

Today, within the broader context of a discussion regarding transitional justice, allow me to share with you four key elements that—drawing from comparative experience—I believe are essential to increase the chances of success in the search for the missing: political will, information, trust, and methodology. 

I am convinced that using these elements as a guide is the best way to monitor progress and address challenges, both in the search for the missing, and more broadly in achieving transitional justice. 

1. First, political will is fundamental. 

Recognizing the existence of a missing persons crisis and the need to establish specialized mechanisms to address it is the first step. This recognition must be accompanied by an adequate legislative and institutional framework, access to information, as well as sufficient funding and resources. 

Political will creates the opportunity to search. Institutional capacity determines whether that search succeeds. 

Political will is therefore also required to ensure effective coordination, access to information, openness to international cooperation, and sustained capacity-building. Search mechanisms cannot operate in isolation. Political will must extend both internally—across national institutions such as the judiciary, health services, forensic services, the police, and civil registries—and externally, through cooperation with relevant international actors, backed by sustained political and financial support. 

It is essential to understand that the search for the missing, as part of the right to truth, is central to stabilization, sustainable peace, and reconciliation. It must therefore advance alongside progress in justice, reparation and the prevention of future violations. 

2. Second, information. 

Gathering, analysing, and sharing information is vital in the search for missing persons. One of the defining features of disappearances is that relevant information is often dispersed, and one of the greatest challenges is piecing together those scattered fragments. 

Having information adequately flow means that we can provide more and better answers to the families. While technologies enable information to flow more quickly and to analyse it more rapidly and in greater detail, not all actors possessing information are willing or able—for various reasons—to share it. 

There is an urgent need to establish systems that enable the secure flow of essential information, so as to connect the dots between the various parties involved in the search—national authorities in various countries, international actors, civil society, and the families themselves. 

Failing – or unnecessarily delaying sharing information amounts to misunderstanding the complexity of the search, effectively impeding access to the right to the truth.  

3. Third, trust. 

The families of the disappeared are the bastion of dignity and the voice calling for truth and justice. Their trust in the search process is crucial—not only for obtaining information, but also for building transparent and participatory processes. 

Search processes are long. Trust, therefore, is what sustains them. It is through trust that families gain confidence in the process and clarity about what it can—and cannot—deliver. Trust is built day by day through actions. It cannot be assumed, nor can we expect everyone to trust every institution from the outset. 

Trust among national institutions, and between national and international actors, is equally fundamental to building an effective search process. 

4. Fourth, methodology. 

Searching for the disappeared requires comprehensive processes that have taken us years to develop. We cannot repeat the same mistakes and expect isolated or fragmented “magic formulas” to resolve what requires a complex, interdisciplinary and large-scale process, supported by adequate human and material resources. Above all, it requires coordinated efforts. It also requires sustained political and financial investment in these technical processes. The sooner we begin, the sooner families will receive answers. 

Needless to say, even when these four elements are present, no single institution can implement the search process alone—neither at the national nor at the international level. 

This is why we always emphasize that the search for missing persons is a collective process that requires coordinated and complementary efforts. All relevant actors must have the political will to contribute their fair share. This also requires a legal, political and technical framework. 

From a state of total denial of the missing persons crisis until December 2024, Syria has now moved towards establishing such a framework. 

Comparative experience (such as Colombia, Bosnia, Kuwait, Argentina, Sri Lanka, Iraq, Mexico, Chile, Spain, Morocco) teaches us that building the institutional capacity, methodologies and coordination required to respond to a missing persons crisis of this magnitude takes time.  

Those experiences have also taught us that there are no shortcuts, and that isolated efforts are not enough, no matter how well intentioned they are.This is precisely why sustained cooperation and coordination, technical support, and openness to hands-on international cooperation and expertise remain so important. 

I would like to acknowledge the dialogue we have been developing with the National Commission to address key issues across the full breadth of our respective mandates, including harmonizing approaches to case registration, mapping mass graves, strengthening forensic infrastructure, addressing patterns of disappearance such as missing migrants, and developing information systems. 

Many important, fundamental questions remain to be answered in Syria, including for example regarding the relationship between search and accountability actors, and the way their methodologies and findings are connected. The draft laws on Transitional Justice and Missing Persons can be first important steps to address them within a comprehensive legal, participatory, and political framework. 

For example: Will the search be conceived primarily as a separate humanitarian process, or as part of the ordinary justice system? How will information gathered by third parties be used in judicial proceedings? How will national and international institutions share information, and under what circumstances, modalities and safeguards? Can certain information be used exclusively for the search without potentially becoming evidence in criminal proceedings? Who takes this kind of decisions? How will protected sources be treated? How will victims be recognized, and according to what standards? And if truth is part of reparation, how will it be embedded within an integrated national strategy?  

Answering these questions has taken years -decades- in other jurisdictions and it requires the engagement of the State as a whole. 

Drawing on operational experience from around the world in searching for missing persons and supporting transitional justice processes, the IIMP stands ready to support Syria in leading this effort. 

We must continue laying the foundations for a process that is reliable, rigorous, sustainable, nationally led and internationally supported. 

Clarifying the fate and whereabouts of the missing and fulfilling the right to truth of the families is a key component of transitional justice, and an essential precondition to achieve justice, peace and reconciliation. 

Shukran

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