Syria's Systematic Reckoning: How a Post-Assad Commission Is Documenting Disappeared Persons

Syria's National Commission for Missing Persons confirmed the deaths of six children from the al-Abbasi family, disappeared in 2013 by Assad's intelligence forces. The confirmation employs verification procedures similar to truth commissions in Argentina and the Balkans—though Syria's documented cases number in the tens of thousands. The commission's work signals the post-Assad government's commitment to investigating systematic enforced disappearance, a cornerstone practice of the former regime's security apparatus.