EU Statement – UN General Assembly: Informal briefing by the Head of the Independent Institution on Missing Persons in Syria

EU Statement - UN General Assembly: Informal briefing by the Head of the Independent Institution on Missing Persons in Syria

12 June 2025, New York - Statement on behalf of the European Union and its Member States by H.E. Ambassador Stavros Lambrinidis, Head of the Delegation of the European Union to the United Nations, at the Informal briefing by Ms. Karla Quintana, Head of the Independent Institution on Missing Persons in the Syrian Arab Republic

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Excellency,

I have the honour to speak on behalf of the European Union and its Member States.

The Candidate Countries North Macedonia*, Montenegro^*, Serbia^*, Albania^*, Ukraine, the Republic of Moldova, Bosnia and Herzegovina^* and Georgia, and the EFTA country Iceland, member of the European Economic Area, as well as Andorra, Monaco and San Marino, align themselves with this statement.

We thank you for convening today's meeting, and we are grateful for the detailed briefing by Ms. Quintana.

The European Union continues to stand with the Syrian families of those missing and to support the Syrian people in their journey toward peace, stability, and justice. We remain committed to supporting the Syrian people and interim authorities to achieve a meaningful and inclusive transition and to reconstruct the Syrian economy and infrastructure. To that end, last month the EU lifted all economic sanctions against Syria, with the exception of those based on security grounds.

Colleagues,

The Independent Institution on Missing Persons in the Syrian Arab Republic was created following urgent calls for action from family members of Syria's hundreds of thousands of missing persons to determine their fate and whereabouts. They have waited already far too long and they deserve appropriate answers.

The EU expresses its full support for the important mandate of the IIMP. We welcome its victim-centred approach, as well as the fact that the concerned families and civil society are fully associated to these efforts, regardless of their political and religious affiliation.

The EU also welcomes the creation of the National Authority for Missing Persons and the National Authority for Transitional Justice in Syria. These are important steps for reaching the comprehensive truth and answers that the Syrian people deserve. Transitional justice and the investigation of the fate of all missing persons are the fundamental groundwork for reaching a lasting peace and reconciliation in Syria. The transitional Syrian authorities must ensure that these efforts are carried out in a transparent, impartial, and inclusive manner, in line with international standards of justice, carefully addressing all atrocities and violations without discrimination.

We also welcome the transitional government's initial cooperation with the IIMP, as well as with the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, the International, Impartial and Independent Mechanism (IIIM), the Independent International Commission of Inquiry (CoI), and other relevant organisations, and we encourage it to now grant them full access across Syria to fulfil their mandates.

Like the IIMP, we fully support a Syrian-owned and Syrian-led process. We remind that the IIMP's founding resolution mandates it to clarify the fate and whereabouts of all missing persons in Syria - whatever the circumstances of their disappearance - and to provide adequate support to victims, survivors and the families of those missing, in close cooperation and complementarity with all relevant actors. Close cooperation between the National Authority for Missing Persons in Syria and the IIMP is particularly crucial.

Excellency,

Victims' rights, agency, needs, wellbeing, safety, security, and dignity should be at the centre of any response to the violations they have suffered. The meaningful participation of victims is a necessary component of implementing a victim-centred approach. This is in the DNA of the IIMP and we hope to also see it as an essential element of the National Authority for Missing Persons in Syria.

Thank you.

* North Macedonia, Montenegro, Serbia, Albania and Bosnia and Herzegovina continue to be part of the Stabilisation and Association Process.