The Gulf Centre for Human Rights (GCHR) welcomes the European Parliament motion for a resolution on the situation in Syria and the case of Mazen Darwish, Hani Al-Zitani and Hussein Gharir.

On 9 June 2015, a motion for a resolution 2015/2732 was brought before the Parliament by the Verts/ALE Group. It refers to the case of Mazen Darwish, Hani Al-Zitani and Hussein Gharir in addition to four other human rights defenders, Razan Zaitouneh, Samira Khalil, Nazem Hamadi and Wa’el Hamada and to United Nations resolutions on Syria including those made by the Security Council, General Assembly and the Working Group on Arbitrary Detention. The proposed resolution now awaits parliamentary reading and voting.

On 16 February 2012, the Syrian Air Force arrested Mazen Darwish, Hani Al-Zitani and Hussein Gharir members of the Syrian Centre for Media and Freedom of Expression (SCM) during a raid on their offices. The three have been arbitrarily detained since that date and subjected to ill treatment and torture.

In the proposed resolution the European Parliament calls on the Syrian government to immediately and unconditionally release the three men and to drop all charges against them; ensure that they are protected from torture and ill-treatment, allowed immediate contact with their families and lawyers, and provided with any medical attention they may require.

It acknowledges the pattern of systematic and large-scale practice in Syria of arbitrary detention and enforced disappearance against peaceful activists, human rights defenders, journalists and the Syrian population.

In the proposed resolution the European Parliament also expresses its admiration and solidarity for all Syrian activists who continue tirelessly to monitor, document and report on the human rights situation. The resolution concludes by calling on all EU Member States to ratify the International Convention for the Protection of All Persons from Enforced Disappearance, as a matter of priority.

The GCHR has written several appeals and statements on the case of Mazen Darwish, Hani Al-Zitani and Hussein Gharir and welcomes the motion for resolution. The GCHR calls on all European Parliament members to vote in favour of the resolution. Furthermore it repeats its call on all UN mechanisms and governments with influence in Syria to put pressure on the Syrian government, at any given opportunity and forum in order to secure the release of all detained human rights defenders in addition to prisoners of conscious.