Syria: Palestinian author disappeared in Damascus

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Moheeb_Alnawathy
Moheeb Alnawathy, author
of Hamas from the Inside
Moheeb Alnawathy, a 39-year-old Palestinian journalist and human rights defender, is believed to have been disappeared by Syrian Intelligence services in the Geramanah area of Damascus on 5 January 2011.

Mr Alnawathy had flown out to Damascus from Olso on 28 December 2010, to complete a research project for the upcoming edition of his book, Hamas from the Inside.

In the week before his arrest, he was in regular contact from Damascus with his family in Oslo, however the phone calls stopped on Wedneday, 5 January 2011.

According to sources, Mr Alnawathy had previously been arrested in Israel on three separate occasions. In addition to his work as an author and a journalist, he is the founder of the Palestinian Journalists' Syndicate and the Vice-chairman of the International Union for Electronic Press.

On 3 February 2011, Alkarama sent an urgent appeal to the Working Group on Enforced or Involuntary Disappearances requesting its intervention with Syrian authorities to release Mr Alnawathy or to put him under the protection of law. Alkarama sent also communications to the Special Rapporteur on the promotion and the protection of the right to freedom of opinion and expression as well as the Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights defenders.

Mr Moheeb Alnawathy's enforced disappearance serves only to reinforce the custom of respression in Syria. Alkarama calls on Syria to abolish its State of Emergency, which has plagued the country with human rights violations for more than forty years.



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Syria - HR Instruments

International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR)
ICCPR: Accession on 21.04.1969
Last report due: 01.04.2003 (3rd)
Submitted: 05.07.2004 (3rd)
Next report due: 01.08.2009 (4th)
ICCPR Optional Protocol: Not a signatory

Convention against Torture (CAT)
CAT : Accession on 19.08.2004
Last report due: 19.09.2005 (1st)
Submitted: N/A
Next report due: N/A

CAT Complaints Procedures
Art. 20 (Confidential inquiry): No
Art. 21 (Inter-State complaints): No
Art. 22 (Individual communications): No

CAT Optional Protocol
Not a signatory

Universal Periodic Review (UPR)
Last review: N/A
Next review: December 2011

National Human Rights Institution (NHRI)
Not a member