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STORY: UN / SYRIA MISSING PERSONS
TRT: 2:55
SOURCE: UN NEWS
RESTRICTIONS: NONE
LANUGAGE: ENGLISH / NATS
DATELINE: 06 MAY 2025, NEW YORK CITY / FILE
FILE – NEW YORK CITY
1. Close up, UN flag
06 MAY 2025, NEW YORK CITY
2. SOUNDBITE (English) Carla Quintana, Head of the Independent Institution on Missing Persons in Syria:
“We still need their support in this process that it's just starting to give an answer within Syria. We're asking the interim authorities to have an office in Syria, which I think it's very important when looking for the missing one has to be on the field. And being on the field, we will also need the support of international community, not only financial support, but also technological support, scientific support, and of course, political support.”
FILE – NEW YORK CITY
3. Close up, UN flag
06 MAY 2025, NEW YORK CITY
4. SOUNDBITE (English) Carla Quintana, Head of the Independent Institution on Missing Persons in Syria:
“But once more, I have to stress that this process has to be locally owned and internationally supported. We are here to provide our technical and scientific support to the nationals. And when I'm saying nationals, it's not only the authorities, of course, but also the Syrian civil society and Syrian families to look for their loved ones.”
FILE – NEW YORK CITY
5. Close up, UN flag
06 MAY 2025, NEW YORK CITY
6. SOUNDBITE (English) Carla Quintana, Head of the Independent Institution on Missing Persons in Syria:
“I think this is a moment where we, the international community, has to bring all the experience in these previous years, at least the last 30, 40 years all over the world to the table to make things happen faster and to learn the good and bad experiences from the past to give Syrians an answer to their fight.”
FILE – NEW YORK CITY
7. Close up, UN flag
06 MAY 2025, NEW YORK CITY
8. SOUNDBITE (English) Carla Quintana, Head of the Independent Institution on Missing Persons in Syria:
“I think it's important to stress that when we talk about the missing in Syria, we're talking about everyone. We're looking for everyone who's missing, regardless of their nationality, regardless of their religion, of the reason why they went missing, who took them, so on and so forth. So we have a huge mission before us. We have limited resources. But again, I think this is an opportunity, not only for the UN, but for the whole international community to come together, to bring our experiences, to bring our resources, not only our financial resources, but also our technical and human resources, scientific resources to the table, and to prove the world that we can share it and we can work together in order to help Syrians and the Syrian interim authorities to bring some answers and bring some truth, al-haqiqa, to the families of the missing that have been waiting years for answers now.”
FILE – NEW YORK CITY
9. Close up, UN flag
The head of the Independent Institution on Missing Persons in Syria, Carla Quintana called on the international community to bring all the experience and to learn lessons from the past to give the families of the missing an answer to their fight.
Carla Quintana spoke from Geneva today (06 May) via video link. She talked about her recent visit to Damascus and areas such as Darayya, Tadamon, Sednaya Prison, where she and her team heard firsthand from families—many for the first time—about their missing loved ones.
These encounters underscored the massive scale of the crisis “literally everyone knows someone missing,” she said.
The institution also presented a project proposal to the interim government, offering technical, forensic, and victim support expertise, Quintana said.
The head of the Institution stressed that this process has to be locally owned and internationally supported.
She said, “We are here to provide our technical and scientific support to the nationals,” adding that it also include the Syrian civil society and Syrian families to look for their loved ones.
Drawing on global experiences—particularly from Latin America—the institution aims to apply lessons learned from past efforts in countries like Argentina and El Salvador to the Syrian context, she said.
Quintana also highlighted information sharing is a big challenge. She said, “I think it's important to stress that when we talk about the missing in Syria, we're talking about everyone. We're looking for everyone who's missing, regardless of their nationality, regardless of their religion, of the reason why they went missing, who took them, so on and so forth.”
“We have a huge mission before us. We have limited resources,” the head of the Institute added.
She continued, “I think this is an opportunity, not only for the UN, but for the whole international community to come together, to bring our experiences, to bring our resources, not only our financial resources, but also our technical and human resources, scientific resources to the table, and to prove the world that we can share it and we can work together in order to help Syrians and the Syrian interim authorities to bring some answers and bring some truth, al-haqiqa, to the families of the missing that have been waiting years for answers now.”
