Tens of thousands of people went missing under the Assad dictatorship in Syria during more than five decades of systematic repression and forced disappearances.

In response, the UN General Assembly established the Independent Institution on Missing Persons in the Syrian Arab Republic (IIMP) in 2023 to help account for them all.

The investigative body aims to provide long-awaited truth and closure for Syrian families.

Speaking to UN News’s Abdelmonem Makki following their recent assessment mission to Syria, IIMP head Karla Quintana said that “everyone knows someone who is missing”.