Joint appeal for the release of Human Rights Advocates Razan Zaitouneh, Wa’el Hamada, Nazem Hamadi and Samira Khalil

Award-winning Syrian human rights defender and writer Razan Zaitouneh, along with her husband, Wa’el Hamada, and two colleagues, Nazem Hamadi and Samira Khalil, all of whom are lawyers or human rights defenders, were abducted by unknown individuals on 9 December 2013 from a joint office for the Violations Documentation Center (VDC) and the Local Development and Small Projects Support (LDSPS) in the Damascus suburb of Douma. This area is currently under the control of a number of armed opposition groups, which are being besieged by government forces.  

Razan Zaitouneh was recently the recipient of the 2013 International Women of Courage Award. She also has received the Anna Politkovskaya Prize and, in 2011, the European Parliament’s Sakhorov Prize for Freedom of Thought.

In a joint press release, the Union Internationale des Avocats (UIA), the Institut des droits de l’homme du Barreau de Bruxelles, the Institut des droits de l'homme du Barreau de Paris (IDHBP) and the Conférence Internationale des Barreaux de tradition juridique commune (CIB) called for the immediate and unconditional release of Razan Zaitouneh and her colleages (see below).