Give us back our families

Ways of framing civil society in front of the UN in the face of disappearances in Syria

Abstract

The conflict in Syria has seen an unprecedented number of disappearances. Documentation and advocacy efforts have been shaped by the emergence of transnational activist networks that, with Syrian organizations at their core, have crafted a narrative on which to address the issue. These networks aim to transform the discourse of the UN mediators for Syria within the framework of the peace process. The objective of this article is to analyze the defining elements of the framework adopted by these networks, contrasting it with that used by the UN mediators to approach this question. To do so, the most relevant Syrian organizations involved in these networks are selected. Subsequently, a corpus of documents including references to the disappearances, produced by these organizations and by UN mediators is compiled. Finally, the frames used by these actors are determined through discourse analysis. The results show a moderate impact of the network on the frame elaborated by the mediator. Even though the network has placed the issue at the forefront of the mediator's agenda, it still faces serious difficulties in transforming the nature of the debate. The consequence is a mediation process that understands the humanitarian content of the disappearances, but ignores the political content provided by the network that places the victim at the center of any peace and transitional justice efforts.