Dear friends,

Thank you for all the messages you sent to Pope Francis recently. I’m sure you’ll be delighted to hear, just as I was, that just days after receiving your messages Pope Francis penned a letter to Assad expressing his concern for the people of Idlib. I have no doubt that your messages contributed to his decision to do that, so thank you.

Now I need your help again. At 10am New York time today, the United Nations Security Council will meet to listen to a briefing on the plight of detainees and the disappeared in Syria.

More than 100,000 individuals are currently in detention in Syria’s prisons, many undergoing torture. Some may have perished already. They’re doctors, lawyers, teachers, and activists. Men and women. Grandmothers and brothers. For every single one of them, their story remains unfinished – cut off mid-sentence, with their families unsure if it will ever get to be told. We call them the disappeared.

This meeting is a great first step in ensuring their families get to know the next chapter in their loved ones’ story, and necessary to ensure those responsible for the despair caused by not knowing are held accountable. But it is only the first step. We need those in the room to know we’re watching now, and will continue to watching, to make sure they put their words into action for Syria’s disappeared.

Will you call on the US, who are hosting the meeting, to fight for Syria’s detainees? Click here to tweet them: https://bit.ly/2Kv2NyE

The meeting is happening in just a few hours, so please send your message as soon as you can.

Thank you for all you do,

Dr Hamza.