Images: Safa Mekdah
Who are we?
We are a group of women and men activists from Syria and the region. We or one of our loved ones have gone through experiences of arrest, and we have lost others to forced disappearance. Since the foundation of Nophotozone, we have embraced the values of non-violence, feminism, and the struggle to achieve justice and advocacy for those affected by its absence in Syria and the region. We translate this through our recruitment of marginalized women and men into our team and work, and working together interactively and with high flexibility.
The idea of the organization began between Bassel Khartabil Safadi and his wife, Noura Ghazi, in 2011. Bassel was a Palestinian-Syrian activist and a world-class programmer. He was arrested by Military Security in March 2012, and at the end of 2012 he was transferred to Saydnaya Military Prison and then to Damascus Central Prison, where he remained until October 2015, and he disappeared again, until his wife, the lawyer Noura Ghazi, announced the news of his execution by the Military Field Court in August 2017, where he was executed only two days after his transfer from Damascus Central Prison.
Bassel chose the name Nophotozone for the organization during his detention, because the prison is the place where the worst happens, and where it is necessary for the world to know about it, but it is the place where access is most inaccessible. Since she began her work as a lawyer in 2004, Noura has worked on detainee issues, and later based the founding of the organization on the efforts made and the results achieved by the FREEBASSEL campaign.
We mainly work to disseminate legal and human rights knowledge related to issues of enforced disappearance and detention, and we contribute to providing direct consultations to the families of detainees, forcibly disappeared and missing persons, regardless of the party that arrested or caused of their disappearance. We provide our services to all victims and their families regardless of their religious and political beliefs, social and cultural backgrounds, regions, gender, identity and sexual orientation, with absolute respect for human rights, dignity and freedom of expressions.
The Vision
The file of arbitrary detention and enforced disappearance is considered one of the most complex and ambiguous files of the crisis in Syria, and one of the most important humanitarian files in the twenty-first century due to the magnitude of the violations and responsibilities associated with it, at the level of individuals and institutions alike, and what is related to revealing the fate and whereabouts of tens of Thousands of victims, each case has certain characteristics, and its tragic impact on all family members.
Due to this complexity, the rights of families related to this file and all the issues postponed for them may be among the worst repercussions, and the most likely to be overlooked and ignored, which prompts us to put their interests and visions as a priority for our work, and to enable them to set these priorities themselves, calling on ourselves to follow their steps and ways and share with them our expertise and experiences, so that together we can live in a reality that is less unfair and more spacious. In this way, we build our perception of what justice looks like and the ways of humanity that we want to govern our lives.
The Mission
Achieving justice and reaching the truth regarding the issue of arbitrary detention and enforced disappearance and all related violations, by providing support to detainees and disappeared persons themselves and their families, with a focus on securing the necessities of all family members to help them deal effectively and positively, as much as possible. Given the reality of the loss of one or more in one family, and ensuring their legal, medical, economical, psychological, social, and educational needs and decent livelihoods as much as possible.