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About the project

Helping Orphans & the Prosecuted Escape, Recover & Connect Lives in Memory of the Enforced Disappeared ‘HOPE RECLAIMED’ is a humanitarian and scientific initiative launched by the German-Syrian Foundation for Scientific Research (DSFS), led by Prof. Dr Hani Harb, which aims to support victims of the Assad regime and their families by identifying missing persons and martyrs’ remains using modern techniques of DNA analysis.
.The project seeks to build a national path for justice and reconciliation, and works to revive hope in the hearts of families who have waited too long to know the fate of their loved ones.

The project’s goals

  • Build a national database of missing persons.
  • Develop independent and secure protocols for dealing with victims and remains.
  • Establish specialised genetic laboratories in Syria.
  • Training Syrian field professionals and raising their competence in the fields of genetic analysis and bio-computing.
  • Protecting the independence of the Syrian decision in this sensitive file.
  • Contributing to the process of transitional justice and preventing the repetition of crimes.

Why ‘HOPE RECLAIMED’?

  • Because many Syrian families still do not know the fate of their loved ones after years of detention and enforced disappearance.
  • Because justice is not complete until the truth is revealed.
  • And because honouring the martyrs and burying them in a manner befitting their sacrifices is a national and moral duty that cannot be waived.

Who leads the project?

The ‘HOPE RECLAIMED’ team includes a group of Syrian and international scientists and experts in genetics, biocomputing, forensic medicine, and criminal investigation, including

  • Prof. Dr. Hani Harb – Professor of Immunology and Genetics – University of Dresden, Germany
  • Prof. Dr. Ahmad Shaaban Kassab – Professor of Criminal Genetics – Naif University for Security Sciences, Saudi Arabia
  • Dr. Abdulsalam Bakdash – Professor of Forensic Toxicology – Germany
  • Dr. Amer Ghalawangi – PhD in computational Biology and Bioinformatics – University of Lübeck
  • Eng. Ibrahim Sakor – Specialist in Genetic and Biopharmaceutical Engineering – Germany
  • Mr. Anwar Al-Bunni – President of the Syrian Centre for Legal Studies and Research

Our vision

  • We aspire for truth to be the foundation of justice, and for science to become a tool to provide justice for victims and restore the dignity of the missing.
  • ‘HOPE RECLAIMED’ is not just a technical project, but a humanitarian and national commitment stemming from our belief that there can be no reconciliation without disclosure, and no future without acknowledging the pain.
  • We work for a Syria that knows the names of its absence and builds its present with accurate knowledge, impartial justice, and indelible memory.