BEIRUT — More than 75,000 people have disappeared in Syria since 2011, according to the Syrian Network for Human Rights (SNHR). Amnesty International started a campaign on Aug. 30, the International Day of the Disappeared, with the aim to push the authorities and armed groups to reveal the status of the disappeared to their families. The human rights group organized a weeklong exhibition at cultural space Station Beirut to remember Syria's missing and disappeared.

The exhibition, titled “Tens of Thousands,” shows poems written by detainees and portraits of prisoners by Syrian artist Azza Abou Rebieh.

“Copper wires / my blood / has turned / by their generous servings of electric shocks / and yet despite that / I see you / here,” wrote Syrian poet Aref Hamza after he was released from a Syrian prison. His words describe the cruelty of life in detention. Since the start of the conflict in 2011, thousands have been detained in Syrian regime jails, held by armed groups or abducted. Many will never be heard from again.

Amnesty International has been documenting the disappeared in Syria from before the war. “But since 2011, many more people have disappeared, and it is now a priority issue for us,” Leen Hashem, the regional campaigner on Syria for Amnesty International, told Al-Monitor. “It is a real human issue that cannot be buried under political negotiations.”