On October 19, 2013, UMAM D&R in partnership with the Association of Lebanese Political Detainees in Syria (LPDS) held a closed roundtable discussion as part of the Shared Suffering: Exploring the Abyss of Syrian Prisons initiative. Under the title of "Lebanese Political Prisoners in Syrian Prisons: Brainstorming the Associated Legal and Paralegal Challenges," a diverse array of people were brought together to exchange ideas and opinions on the complex issue of arbitrary detention in Syrian prisons, with the goal of producing substantive recommendations at the end.

While matters related to those Lebanese who continue to languish in Syrian cells and the minority that was fortunate enough to be released to the country from which they were illegally seized are multifaceted and connected to a number of tangential concerns, this single event was still of tremendous value for advancing the cause of the illegally incarcerated.

Michel El-Khoury, President of the North Bar Association, provided the introductory speech, which was followed by presentations from Majed Fayad and MP Ibrahim Kanaan about the legal and legislative aspects of Lebanese political detainment inside Syrian prisons. Nizar Saghieh and Fawaz Zakariah spoke about the confusion surrounding the "status" of these prisoners and the implications for such misunderstanding. Excerpts were then shown of "The German Chair," an in-progress documentary about the performance by seven former Lebanese locked up in Syria's infamous Tadmor Prison.

Finally, Elie Abou Aoun led the concluding discussion and establishment of recommendations. Some of these recommendations included: establishing a national committee for the disappeared, maintaining a human rights perspective with this issue on the national and official level, the formation of a lobbying coalition drawn from myriad stakeholders, adding more nuance to the definition of "disappeared," a paper with general recommendations, and the creation of an integrated database about political detainees in Syria.