A/HRC/25/65 of uncertainty and mental distress. This mental anguish may rise to the level of torture or inhuman treatment and makes entire families the victims of enforced disappearances. 45. The husband of a woman abducted by Military Intelligence officers in Hama in December 2011 and whose whereabouts were never disclosed, explained how traumatized his two-year old daughter has been since, “She cries when she sees a military uniform”. 46. Consistent accounts have revealed that the principal means to obtain information is when a fellow detainee is released. A man held for over a year in the Military Police Branch of Hama described, in a harrowing account, how immediately after his release in May 2013, he was assailed by dozens of women thrusting photographs of their husbands, sons and fathers towards him. Another interviewee, released after a court hearing in Damascus in August 2013, was confronted with hundreds of people waiting outside the court, begging for news of their loved ones, in the hope that he had seen them in detention. 47. The desperation of families has left them vulnerable to extortion. Some pay bribes to those who, often falsely, claim they can provide information. One interviewee reported that his cousin, who had participated in peaceful demonstrations in Latakia, was arrested mid2011 by Government security forces and taken to an unknown location. His family was too frightened to approach the forces responsible for his arrest. Instead they paid a bribe to a person who claimed to be connected to the security forces. This middleman informed the family that the disappeared was detained in the Air Force Intelligence detention centre. Shortly afterwards, the contact revealed, for more money, that he had been killed. 48. Another interviewee reported that his cousin was arrested by security officers on his way to Damascus in September 2013 and taken to an unknown location. His family learned of his arrest from a taxi driver who witnessed it. The disappeared’s father repeatedly inquired about the fate and whereabouts of his son, to no avail. Only after he bribed one of his contacts was he able to learn that security officers belonging to the 4th Army Division had arrested his son for having published pro-opposition messages on a social media webpage. He was, however, unable to obtain any information about his son’s location or state of health. The interviewee insisted that less privileged families are abandoned to their grief, saying that it was only because his uncle “had money and contacts” that he was able to obtain some information. 49. Besides the grave emotional and psychosocial impact, families also often have to cope with the economic consequences of disappearances. The absence of the main breadwinner creates financial difficulties that add to the extreme vulnerability of families. Women and children face specific hardships. The uncertainty created by the disappearance of their husbands or fathers has social and legal consequences, including on the status of marriage, right to inheritance and social welfare, and the management of the property of the disappeared person. Children of disappeared experience acute suffering with the loss of a parent. One young woman interviewed about the disappearance of her husband stated “I do not know how to live and care for my young children without their father”. 50. Syrian authorities created a climate of intimidation such that families did not dare inquire about their loved ones or file any formal complaints, and systematically denied the disappearance or refused to disclose any information. They also violated their duty to duly investigate enforced disappearances. The Government has further violated families’ nonderogable right to know the truth regarding the circumstances of the enforced disappearance, the progress and results of the investigation and the fate of the disappeared person. 43