HUMAN rights groups launched a new campaign to free Syrian activists held by the government or rebels today.

The launch was part of proceedings to mark the third anniversary of the arrest of prominent lawyer Mazen Darwish.

Campaign “Hearts in our Hands” is intended to draw attention to the plight of thousands of Syrians — particularly journalists, doctors and lawyers — who have disappeared in the civil war.

Mr Darwish was arrested in February 2012 along with Hani Zaitani and Hussein Ghreir, his colleagues at the Syrian Centre for Media and Freedom of Expression.

The campaign urges supporters to tweet messages calling for the release of Darwish and other prisoners with the hashtag #freeSYvoices.

The campaigning groups include Human Rights Watch, Amnesty International and Syrian NGO Violations Documentation Centre.

Mr Darwish’s wife Yara Bader said the loss of her husband and other activists had robbed Syria of a non-violent discourse.

“More than the personal, it is for our homeland, Syria, that this is the biggest loss,” she said.

“What Mazen and others who suffer the same fate were trying to do was to make real change in Syria through non-violent means.”

An estimated 100,000 people have been arrested by the Syrian government since the civil war began in March 2011.

Rebel groups have also seized thousands, including prominent activists Razan Zeitouneh, Wael Hamada, Samira Khalil and Nazem al-Hamadi.

The four were abducted in December 2013 in a rebel-held area outside Damascus and have not been heard from since.