BEIRUT: Over the Valentine’s weekend, human rights groups are encouraging people to rally for the release of detained Syrian activists by taking part in the “Hearts in our Hands” campaign.

Hundreds of Syrian civil society, media and medical workers are being held in regime detention, including Mazen Darwish – president of the Syrian Center for Media and Freedom of Expression – and two of his colleagues, who were arrested on Feb. 16, 2012, for their work in human rights.

The U.N. Working Group on Arbitrary Detention concluded in November 2013 that the three men’s deprivation of liberty was arbitrary.

Human rights lawyer Razan Zeitouneh – who was kidnapped in December 2013 – is among many others believed captured by various elements of the opposition.

Throughout the campaign, which runs until Feb. 17, supporters are being asked to post and share photos of themselves holding signs featuring hearts and messages or making shapes of hearts with their hands in solidarity with the jailed Syrians.

The intention, the organizers of the campaign say, is to pressure key actors, particularly Russia and Iran, key backers of the Syrian government, to use their influence to push for the release of peaceful activists.

On the forthcoming anniversary of his detention, Yara Badr, Darwish’s wife and the current director of the organization, said: “It is now three years since my husband, Mazen, and our dear friends and colleagues Hani and Hussein were taken from us and locked away in the Syrian regime’s prisons. More than the personal, it is for our homeland, Syria, that this is the biggest loss – what Mazen and others who suffer the same fate were trying to do was to make real change in Syria through nonviolent means, recognizing the dignity of all.”

“By locking away these people, the regime has ensured that the only space available in Syria is for brutality, violence and inhumanity on a large scale. Not only do I need Mazen free, Syria and the Syrian people need all our heroes in prison freed immediately, for the sake of our future.”

The campaign has been organized by the Free Syrian Voices coalition, which includes Amnesty, Human Rights Watch and other rights groups.