BY: reuters

 
Press release:
 
(Link below to download full report)
The Syrian Network for Human Rights (SNHR) reveals in its report released today that Syria is among the world’s worst countries for the number of mines planted since 2011, despite the prohibition of their use in international law, noting that mines have killed at least 2,601 civilians in Syria since 2011, including 598 children and 267 women, meaning that 33% of the victims were women and children
 
The 16-page report explains that it is difficult to exactly assign responsibility for these killings to one specific party to the conflict and the controlling forces in Syria in two cases, namely: anti-personnel and anti-vehicle landmines, and remote bombings, including suicide or forced suicide attacks.
 
The report deals with anti-personnel and anti-vehicle landmines, which are weapons designed to be placed under or above the ground, then to explode because of the proximity of or contact with a person or vehicle. The report further explains that there are distinctive difficulties and challenges facing the SNHR’s staff which prevent us from being able to conclusively assign responsibility for killings caused by landmines to a specific party of the conflict, with the most prominent of these being, as the report reveals:
• Most of the parties to the conflict use this type of weapon.
• There have been multiple changes of control by parties to the conflict and forces over the areas where minefields exist, with none of the parties to the conflict and the controlling forces in Syria publishing maps revealing the locations where they planted landmines.
 
As the report reveals, the parties to the conflict (except for the US-led coalition forces and the Russian forces) have used mines for almost 10 years, despite the international ban on their use. The report attributes that to the Syrian regime’s possessing tens of thousands of mines, in addition to the ease and low cost of their manufacture, which have enabled other parties to the conflict to use them extensively, showing absolute indifference to disclosing their locations or clearing them.
The report notes that the Syrian Network for Human Rights, as a member of the International Campaign to Ban Landmines – Cluster Munition Coalition (ICBL-CMC), emphasizes its pursuit, within this international coalition, of a world free of the use of landmines and cluster munitions. In this context, the SNHR has monitored mine incidents for nearly 10 years to date, including determining the locations and types of landmines, and the casualties resulting from their explosion, with a plan underway to prepare maps providing the coordinates of the locations where mine explosions have occurred in various Syrian governorates, facilitating the work of local demining teams and helping to create greater awareness among the local population and local authorities in the areas affected to take all possible precautions and safety measures to avoid further such incidents.
 
This report shows the human losses suffered by the Syrian citizens caused by these mines, between March 2011 and December 2020, particularly highlighting the death toll of victims, including children and women, the medical, media and Civil Defense personnel, and their distribution according to the governorates in which they were killed, as well as highlighting some of the most prominent incidents caused by the explosion of landmines.
 
The report documents the deaths of at least 2,601 civilians, including 598 children and 267 women (adult female), killed since March 2011 due to hundreds of mine explosions in various Syrian governorates; among those killed, there were eight medical personnel, sic Civil Defense personnel, and nine media workers.
 
As the report reveals, most of the landmine victims were documented in Aleppo and Raqqa governorates, with the death toll from landmine explosions in both governorates comprising approximately 51% of the total death toll, meaning that half of the recorded fatalities from landmines in Syria have been killed in these two governorates, followed by Deir Ez-Zour governorate with approximately 16% of the total, Daraa with approximately 9%, then Hama with 7%. The report attributes the varying percentages between different areas to many factors, the most prominent of which is the changing nature of control over the areas by the parties to the conflict, and the multiplicity of the parties that controlled the same governorate, with Aleppo governorate being one of the governorates which saw the highest rates of shifting control among the various parties.
 
The report provides a cumulative chart showing the distribution of the death toll caused by landmines by years since 2011 to date, noting that that the highest death toll occurred in 2017, accounting for nearly one third compared to the other years, with casualties continuing to occur as a result of mines despite the decline in military operations; although several years have passed since mines were first planted in the context of the conflict, with many of these discovered by local organizations working to clear them, the report reveals that there are still numerous minefields and locations of mines that have not yet been discovered, which threaten generations of Syrians for decades to come, and with children being among the worst affected.
 
The report emphasizes that the continuing deaths and injuries resulting from mines underscore the widespread use of mines by various parties to the conflict in Syria, adding that many areas planted with mines have not yet been discovered, with the Syrian governorates which have seen the greatest number of changes in the controlling forces and the areas controlled by various forces being most vulnerable to the spread of mines, which pose a sustained threat to the lives of residents there, particularly children. The report additionally notes that more than a third of victims killed as a result of mine explosions in the Syrian conflict are women and children, once again underlining the indiscriminate nature of this weapon.
 
The report further notes that international humanitarian law has, since its inception, significantly restricted the use of landmines; the Protocol II of the Convention on Certain Conventional Weapons also defined the rules of landmines’ use but has not prohibited them. The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) and a number of NGOs have made great efforts to work towards an absolute ban on the use of mines, with these efforts culminating in the Convention on the Prohibition of the Use, Stockpiling, Production and Transfer of Anti-Personnel Mines and on Their Destruction (Ottawa Convention), which entered into force in March 1999, with 164 states are currently party to the convention, constituting the vast majority of the world states, making the international mine ban a binding international norm for all states and parties to the conflict, whether signatory or not.
 
The report further emphasizes that the use of mines violates the principle of distinction between civilian and military objects, and the principles of precautions and proportionality in attacks, with the failure to respect these provisions constituting a war crime under international humanitarian law and under the statute of the International Criminal Court.
 
As the report reveals, none of the perpetrator parties which have used mines in Syria have provided maps revealing where the mines were planted, nor have they worked seriously to remove them, most particularly the Syrian regime, which has not carried out any deliberate mine clearance operations despite recapturing large areas.
 
The report calls on all parties to the conflict to respect the rules of international humanitarian law and international human rights law, to stop planting mines targeting civilians and civilian objects, and to initiate mine clearance operations in areas under their control, especially in places where they planted mines and which are under their control or over which they have regained control and where they are aware of the mines’ locations. The report also calls on all the parties to the conflict to provide detailed maps of the locations where they planted mines, especially civilian sites or near residential communities.
 
The report recommends that the UN Security Council and International Community should increase logistical assistance to local organizations and local police working in the field of detecting and dismantling mines, to allocate a significant amount of money for clearing mines left over by the Syrian conflict from the United Nations Mine Action Service, particularly in areas prepared to carry out this task with transparency and integrity, to begin to compensate victims and their families, to focus on the psychological treatment process for survivors, and to support humanitarian organizations working in the field of psychological care.
 
The report stresses that there will be no stability and safety in Syria without achieving a political transition towards democracy and human rights in Syria.
The report also provides a set of recommendations to both the High Commissioner for Human Rights and the Independent International Commission of Inquiry (COI).
 

View full Report

Press release:

(Link below to download full report)

The Syrian Network for Human Rights reveals in a report entitled “Remote Bombings, Including Suicide/ Forced Suicide, and the Inability to Identify the Criminal… The Unknown Killer!” issued today that at least 9,967 civilians, including 1,683 children and 1,126 women, have been killed by remote bombings, including suicide/ forced suicide bombings in Syria, since March 2011.

The 18-page report explains that it is difficult to exactly assign responsibility for these killings to one specific party to the conflict and the controlling forces in Syria in two cases, namely: anti-personnel landmines, and remote bombings, including suicide or forced suicide attacks.

The report deals with remote bombings, including suicide or forced suicide attacks, noting that these include person-borne or vehicle-borne IEDs, with the detonation primarily carried out either via a wireless device or a timer. The report notes that the process of conclusively proving the responsibility of a party for a remote bombing incident is a very complex procedure, requiring extensive effort and great logistical capabilities. The report points out one party claiming an explosion, such as in many bombing incidents that were claimed by the ISIS terrorist group or al Nusra Front, these cannot be relied on as a sole source in conclusively attributing responsibility for the bombing. The same goes for some remote bombing incidents, where there may be clues indicating who committed the bombing, such as bombings that occurred in the Syrian regime’s security branches, despite the security checkpoints around these branches; this has added to suspicions that the Syrian regime has carried out these types of bombings with the aim of mobilizing public opinion in support of the regime, but we cannot conclusively assign responsibility for these bombings to the Syrian regime simply by relying on such clues.

The report further explains that there are distinctive difficulties and challenges facing the SNHR’s staff which prevent us from being able to conclusively identify the perpetrators in the case of remote bombings, with the most prominent of these being, as the report reveals:
• In many cases, a person may be used to carry an IED without knowing it, (There are car maintenance workshops working for all parties to the conflict that specialize in laying booby traps), or under coercion, threat and terror, and an IED may be installed on a vehicle without its owner knowing, which is detonated remotely while he is driving it, or after he stops.
• The person-borne IED may be in the form of a belt, which is a garment encircling the body worn by a suicide bomber or a person forced to do so; this will be filled with explosives, may have a stun gun, and may contain small iron balls or nails, which act as shrapnel, in order to inflict the largest possible damage.

The report outlines the human losses suffered by the Syrian civilian population caused by these remote bombings, including suicide/ forces suicide bombings, between March 2011 and November 2020, particularly highlighting the death toll of victims, including children and women, the medical, media and Civil Defense personnel, and their distribution according to the governorates in which they were killed, as well as highlighting some of the most prominent massacres caused by these bombings.

The report also documents the deaths of at least 9,967 civilians, including 1,683 children and 1,126 women (adult female), who were killed as a result of dozens of remote bombing incidents, including suicide/ forced suicide bombings, since March 2011, including 51 medical personnel, 24 Civil Defense personnel, and 18 media workers.
Of the 9,967 killed in such attacks, the report notes that at least 1,124 of the civilians, including 192 children and 113 women (adult female), were killed by suicide/ forced suicide bombings.

As the report reveals, most of the remote bombing victims were in Aleppo governorate, where the death toll from the bombings comprised approximately 22% of the total death toll, followed by Idlib governorate with approximately 14% of the total, then Deir Ez-Zour with 10%; after this come the remaining governorates, with the report attributing the varying percentages between different areas to many factors, the most prominent of which is the changing nature of control over the areas, the multiplicity of the parties that controlled the same governorate, and the competition between these parties for territory.

The report further explains that the disparity in the balance of power prompts the parties to the internal armed conflict to avoid direct clashes, and to use the method of remote bombings, including suicide bombings, with this method falling within the framework of the confrontation, aiming to spread fear and terror among the people in opposition areas, with spreading terror being prohibited under customary Humanitarian law; remote or suicide bombings are also indiscriminate attacks that clearly violate the principle of distinction between civilian and military objectives, and the principles of precautions and proportionality in attacks.
The report further emphasizes that hundreds of remote bombing incidents that have caused the death of thousands of Syrian civilians, as mentioned in the report, were not directed at a military objective or justified by military necessity, but rather targeted the civilian population, markets, places of worship, vital civilian facilities, and others, with international humanitarian law prohibiting the employment of material and methods of warfare of any nature likely to cause superfluous injury or unnecessary suffering. Failure to respect these provisions constitutes a war crime under international humanitarian law and under the statute of the International Criminal Court.

As the report reveals, civilian and military commanders bear criminal responsibility according to the principle of command responsibility, in the event that they knew or should have known about the violations committed by the forces under their control and did not prevent them or punish their subordinates responsible for them, as they must respect and enforce respect for international humanitarian law. The UN Security Council also bears the primary responsibility for the state of chaos and insecurity in Syria due to its terrible failure to protect civilians in Syria for ten years, and its failure to achieve a political transition so far.

The report calls on all parties to the conflict to respect the rules of international humanitarian law and international human rights law, and to stop employing the tactic of remote or suicide bombings targeting civilians and civilian objects, as well as to participate in respectful cooperation with the Independent International Commission of Inquiry on the Syrian Arab Republic, the High Commissioner for Human Rights, and the International, Impartial and Independent Mechanism.

The report recommends that the UN Security Council and International Community should increase logistical assistance to local organizations and local police working in the field of detecting and dismantling IEDs, to begin to compensate victims and their families, to focus on the psychological treatment process for survivors, and to support humanitarian organizations working in the field of psychological care.
The report stresses that there will be no stability in Syria without achieving a political transition towards democracy and human rights in Syria.

View full Report

BY: Anas ALmaarawi

 
Press release:
 
The Syrian Network for Human Rights (SNHR) reveals in its latest report released today that it has documented the deaths of 167 Syrian citizens, including 77 children, who have died due to the cold in Syria since March 2011, appealing for relief for nearly 700,000 recently forcibly displaced persons due to the attacks by Russian-Iranian-Syrian alliance on northwest Syria in light of the cold wave hitting the region.
 
The five-page report states that nearly 689,000 persons have been displaced in northwest Syria in the last month due to military operations launched by the Syrian-Iranian-Russian alliance on several cities and towns there, even as a wave of severe cold afflicts the region, with the temperature in Syria in the past two days reaching minus 8 degrees. The report stresses that the Syrian-Iranian-Russian alliance have specifically targeted the civilian population for attack and subjected it to barbaric indiscriminate shelling with various types of weapons. The report also notes that this indiscriminate bombardment, along with the arrests and killings of civilians by regime, Russian and Iranian forces in areas previously under rebel control, was the main reason that the cities’ residents were forced to flee, with more than 95 percent heading towards areas not controlled by the Syrian regime and its allies.
 
Fadel Abdul Ghany, Chairman of the Syrian Network for Human Rights, says:
“The issue of deaths and injuries due to the cold is closely related to the issue of forced displacement, and we are making a distress call to save hundreds of thousands of displaced persons in tents, and to create international pressure through calling an urgent meeting of the United Nations General Assembly to stop the military attack and provide a humanitarian truce to make arrangements for the conditions of the displaced, so that the truce may continue at least for a period exceeding the current severe cold ravaging the region. We are absolutely certain that the Syrian regime and its allies do not care about the lives and suffering of these displaced persons, but rather are the main reason for this suffering; the rest of the world’s states should pay attention to this urgent humanitarian catastrophe, which threatens the lives of dozens of newborn babies, as well as the sick and the elderly.”
 
Between March 2011 and January 31, 2020, the report documents the deaths of 167 civilians due to the cold in Syria, including 77 children and 18 women (adult female). The report includes the distribution of the death toll according to the practices of the parties that caused these people’s death, with 146 of these people dying at the hands of Syrian Regime forces, including 25 who died in the regime’s prisons also as a result of the cold, with the report also attributing responsibility for the death of 11 civilians due to cold to the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces, and five more deaths as a result of cold to ISIS, while five others died of cold while migrating to Europe.
 
The report attributes deaths due to cold to three main reasons, primarily displacement, particularly the displacement of hundreds of thousands of people, who are thus forced to live in the open air or in rudimentary makeshift tents with a lack of suitable clothing or heating materials, being the primary cause of deaths. The report adds that siege was also a cause of death due to cold, with people dying of cold inside their homes after being left without any means of heating due to the long sieges imposed on them by Syrian Regime forces, or in al Hawl Camp in the suburbs of Hasaka, and in Ein Eisa Camp in Raqqa suburbs, both of which were besieged by the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces.
 
As the report states, torture is also another cause of death due to cold, with exposure to extreme cold being one of the methods of torture used against detainees inside the Syrian regime’s detention centers, where regime personnel deliberately withhold the necessary amount of pillows, blankets and clothes, as well as denying detainees access to appropriate clothing and often leaving them only with underwear, due to their clothing being reduced to soiled unwearable rags, torn during the torture process, or forcibly removed by regime personnel during prison inspections; all of these practices further expose detainees to severe cold in the winter, when temperatures plummet to around freezing, in addition to the detention centers lacking any adequate heating at all. The report documents the deaths of 25 civilians due to cold in the Syrian regime’s detention centers.
 
The report warns that the catastrophic situation facing IDPs from Idlib region threatens a very real risk of further deaths caused by the freezing weather, noting that at the beginning of December 2019, Syrian-Russian alliance forces escalated their attacks on the southern and eastern suburbs of Idlib, with these attacks accompanied by a massive and ongoing wave of displacement, the worst on the humanitarian level since the beginning of the popular uprising in Syria. The report adds that at least 689,000 displaced persons have been forced to leave their homes and land as a result of the military operations seen in the Idlib region since December 1, 2019, according to the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs.
 
The report notes that hundreds of thousands of displaced persons are now living in different areas in the region; some of these people have spread along the area on the Syrian-Turkish border, where hundreds of small camps have sprung up, while others have fled towards the mountainous areas in the northern suburbs of Idlib, with these people hardly finding any shelter in light of the subzero temperatures that have reached minus 8 degrees in the past days.
 
The report states that Syrian-Russian alliance forces have practiced the crime of displacement in a systematic, widespread and organized manner against the civilian population, which constitutes a war crime in non-international armed conflicts when committed as part of a deliberate or widespread attack against the civilian population (Articles 8 (2) (b) (7) and 8 (2) (e) (8) of the Statute of the International Criminal Court), and may also be considered crimes against humanity (Article 7 (1) (d) of the Statute of the International Criminal Court). According to the report, no measures recorded taken by these forces to provide shelter, health care or food to the displaced civilians.
 
The report further calls on the UN Security Council to pass a resolution concerning some seven million internally displaced persons in Syria that addresses forced displacement, to ensure that this does not become a long-term crisis, and to put pressure on the Syrian regime to end displacements, and enact laws aimed at preventing the plunder of displaced persons’ properties and possessions.
The report also calls on the UN Security Council to pass a resolution in order to establish a truce and to create a safe area for the fleeing IDPs, which will constitute a relatively stable zone for them, ensuring that they won’t be displaced again.
 
The report also calls on the UN General Assembly to hold an emergency meeting to address the conditions of nearly 700,000 suffering IDPs in the midst of a terrible cold wave, and to devise solutions to protect these people from future displacements by creating a safe zone protected from all forms of bombardment.
 
The report also presents a set of recommendations to the UN Secretary-General and UN OCHA, as well as calling on the international community to take action at the national and regional levels to form alliances to support the Syrian people that can protect them from the daily killings and siege and to increase support for relief efforts.
 

View full Report

The Syrian Network for Human Rights (SNHR) revealed in its report released today that at least20678 civilians were killed during the months of Ramadan and Eid al Fitr holidays between 2011 and 2019, pointing out that the Syrian and Russian regimes have repeatedly violated places of worship through bombings and targeted assaults.
The 35-page report points out that the month of Ramadan is a holy month for Muslims around the world, and Islam is the religion of the majority of the Syrian people, adding that mosques are places of worship and cultural and religious properties that the government is duty-bound to protect, as well as having other symbolic value as gathering places where most demonstrations in the popular uprising used to start out from, noting that since 2011, these have been targeting of various sects’ places of worship.
 
The report states also that the killing of civilians and targeting of their places of worship during these periods constitute a double violation since it displays contempt for religions and the sanctity of such occasions, and also fuels intense sectarian tension and division within society.
 
The report further notes that, under international law (Protocol 2, Article 16), places of worship must not be attacked at all, and should not be used to support any war effort, with any deliberate attacks against them constituting war crimes. Such attacks have repeatedly occurred in Syria, perpetrated by several parties in the Syrian conflict; the primary perpetrator of these violations is the Syrian regime which has deployed its air force, and used barrel bombs and missiles in these attacks. The report recommends that UNESCO should shed greater light on the destruction and damage inflicted on Islamic places of worship, identify those responsible for the destruction and bombing, and request special protection and the intervention of UN forces to protect civilians and places of worship in Syria.
 
The report refers to the military campaign against the latest month of Ramadan witnessed in the fourth and final de-escalation zone (consisting of Idlib governorate and parts of the governorates of Hama, Aleppo and Latakia), which is also subject to the Sochi Agreement, which have witnessed an increase in the frequency of bombardment and the direct targeting of places where civilians gather by the Syrian-Russian alliance forces, along with repeated use of highly destructive weapons, indiscriminate improvised munitions and prohibited weapons, including chemical weapons, in addition to an increase in targeting vital civilian facilities, especially medical centers.
 
The report cites the latest statistics of the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), which reported the displacement of nearly 270,000 people, most of whom now live in flimsy makeshift tents in agricultural land north of Idlib governorate, lacking the most basic essentials of life, in searing summer heat, without the Syrian-Russian alliance forces taking into account the sanctity of the month of Ramadan.
 
The report highlights the toll of civilian victims who were killed during the months of Ramadan and the three Eid al Fitr days that follow, starting from Ramadan 1432 AH corresponding to August 2011, until Ramadan 1440 AH corresponding to May and June 2019, and the targeting of Islamic places of worship during these periods.
 
According to the report, at least 18,974 civilians were killed during the months of Ramadan between 2011 and 2019, including 2,675 children and 2,339 women (adult females), of whom the Syrian regime killed 16,114 civilians, including 2,196 children and 1,967 women, while 246 civilians, including 46 children and 51 women were killed by Russian forces. Meanwhile, factions of the Armed Opposition killed 396 civilians, including 66 children, 109 women, and Syrian Democratic Forces killed 156 civilians, including 27 children and 16 women. Also, International Coalition forces killed 307 civilians, including 174 children, 49 women, while ISIS killed 1,137 civilians, including 89 children, and 102 women. In addition, Hay’at tahrir al Sham killed 16 civilians, including one child and one woman. The report also records the deaths of at least 602 civilians, including 76 children, and 44 women at the hands of other parties.
 
The report also distributes the toll of the victims according to the year in question; in the month of Ramadan 1432 AH corresponding to 2011, at least 811 civilians, including 112 children and 104 women were killed, while the report records the largest toll of victims in Ramadan 1433 AH corresponding to 2012, with the deaths of at least 6,718 civilians, including 688 children and 597 women. In Ramadan 1434 AH corresponding to 2013, the report records the deaths of at least 2,735 civilians, including 436 children and 411 women. Meanwhile, in Ramadan 1435 AH corresponding to 2014, at least 2,815 civilians, including 471 children and 451 women were killed, while in Ramadan 1436 AH corresponding to 2015, at least 2,752 civilians, including 386 children and 312 women were killed, the report says.
The report also records in Ramadan 1437 AH corresponding to 2016 at least 1,002 civilians, including 149 children and 135 women were killed, while in Ramadan 1438 AH corresponding to 2017, the report documents the deaths of at least 1,123 civilians, including 254 children and 206 women. In addition, in Ramadan 1439 AH corresponding to 2018, at least 652 civilians, including 93 children and 79 women were killed, while in Ramadan 1440 AH corresponding to 2019, at least 366 civilians, including 86 children and 44 women were killed, according to the report.
 
The report further documents the deaths of at least 1,704 civilians, including 229 children and 196 women, during the Eid al Fitr holidays that directly follow Ramadan between 2011 and 2019. The Syrian regime killed 1,475 of these civilians, including 211 children and 151 women, while Russian forces killed 30 civilians, including eight children and two women. Meanwhile, at least 25 civilians, including five women, were killed at the hands of factions of the Armed Opposition, while at least 28 more civilians, including one child and four women, were killed at the hands of Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces. Also, at least 14 civilians, including two women, were killed at the hands of International Coalition forces, while ISIS killed 19 civilians, including six children, and four women. In addition, Hay’at Tahrir al Sham killed eight civilians, including three women. The report also documents the deaths of 105 civilians, including three children, and 25 women, at the hands of other parties.
 
The report distributes the toll of victims killed on the Eid al Fitr holidays between 2011 and 2019 according to the years; during Eid al Fitr in 1432 AH corresponding to 2011, at least 48 civilians, including six children and four women, were killed, while in Eid al Fitr 1433 AH corresponding to 2012, at least 816 civilians, including 81 children and 54 women, were killed. In Eid al Fitr 1434 AH corresponding to 2013, at least 218 civilians, including 43 children and 21 women, were killed. The report records the deaths of at least 193 civilians, including 28 children and 29 women in Eid al Fitr 1435 AH corresponding to 2014, while in Eid al Fitr 1436 AH corresponding to 2015, at least 138 civilians, including 29 children and 26 women, were killed, according to the report.
The report also documents in Eid al Fitr 1435 AH corresponding to 2016 that at least 164 civilians, including 25 children and 44 women, were killed, while in Eid al Fitr, 1438 AH corresponding to 2017, at least 86 civilians, including 10 children and 13 women, were killed. Also, at least 22 civilians, including two children and one woman, were killed in Eid al Fitr 1439 AH corresponding to 2018, while in Eid al Fitr, 1440 AH corresponding to 2019, at least 19 civilians, including five children and four women, were killed.
 
The report stresses that all the attacks included in the report were directed against civilians and civilian objects, further noting that Syrian-Russian alliance forces have committed a wide variety of crimes, with the attacks and indiscriminate bombardment by the alliance causing the destruction of facilities and buildings. In addition, there are reasonable grounds to believe that the war crime of attacking civilians has been committed in many cases, as well as deliberate attacks against places of worship.
The report notes that international humanitarian law strongly prohibits attacks on protected objects, which must be protected in times of international and internal armed conflict, and prohibits indiscriminate, deliberate or reprisal attacks against these objects. This prohibition is based on the principle of distinction. Cultural objects and places of worship are among the most notable protected objects, representing the cultural and religious heritage of peoples and minorities, and should not be subjected to deliberate or indiscriminate attack or be used in the war effort according to Protocol 2, Article 16.
The report stresses that the Syrian government has violated international humanitarian law, customary law, and all UN Security Council resolutions, particularly resolution 2139, resolution 2042, and resolution 2254, all without any accountability.
 
According to the report, extremist Islamist groups have violated international humanitarian law by killing civilians. Also, Coalition forces “International Coalition forces and Syrian Democratic Forces” launched attacks that amount to a violate of customary international humanitarian law, causing incidental loss of civilian lives or collateral injury to civilians.
 
The report calls on the UN Security Council to take additional steps following its adoption of Resolution 2254, and stresses the importance of referring the Syrian case to the International Criminal Court, adding that all those who are responsible should be held accountable including the Russian regime whose involvement in war crimes has been repeatedly proven.
The report calls for the implementation of the ‘Responsibility to Protect’ doctrine after all political channels have proved fruitless through all agreements, the Cessation of Hostilities statements, and Astana agreements that followed, stressing the need to resort to Chapter VII, and to implement the norm of the ‘Responsibility to Protect’, which was established by the United Nations General Assembly.
The report calls on the Independent International Commission of Inquiry (COI) and the International, Impartial, and Independent Mechanism (IIIM) to launch investigations into the cases included in this report and previous reports, and confirms the SNHR’s willingness to cooperate and provide further evidence and data.
 
The report also calls on the United Nations Special Envoy to Syria to condemn the perpetrators of crimes and massacres and those who were primarily responsible for dooming the de-escalation agreements and the Sochi Agreement, to reschedule the peace process so that it can resume its natural course despite Russia’s attempts to divert and distort it, and to empower the Constitutional Commission prior to the establishment of a transitional governing body.
The report also calls on the International Coalition forces to acknowledge that some of their bombing operations have resulted in the deaths of innocent civilians, and demands that the coalition launch serious investigations, as well as compensating and apologizing to the victims and all those affected.
The report stresses that the states supporting the SDF should apply pressure on these forces in order to compel them to cease all of their violations in all the areas and towns under their control, adding that all forms of support, military and all others, should be ended.
 
The report also calls on the Armed Opposition factions to ensure the protection of civilians in all areas under their control, and urges them to investigate incidents that have resulted in civilian casualties, as well as calling on them to take care to distinguish between civilians and military targets and to cease any indiscriminate attacks.
 
Lastly, the report stresses the need for international organizations to develop urgent operational plans to secure decent shelter for internally displaced persons.
 

View full Report

I. Introduction
This report contains a number of charts for the death toll of 2016, and the death toll of women, children, victims who died due to torture, medical personnel, and lastly, media activists. Additionally, the report presents a number of infographics that compare the death toll at the hands of the influential parties to the Syrian conflict.
 
The data shown in these charts draws upon the daily documentation processes that have been ongoing since 2011, where SNHR, through its members who are scattered throughout Syria, monitors killings and highlights most notable news and massacre. This is followed by a preliminary toll that is published at the end of every day, and then a preliminary toll at the end of every month. Over the course of six years, our cumulative work has enabled us to establish a database for the victims who are being killed in Syria. For more information, please see our documentation and archiving methodology.
 
II. The Syrian-Iranian-Russian regime is overwhelmingly the main party responsible for the killing of civilians
Being responsible for 52% of the totality of the crimes that were committed in 2016, the Syrian-Iranian regime surpasses all other parties, including its Russian allies. The Syrian regime possesses an air force composing of fixed-wing warplanes and helicopters that are capable of firing missiles and dropping barrel bombs. Aerial bombardment alone has killed 55% at least of the total number of victims, while shelling using heavy artillery and tanks killed 14%. The remaining death toll is divided between various kinds of weapons ranging from machine guns, to snipers, to mortar shells, to chemical weapons, to cluster munitions, and then slaughtering using white weapons.
 
Kurdish Self-management forces, primarily consisting of the Democratic Union Party, a branch for The Kurdistan Workers’ Party in Syria, killed no less than 146 Syrian civilians.
All armed opposition factions, including Islamic factions, have killed no less than 1048 civilians.
Other parties, a category that includes bombings we couldn’t identify the groups behind them, and bullets of unknown source, landmines of unknown source, and drowning in addition to Jordanian, Lebanese, and Turkish forces, were responsible for the killing of 951 civilians in 2016.
 
Comparisons between two sides provide a closer look. For example, when comparing the Syrian regime with ISIS, we find that the Syrian regime has killed six times more civilians than ISIS, while Russian forces, who claimed that they have entered Syria for the purpose of fighting the group, have killed three times more Syrians than ISIS. We believe these figures came to be because both the Syrian and Russian regimes have the resources of a military state including an air force, which these two regimes use on a daily basis to bomb civilian-populated neighborhoods that are controlled by the armed opposition. In many cases, this bombardment is being carried out in a random manner, while it is being conducted deliberately in other cases, for the sole purpose of killing before anything else. In contrast, ISIS uses artillery and mortar shells. It is a very likely possibility that had ISIS possessed a deadlier arsenal, the death toll it would cause would have been considerably bigger.

View full Report

SNHR has released a report that contains an update on the death toll of civilian victims, women victims, children victims, victims who died due to torture, death toll among medical personnel and media activists who were killed at the hands of the main six parties that kill civilians in Syria.
The statistics included in the report are based on the daily documentation process that has been ongoing since 2011 where SNHR, through its members who are scattered throughout Syria, monitors the killings of victims and publishes the most notable developments and highlights the massacres.

According to the report, the Syrian regime, before any other party emerged, started the killing by shooting live bullets at demonstrators which was followed by a gradual escalation in the use of weapon from tanks to artillery to chemical weapons, barrel bombs, and Scud missiles. Additionally, the regime tortured detainees to death inside its detention centers. the total number of victims who were killed at the hands of the Syrian regime amounts to 188,279 civilians.
The report says that the Syrian regime, as any other mafia regime, acted in a blatantly brutal and apathetic manner disregarding all international laws, and even Syrian laws, and became something that is more of a group of controlling circles that are devoid of any nationalistic or humanitarian values as hospitals and schools were attacked and civil neighborhoods and objects were bombed in a way that has never been seen before in the modern age.

Fadel Abdul Ghani, chairman of SNHR, adds:
“What makes us feel the need to reemphasize what is already known and well-established in the evolution of the popular uprising into an armed conflict is the western mindset that is still exclusively focused on fighting transnational extremist Islamic groups and has overlooked the terrorism of the ruling regime and the transnational militias that allied with the regime even though these groups have been the main responsible for the killings and have vastly surpassed all the other parties in committing all kinds of crimes and violations in Syria.”
The report notes that even though ISIS, the self-proclaimed Islamic Caliphate, emerged on 9 April 2013, Russian forces, who claimed that they came to fight ISIS, have killed more Syrian civilians than ISIS itself where 3558 civilians were killed by Russian forces compared to the 2998 civilians killed at the hands of ISIS. Furthermore, civilian casualties who were killed at the hands of the international coalition forces, amounted to 669 civilians according to the report, exceeded the number of victims who were killed by Fateh Al Sham Front who killed 372 civilians.

According to the report, Kurdish Self-management forces, who are primarily consisting of the Democratic Union Party forces – the Kurdistan Workers’ Party in Syria- killed no less than 215 civilians in Syria whereas all armed opposition factions, including those who are regarded as Islamic, killed no less than 3668 civilians.
The report stresses that the Syrian regime and its ally Russian forces tops all the other parties with a percentage that amounts to 93% of the total killings that have been perpetrated in Syria since the eruption of the popular uprising in March 2011. The Syrian regime possesses an air force, fixed-wing warplanes and helicopters, that is capable of bombing using missiles and by dropping barrel bombs. Aerial bombardment alone was responsible for 30% at least of the total death toll while shelling using heavy artillery and tanks was the cause behind the death of no less than 18% of all causalities. The cause of death for the remaining death toll varied between different kinds of weapons but most importantly are machine guns, snipers, mortar shells, chemical weapons, and cluster munitions and finally slaughter using knives.

The report notes that first and foremost, the responsibility falls upon the state and its apparatuses to protect the people. However, when the state apparatuses are merely a tool for violence in the hands of the ruling regime who is killing and destroying the people and the state and continues to do so for days, months, and years with no one to put an end to the crimes, there has to be an international system in place which was one of the main reasons behind the establishing of the norm of the Responsibly to Protect – established by the United Nations General Assembly in 2005. The Syrian state has failed to protect the people and, even more, the current regime insists on perpetrating crimes systematically according to the reports of the Independent International Commission of Inquiry on the Syrian Arab Republic, which is affiliated to the Human Rights Council. Thus, the burden, weeks after the popular uprising broke out, had shifted to the international community who must, in accordance with paragraph 139 of the 2005 World Summit Outcome Document, take action collectively through the Security Council in accordance with articles 41 and 42 of the Charter of the United Nations. Nonetheless, the Security Council didn’t take any steps due to the protection provided by Russia and China for the Syrian regime which sends a message to the totalitarian states of the world that by only signing a deal with a totalitarian state who is a permanent member of the Security Council, you can enjoy immunity, care, and diplomatic and political support.
The report hold the international community, represented by the Security Council, fully responsible for the protection of civilians and calls for recording all what is happening in detail in order to hold the criminals and their accomplices accountable throughout ages.

View full Report

The statistics in this report, which is published by SNHR, are based on the Network’s monthly reports. These reports draw upon a daily and cumulative documentation of daily incidents throughout the period of time between the commencement of the Cessation of Hostilities statement on 27 February 2016 and 27 July 2016 where the report records that 71% of all the violations in the five-month period since the commencement of the Cessation of Hostilities statement were perpetrated by the Russian and Syrian regimes.
The report notes that the Russian authorities announced that Russian forces would withdraw from Syria.

The withdrawal, however, was only words on paper as Russian forces are still bombing the various Syrian governorates using a wide range of weapons including internationally-prohibited weapons such as cluster munition. As it is well known, Russian forces are fighting side by side with the Syrian regime and, therefore, it is a main party in the conflict and have been involved in tens of war crimes. At the same time, the Russian regime was a party to the statement of Cessation of Hostilities and a party in the political process as well which is one of the most major paradoxes in the Syrian tragedy according to the report.
The report anticipates, based on the data it includes, that the American-Russian agreement to coordinate against Al Nussra Front, Al Qaeda branch in Syria, and ISIS will fail as well because the agreement repeats the same mistakes that were made in the Cessation of Hostilities statement. Russian forces will keep targeting civilians and armed opposition factions and claims that they were Al Nussra Front. Nonetheless, the terrorist sectarian militias that are loyal to the Syrian regime aren’t targeted amid an utter lack of any monitoring or accountability mechanisms.

Fadel Abdul Ghani, chairman of SNHR, adds:
“The Syrian people can’t picture that there is an ongoing political process and at the same times barrel bombs are being dropped over them in addition to the arrest, siege, and displacement. There has to be a complete ceasefire and only then the political process will have solid grounds. We hope that this happens before the beginning of the upcoming elections in the US. Otherwise, there will be long months of killing and displacement awaiting the lone Syrian people”
The report documents the killing of 5188 civilians including 1016 children and 694 women during the period of time covered in the report. Government forces killed 3055 civilians including 483 children and 359 women while Russian forces killed 417 civilians including 113 children and 63 women. Additionally, 552 civilians were killed by ISIS including 98 children and 78 women whereas Al Nussra Front killed 17 civilians including two children and one woman. Also, the number of victims killed at the hands of the international coalition forces is 305 civilians including 130 children and 53 women whereas Self-management forces killed 184 civilians including 17 children and eight women. Furthermore, 392 civilians including 102 children and 92 women were killed by the various armed opposition factions.

Moreover, the report records that 3631 individuals were arrested including 113 children and 135 women. Government forces arrested 2517 individuals including 83 children and 114 women while ISIS arrested 585 individuals including four children and five women. Also, Al Nussra Front arrested 97 individuals including one child whereas Self-management forces arrested 168 individuals including 19 children and 12 women. Also, 264 individuals including four women and six children were arrested by armed opposition factions.
According to the report, 152 massacres were perpetrated in the period of time covered in this report where government forces perpetrated 102 massacres, Russian forces perpetrated 19 massacres, ISIS perpetrated 12 massacres, the international coalition forces perpetrated seven massacres, and six massacres were perpetrated by armed opposition factions in addition to six massacre that were perpetrated by unidentified groups.
The report highlights the attacks against vital civil facilities which amounted to 440 incidents of attacks including 275 by government forces and 100 by Russian forces. Additionally, 25 attacks against vital civil facilities were carried out by armed opposition factions, 19 by ISIS, six by international coalition forces, and one by Self-management forces in addition to 14 incidents of attacks that were carried out by unidentified groups.

The report calls on the government of Russia and the USA to investigate the incidents included, to deal with violations seriously, and to map out the locations of Al Nussra Front and ISIS rather than targeting all areas and neighborhoods under the pretext of combating terrorism.
Furthermore, the report demands that double-standard policies must end as the terrorist groups that are fighting side by side with the Syrian regime, which are mostly of a Shiite and sectarian nature, must be fought in addition to the extremist Islamic groups.
The report emphasizes that the Russian government must immediately withdraw from Syria and not side with the Syrian regime.
Finally, the report calls on for the Syrian case to be referred to the International Criminal Court and for all involved to be held accountable, Also, peace and security must be instilled in Syria and the norm of “Responsibility to Protect” must be implemented in order to save the lives, history, and arts of the Syrian people from being destroyed, stolen, or ruined.

View full Report

SNHR has released a report entitled: “Harvest of the First Ten Days of Ramadan 2016”
The report documents the death toll and most notable massacres that were perpetrated during the first ten days of Ramadan 2016. 362 civilians were killed including 314 victims who were killed at the hands of government forces and its pro-government forces.
The report notes that SNHR team faces difficulties in documenting victims from armed opposition factions because many of them are killed on battlefront and not inside the city. Also, we can’t obtain names, pictures, and other important details because of the armed opposition factions’ unwillingness to reveal such information for security among other reasons, Therefore, the actual number of victims is much greater that what is being recorded.
Also, the report affirms that it is almost impossible to access information about victims from government forces or ISIS and the margin of error is considerably higher due to the lack of any methodology in this type of documentation. From the Network’s perspective, the statistics published by some groups on this category of victims are fictitious and are not based on any actual data.
Therefore, the report only incudes civilian victims who were killed by the various parties and compare them.

According to the report, government forces and its pro-government forces killed 314 from civilians 6 June 2016 to 16 June 2016 including 55 children, 23 women, and six victims who died under torture. Averagely, six children are being killed and one victim is being tortured to death every day.
25% of the total number of civilian victims are children and women which is an indicator on government forces’ and its pro-government forces’ deliberate targeting of civilians.
The report reads that Self-management forces (primarily the Democratic Union Party, a branch of the Kurdistan Workers’ Party) killed 10 civilians including two children and one woman, whereas ISIS killed 14 civilians including one child and two women. Additionally, eight civilians were killed by armed opposition factions including four children.
Also, the report records that five civilians (four children and one woman) were killed by the International Coalition forces in addition to 11 civilians, including two children and two women, who were killed by unidentified groups.
The report emphasizes that government forces and its militias (Shabiha) have violated the international human rights law that guarantees the right to live. Furthermore, there are tens of cases of where the elements of war crimes related to killing were fulfilled. Evidences and proofs, according to hundreds of eyewitnesses’ accounts, suggest that more than 90% of the widespread and single attacks carried out by government forces and its pro-government forces were against civilians and civilian facilities.
Additionally, ISIS have conducted extrajudicial killings that qualify as a war crime.

Moreover, the report notes that some of the armed opposition factions as well as the International Coalition forces have conducted extrajudicial killings that also qualify as a war crime. Also, Self-management forces have perpetrated war crimes through conducting extrajudicial killings.
The report calls on the Security Council and relevant international institutions to uphold its responsibilities with respect to the ongoing and ceaseless killing and to press on the Syrian government in order to stop the deliberate and indiscriminate bombing against civilians.
The report also holds the allies and supporters of the Syrian government -Russia, Iran, and China- morally and materially responsible for the killing in Syria.

View full Report

Since the beginning of the uprising in Syria in 2011, SNHR has been documenting, classifying, and archiving the victim’s death toll according to different criteria and characteristics. We record the victims’ names, age, date and cause of death. Further, SNHR classifies whether the victims were civilians or gunmen and records other relevant information as well. However, it should be noted that what we have been documenting is the bare minimum of what we were able to record regarding different documentation criteria and challenges that we face. To read more about SNHR’s methodology, please visit the following link.

In the past years, we provided the High Commissioner for Human Rights with files that contained all victims’ data; however the commission that is headed by Prince Zeid Bin Ra’ad Al Houssein has ceased to continue to update the casualties’ death toll in May 2014, and we hopefully wish that it will be resumed in the near future.

Since March 2011 and for several months afterwards, the main conflict party that killed Syrian civilians was government forces represented by security forces, army and local militias. Al Nusra Front announced its formation on 24 January 2012 and then the PYD Kurdish Forces started to emerge. Also, ISIL announced its creation on 9 April 2013; two years after the uprising had started.

full pdf report