The Hague – The Syrian Network for Human Rights (SNHR) today released a report entitled, ‘The Syrian Regime Dropped About 11,000 Barrel Bombs on Daraa Governorate, Killing 1,177 Civilians, Forty Percent of Whom Were Women and Children’, in which the group notes that the Syrian regime’s use of barrel bombs has contributed to the displacement of hundreds of thousands of people, paving the way for seizing their lands and properties.

The report notes that the Syrian regime began using barrel bombs as a weapon in July 2012. These lethal bombs, manufactured in designated workshops, were used by the regime to target areas that had broken free of its control. The report gives a brief description of the manufacturing process and the nature of the barrel bombs’ use, as well as explaining how the plentiful evidence confirms that barrel bombs are crude, indiscriminate weapons which it is virtually impossible to use with any precision to hit specific targets. As such, those deploying them cannot realistically distinguish between civilian and military targets in their deployment, meaning that their use constitutes a blatant violation of international humanitarian law.

Moreover, the report gives a brief summary of SNHR’s rigorous work on documenting the Syrian regime’s use of barrel bombs. On this issue, SNHR has released hundreds of news items and dozens of reports that have been used as sources by various international bodies and governments worldwide, especially since the adoption of UN Security Council resolution 2139, which explicitly condemned the regime’s use of barrel bombs, and requested that the UN Secretary-General submit periodic reports assessing whether or not the regime had stopped using these weapons.

The report notes that regime helicopters and fixed-wing warplanes dropped no fewer than 81,916 barrel bombs across Syria between July 2012 and March 2020, the last month in which barrel bombs were documented to have been used, killing at least 11,087 civilians, including 1,821 children and 1,780 women (adult female). In addition, barrel bombs were used in no fewer than 728 attacks on vital civilian facilities, including 104 attacks on medical facilities, 188 on schools, 205 on mosques, and 57 on markets. The regime also used barrel bombs loaded with toxic gases in 93 attacks, while barrel bombs loaded with incendiary substances were used in four attacks that targeted civilian areas.

This report forms part of SNHR’s work on documenting the use of barrel bombs. To that end, the report focuses on the use of these crude, indiscriminate weapons in Daraa governorate, which was among the first governorates where barrel bombs were used by the regime to target civilian populations, vital civilian facilities, and the areas furthest from the battlefronts in those parts of the governorate that broke free of the regime’s control. As SNHR documented in great detail, the regime’s use of barrel bombs in the governorate resulted in dozens of massacres of civilians, as well as widespread destruction, in addition to causing mass panic among civilian residents who were terrified at the potential consequences of the explosion of these lethal and devastating weapons.

The report documents that Syrian regime military aircraft and warplanes dropped about 11,153 barrel bombs on Daraa governorate between July 2012 and August 2018. The year 2015 saw the highest number of barrel bombs dropped on the governorate in one year, followed by 2017, then 2014. The barrel bombs dropped in those three years combined accounted for 75 percent of all barrel bombs dropped on the governorate.

The report documents 1,177 civilian deaths, including those of 272 children and 193 women (adult female), as a result of the Syrian regime’s use of barrel bombs in Daraa governorate between July 2012 and August 2018. The report also emphasizes that women and child victims accounted for about 40 percent of all civilian deaths from Syrian regime barrel bomb attacks in Daraa governorate, with this incredibly high percentage confirming that these attacks specifically targeted civilians. Meanwhile, barrel bombs were used in at least 39 attacks on vital civilian facilities in Daraa governorate in the same period. These included 11 attacks on medical facilities, six on schools, six on places of worship, and four on markets, according to SNHR’s database.

The report also notes that the Syrian regime, supported by Russia and Iran, has consistently followed a “scorched earth” policy against areas outside its control in Daraa governorate, carrying out military operations with intensive and brutal ground and air bombardment, which included the use of barrel bombs, all in order to force the inhabitants of these areas to accept settlement agreements imposed on the regime’s terms in exchange for the right to be free of the harrowing ordeal of bombardment and military operations.

The report stresses that the Syrian regime showed an utter disregard for UN Security Council resolution 2139, which was adopted on February 22, 2014, breaching it about 9,428 times in Daraa governorate alone. In this, the regime heavily and excessively used barrel bombs in its offensives on Daraa, and only ended its use of this indiscriminate weapon in August 2018, following its announcement that it had seized full control of the governorate. SNHR has recorded no use of barrel bombs in Daraa governorate since August 2018 as of this writing.

The report contains a number of conclusions drawn from SNHR’s exhaustive work on this issue, including confirmation that the Syrian regime’s objective in using barrel bombs has been to inflict as much human and material loss and devastation as possible in the areas inhabited by dissident populations, where the regime had lost control. That is to say that inflicting destruction is a goal in and of itself for the regime. Given the inevitable results of this destruction, it’s clear that the regime set out to deliberately displace as many residents as possible, specifically from those areas whose populations had expressed opposition to regime rule, and then to exploit these deliberately displaced people’s absence in any future reconstruction process, in which the regime would have the upper hand, thanks to an arsenal of quasi-legal laws and legislative articles passed specifically to allow it to seize control of the properties of missing and displaced persons. It must be noted that targeting residential areas with these lethal indiscriminate weapons amounts to a war crime, while killing civilians in this manner is a crime against humanity. The UN Security Council’s and the international community’s failure to deter the Syrian regime has emboldened the regime to continue to use these primitive and barbaric weapons.

The report calls on the UN Security Council to condemn the Syrian regime’s failure to comply with UN Security Council resolution 2139 and to hold it fully responsible for the destruction, displacement, and subsequent pillaging of land and property. Furthermore, the report calls on the UN Human Rights Office (OHCHR) to document all violations in Daraa governorate, particularly housing and property rights violations which were the result of the Syrian regime’s destroying tens of thousands of buildings in the governorate. Additionally, the report stresses that, at the level of the international community, no form of relations should be re-established with the Syrian regime, which has used primitive barrel bombs against its own people, killing, destroying, and displacing millions of Syrians. The report also makes a number of additional recommendations.

The Hague – Syrian Network for Human Rights:

August 21, 2024, marks 11 years since the Syrian regime carried out its most notorious and unconscionable chemical weapons attack against civilians, in the Eastern and Western Ghoutas in Rural Damascus on August 21, 2013. A profound and pervasive sense of grief and mourning overcomes the Syrian people at this time every year, as we are reminded by the terrible memories and images of the victims and their suffering, and the unimaginable panic and terror these barbaric attacks created. The ghastly scent of death remains horribly fresh in our memories to this day. Even though more than a decade has passed since that terrible day, time has not eased the horrific memories of that monstrous and barbaric attack. Many of the survivors, especially those who were children at the time, continue to suffer the agonizing consequences in pain and trauma, all of which are made even more horrendous and heartbreaking by the fact that, despite the passage of so many years, the Syrian regime’s leadership and others involved have still not been held accountable in any way for perpetrating such unimaginable evil.

What happened on August 21, 2013?

On the night of Wednesday, August 21, 2013, the Syrian regime carried out roughly four separate attacks using chemical weapons against densely populated areas in the Eastern Ghouta and Western Ghouta (including Mu’adamiyet Al Sham town) of Rural Damascus. In these coordinated attacks, the regime used 10 rockets loaded with lethal poison gases; with each rocket having an estimated capacity of 20 liters, this means the 10 rockets carried a total deadly payload of 200 liters. The rockets, all loaded with large quantities of internationally outlawed Sarin gas, were fired using a rocket launcher after midnight as the civilians targeted were sleeping. Both factors signal that the Syrian regime had a premeditated and deliberate objective of killing as many residents as possible, with the calculated aim of silently, fatally gassing them in their sleep, thereby minimizing any chance of survival. Additionally, the weather in the region had been forecast to be relatively cool and calm between 02:00 and 05:00 that night, meaning those responsible knew that due to the stillness of the air, the heavy poisonous gas would naturally drift downwards rather than blowing away and would remain close to the ground, further increasing its lethality and providing an opportunity for the regime to kill and injure as many victims as possible. All of these factors lead us at the Syrian Network for Human Rights (SNHR) to believe that the Syrian regime had conceived a deliberately and meticulously orchestrated plan before that night to exterminate as many of the Syrian people as possible, including women and children, in one coordinated attack, knowing that the only ‘crime’ committed by those targeted was to have called for freedom and for an end to the regime’s despotic hereditary rule, and to have dared to reject its iron-fisted control and to disobey the orders of its security apparatus.

It is also important to remember that the area of the two Ghoutas was at that time under a crippling siege that had been imposed by the Syrian regime since the end of 2012, which blocked the entry of fuel and medical supplies. The resulting severe shortages of medicine and medical equipment also contributed to the massive casualty numbers from the chemical weapons attack.

All these factors outlined above led to many people being killed or injured. SNHR documented the killing of 1,144 individuals in that night’s attack, all of whom were asphyxiated by the chemical weapons used. The victims, whose names and personal details we have recorded, are divided into:

• 1,119 civilians, including 99 children and 194 women (adult female).
• 25 armed opposition fighters.

We also documented that 5,935 survivors of these unspeakable attacks suffered severe respiratory problems and suffocation.

The death toll from the Two Ghoutas attack accounts for 76 percent of all the victims killed in the chemical weapons attacks carried out by the Syrian regime between December 2012 and the last documented chemical weapons attack on SNHR’s database, which took place in May 2019 in al-Kbeina in rural Latakia.

On Tuesday, June 11, 2024, the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons’ (OPCW) Fact-Finding Mission (FFM) released its report summarizing the findings of an investigation into two alleged attacks reported by the Syrian regime’s government to the OPCW’s Technical Secretariat, which requested that they be investigated. The regime’s allegations are outlined below:

– On September 21, 2017, the Syrian regime’s government reported that ISIS had carried out an attack involving the use of munitions carrying unidentified toxic gases on August 9, 2017, near Qalib al-Thawr village east of al-Salamiya city in rural Hama. The regime claimed that, as a result of the attack, a number of regime soldiers exhibited symptoms such as suffocation and loss of consciousness.

– On November 24, 2017, the Syrian regime reported that an attack involving the use of mortar shells containing toxic gases had been carried out a few weeks earlier on November 8, 2017, targeting a regime army location in al-Bulbul area in the vicinity of Souran city in Hama governorate.

In this latest report, the FFM, whose mandate includes responsibility for determining whether or not toxic chemicals have been used as a weapon of war in Syria but not assigning culpability in any alleged attacks involving their use, summarized the findings of their investigations into the alleged two attacks. The FFM noted that as part of their investigations, the investigators had conducted field visits to sites related to the alleged incidents reported by the regime, and interviewed supposed eyewitnesses and victims, as well as reviewing and analyzing photos, video footage, and documents provided by the Syrian regime’s government, as well as reviewing open-source materials.

The Hague – The Syrian Network for Human Rights (SNHR)

This week marks the seventh anniversary of the Syrian regime’s chemical weapons attack on Khan Sheikhoun city on April 4, 2017, and the sixth anniversary of the regime’s chemical weapons attack on Douma city on April 7, 2018.

In relation to the attack on Khan Sheikhoun city, the Syrian Network for Human Rights (SNHR) documented the deaths from suffocation of 91 civilians, including 32 children and 23 women (adult female), and the injury of 520 others. In relation to the attack on Douma city in Rural Damascus ‘Rif Dimshaq’ governorate, SNHR documented the deaths from suffocation of 43 civilians, including 19 children and 17 women (adult female), and the injury of nearly 550 others.

SNHR has shared the information and data it gathered on these events with the Independent International Commission of Inquiry on the Syrian Arab Republic (COI), which in turn concluded that the Syrian regime was responsible for both attacks, on Khan Sheikhoun and Douma, while the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) proved that chemical weapons were used in Khan Sheikhoun and Douma without ascertaining which party was responsible for the attacks. The OPCW-UN Joint Investigative Mechanism (JIM), established in accordance with Security Council resolution 2235 in August 2015, proved that the Syrian regime was responsible for the Khan Sheikhoun attack, with its mandate coming to an end as the result of a Russian veto before the Douma attack. Eight years later, on January 27, 2023, the OPCW’s Investigation and Identification Team (IIT) issued its third report, which states that “there are reasonable grounds to believe that at least one Mi8/17 helicopter dropped two cylinders on apartment buildings in an area in the center of Douma city between 19:10 and 19:40 on April 7, 2018, in a military attack by Syrian regime forces. The helicopter, operated by the Russian-backed Nemer ‘Tiger’ forces, operated out of al-Dmair Airbase.” SNHR has contributed to all the reports released so far by the IIT, and fully supports its mandate.

Press release: (Download the full statement below)

The Hague – The Syrian Network for Human Rights (SNHR) noted in a statement released today, entitled, ‘On the International Day for Mine Awareness and Assistance in Mine Action, We Are Still Discovering New Areas Contaminated With Landmines in Syria, With More Deaths and Injuries Recorded Across the Country’, that it has documented 3,471 civilian deaths, including 919 children, as a result of landmine explosions in Syria since 2011.

The statement stresses that, for the past 13 years, SNHR has been documenting the use of APLs, including the explosions of cluster munition remnants, and the resulting casualties. While the Syrian regime had used landmines before 2011, the statement explains, the use of landmines increased exponentially and massively after the start of the popular uprising in March 2011, which subsequently turned into an internal armed conflict. Since the end of 2011, the Syrian regime has planted landmines along the borders with Lebanon and Türkiye, without placing adequate warnings. According to our monitoring, while many of the parties to the conflict and controlling forces have used APLs, only two parties have used cluster munitions whose remnants remain, namely the Syrian regime and Russian forces.

The statement includes maps showing areas contaminated with anti-personnel landmines (APLs) in Syria due to operations by parties to the conflict since March 2011. Through these maps, SNHR aims to provide a form of assistance to local teams working to remove landmines, as well as raising awareness of the dangers they continue to pose.

With large swathes of Syrian territory having been mined, we have utilized SNHR’s databases, including the one concerning the victims of landmines and cluster munitions, to create a number of maps showing the approximate locations of areas which we believe have been contaminated with APLs in many Syrian governorates. The mines and unexploded munitions in these areas will continue to pose a threat to the lives and movement of Syrian citizens, especially children, for decades to come. We designed those maps in an attempt to assist the work of local unexploded ordnance teams working to defuse the mines, and to raise awareness among local residents and authorities of the need to take the necessary precautions to avoid new incidents.

The statement documents the deaths of at least 3,471 civilians; including 919 children, 356 women, seven civil defense personnel, eight medical personnel, and nine media workers in hundreds of anti-personnel landmine explosions in Syria since March 2011 up until April 4, 2024, or International Day for Mine Awareness 2024. These are divided into 3,086 civilians; including 794 children, 325 women, seven civil defense personnel, eight medical personnel, and nine media workers; who were killed by landmine explosions, and 385 civilians, including 125 children and 31 women, who were killed by cluster munitions remnants explosions since the first documented use of these weapons in July 2012.

The statement further adds that landmines have inflicted dreadful disfigurement and serious injuries on civilians. In any landmine explosion, it’s usual for hundreds of fragments to penetrate the victim’s body, possibly resulting in amputation and the rupturing of cells, arteries and blood vessels, not to mention eye and ear injuries. Even though it is difficult to accurately determine the number of victims injured as a result of landmine explosions in Syria, we estimate that at least 10,400 civilians have been injured, with many having to undergo amputation of limbs as a result, and now being in need of artificial limbs and rehabilitation and support programs. Therefore, the continuing presence of landmines continues to pose a major obstacle to the work and return of internally displaced persons (IDPs), as well as the work of relief workers, Civil Defense personnel, and to their equipment, not to mention to the process of reconstruction and development.

The statement also stresses that the continuing deaths and injuries resulting from landmine explosions show the rampant use of this indiscriminate weapon by the various parties to the conflict in Syria. This also shows that there are still many areas which are contaminated with landmines that are yet to be discovered. Furthermore, all the parties involved in the conflict have failed to provide maps disclosing the locations of landmines, and to seriously work on removing them. Landmines are indiscriminate weapons prohibited by international law, with their sole aim being to create fear and mass terror. Landmines clearly violate the principle of distinction between civilian and military targets, as well as the principles of precautions and proportionality in attacks. The disregard for those rules constitutes a war crime according to international humanitarian law and the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court (ICC).

The statement holds the UN Security Council primarily responsible for the state of chronic insecurity that Syria has reached due to its utter and abject failure to protect civilians in the country for the past 13 years and to bring about a political transition process until now. As long as the conflict continues, the statement notes, chaos, violations, and prohibited acts will continue to run rampant. Syria will not see stability and security without a political transition to rule by democracy, human rights and the rule of law, which in turn cannot be achieved without a strict timetable and serious and effective efforts and pressures.

The statement calls on the UN Human Rights Office (OHCHR), the UN Security Council, and the international community to greatly increase their logistical assistance to the local organizations and police working to detect and disarm landmines, to train Syrian organizations on removing landmines and unexploding cluster munitions, to raise local awareness on these types of danger, and to work on pinpointing the most prominent locations where landmines were planted, in addition to making other recommendations.

On Thursday, February 22, 2024, the Fact-Finding Mission (FFM) of the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) released its report outlining the findings of an investigation into allegations reported by the Syrian regime’s government to the OPCW’s Technical Secretariat on November 1, 2017. The regime alleged that ISIS used chemical weapons in an attack that took place in the south of al-Yarmouk Camp in Damascus governorate, requesting that the OPCW investigate this incident.

In this latest report, the FFM, whose mandate includes responsibility for determining whether or not toxic chemicals have been used as a weapon of war in Syria but not assigning culpability in any alleged attacks involving the use of chemical weapons, outlined the findings of their investigations into the alleged attack. The FFM noted that the investigators had, as part of the investigations, conducted a field-visit to the site in question, and interviewed eyewitnesses and victims of the alleged incident that was reported by the regime, as well as reviewing and analyzing photos, video footage, and the documents provided by the Syrian regime’s government, in addition to examining the chemical analyses of the samples received and collected, while also reviewing open source materials.

After examining and collecting all the information at hand, the report concludes, “Considering the time that had elapsed between the moment of the reported incident and the moment samples were collected… the presence of amino‑dinitrotoluene (ADNT) identified in the samples cannot be linked to a specific event that had occurred…” adding that “Based on the scope of analysis… the overall results do not provide an indication of the use of toxic chemicals as a weapon.”

Furthermore, the report noted that the FFM faced challenges in verifying the information collected about the incident due to discrepancies between the information provided by the eyewitnesses and that provided by the Syrian regime’s government on the incident. Even worse, the report adds that “The documents provided by the Syrian Arab Republic contained discrepancies in the number of casualties;” while the report also mentions a discrepancy between the number of individuals reported to have been present at the site at the time of the incident, the number of casualties, and the number of individuals seeking medical attention at the hospital. Moreover, the report notes that the FFM found no photos or video of the munitions that were allegedly used in the attack, adding that even the eyewitnesses’ description of the said munitions was inconsistent. The FFM also stressed that it could not find any link between the symptoms reported and “a specific factor or to a class of chemicals”.

Additionally, the eyewitnesses’ accounts were inconsistent with respect to the number of individuals treated following the alleged incident at the makeshift Yalda Hospital. Other inconsistencies in the accounts were also found in their narrating of the events and the description of the “gas” that was allegedly present at the site of the incident, including its color and odor, the report adds.

On Friday, February 23, 2024, the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons’ (OPCW) Investigation and Identification Team (IIT) released its fourth report. In the report, the IIT, whose mandate include identifying the perpetrators of the crime of using chemical weapons, outlined the findings of its investigation into who carried out a chemical weapons attack in Marea town in Aleppo governorate on September 1, 2015. This comes after the OPCW’s Fact-Finding Mission (FFM) had established that chemical weapons were used at that time in that location.

The report confirms that ISIS used sulfur mustard in Marea on September 1, 2015, between 09:00-12:00 local time, in the course of a sustained offensive to capture the town. Sulfur mustard was deployed, using one or more guns. The remnants and munition examined from the impact locations were conventional 122-mm caliber artillery projectiles. The report adds that at least 11 individuals showed “symptoms consistent with exposure to sulfur mustard”.

The report further stresses that such attack could not have been carried out without direct orders from ISIS’s executive echelon, namely the committee working directly under the so-called caliphate of ISIS. According to the report, the IIT investigation managed to link additional structures and individuals who were involved in the use and deployment of chemical weapons by ISIS, including Diwan al-Jund (i.e., the department in charge of combatant affairs), which was affiliated with ISIS, and its committee for military development and manufacturing. More particularly, four individuals were identified as the perpetrators, while two other ISIS affiliates were identified as the main drivers of ISIS’s chemical weapons programme.

The IIT’s findings matches the degree of certainty known as ‘reasonable grounds’, which constitutes the standard of proof consistently adopted by international fact-finding and investigation bodies. IIT’s report includes data from the OPCW’s FFM, state parties, interviews conducted by the IIT, analysis of samples, computer modeling, satellite imagery, maps for the frontlines, authenticated video and photo footage, and other relevant data.

Press Release:

The Hague – The Syrian Network for Human Rights (SNHR) today released a statement in observance of the Day of Remembrance of all Victims of Chemical Warfare, noting that the Syrian regime still possesses a chemical weapon arsenal, with serious concerns about chemical weapons (CWs) potentially being used again in Syria. The group also adds that no fewer than 1,514 Syrian citizens have suffocated to death in chemical weapons attacks, including 214 children and 262 women, while 12,000 are still awaiting accountability for the Syrian regime.

The 9-statement stresses that the Syrian regime’s use of chemical weapons in hundreds of CW attacks, through all of which the regime has had continuous impunity for 12 years to date, has taken place under full and complete Russian protection and blessing. Russia is also directly involved in helping the Syrian regime with hiding its massive chemical weapon stockpile, which has ultimately led to the repeated use of chemical weapons over and over again.

The statement reveals that as of November 30, 2023, the SNHR has documented no fewer than 222 chemical weapons attacks in Syria on its database since the first documented use of this internationally proscribed weapon on December 23, 2012. A total of 217 of these 222 attacks were carried out by Syrian regime forces, while the remaining five were carried out by ISIS. As the statement further reveals, chemical weapons attack by Syrian regime forces have killed 1,514 individuals, divided between 1,413 civilians, including 214 children and 262 women (adult female), 94 armed opposition fighters, and seven regime soldiers who were being held captive in opposition prisons. These attacks also injured 11,212 individuals – 11,080 individuals were injured in regime attacks and 132 were injured in the five attacks carried out by ISIS. The statement also includes graphs summarizing the toll of attacks and resultant deaths, and their distribution by year and by governorate.

SNHR holds the head of the Syrian regime Bashar Assad, who is the Commander-in-Chief of the Syrian Army and Armed Forces, responsible for moving and using chemicals weapons. In emphasizing this fact, the statement stresses that no act of this magnitude and significance, including many far less serious acts than these terrible attacks, can be carried out without his full knowledge and approval, especially given the Syrian regime’s highly centralized, rigidly hierarchical nature. Using chemical weapons is a calculated policy on the part of the Syrian regime based on an executive decision, in which its military and intelligence institutions are incriminated, in particular the leaderships of the General Military Intelligence Directorate, Air Force Intelligence Directorate, the National Security Bureau, and the Syrian Scientific Studies and Research Center (especially Institute 1000 and Branch 450). As SNHR’s database attests, no fewer than 387 individuals, all high-ranking military officers, as well as security officials and civil and military workers, have been involved in ordering and perpetrating these attacks. All of these individuals have rightfully earned their place on the US and EU sanction lists.

Furthermore, the statement reveals that the Syrian regime still possesses chemical weapons, and emphasizes that it is SNHR’s well-founded belief that the regime has established new facilities specifically to store its sizeable chemical weapon stockpile, with serious concerns over the chemical weapons potentially being used again.

The statement calls on the 28^th session of the Conference of State Parties (CSP-28) held by the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) to make Syria a priority. The statement also calls on the State Parties to take collective measures in accordance with Article XII, Paragraph 3 of the Chemical Weapons Convention (CWC), “in conformity with international law”. Moreover, this issue, and all of the related relevant data and conclusions, must be presented in a briefing to the UN General Assembly and the UN Security Council in accordance with Article XII, Paragraph 4 of the CWC. The statement adds that responsibility should be swiftly ascribed to the UN Security Council, which should be called on to implement the relevant resolutions and to intervene in accordance with Chapter VII of the Charter of the United Nations, considering that a state member has used weapons of mass destruction in a way that poses a serious threat to international peace and security, and to implement the resolutions it adopted in relation to this issue, in addition to making other recommendations.

Download the full statement

Press release: (Download the full report below)

The Hague – The Syrian Network for Human Rights (SNHR) today issued a report entitled ‘29 Morally Bankrupt Governments, Headed by Russia, Voted Against the OPCW’s Resolutions’, emphasizing that many states worldwide must bring cases against the Syrian regime before the International Criminal Court (ICC) over the regime’s repeated violations of the Chemical Weapons Convention (CWC).

In the 15-page report, SNHR notes that the Syrian regime has carried out 184 chemical attacks since ratifying the Convention in September 2013. The report outlines the decisions adopted by the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW), identifying the states that voted against those decisions, or in other words the states that support the continuation of the Syrian regime’s chemical weapons program. Through this action, it notes, these states are, in effect, encouraging the regime to use weapons of mass destruction – chemical weapons – and emboldening it to carry out more chemical weapons attacks against the Syrian people.

As Fadel Abdul Ghany, SNHR’s Executive Director, says:
“The Syrian regime has unequivocally contravened the CWC on 184 separate occasions, as proven by many domestic, international, and UN bodies, including the COI, the UN-OPCW JIM, the OPCW’s IIT, HRW, Amnesty International, and SNHR. This massive body of evidence warrants a renewal of our calls to bring a case against the Syrian regime before the ICC for contravening the CWC.”

The report reveals that the OPCW adopted 10 decisions, through which it aimed to eliminate the Syrian regime’s chemical weapons program, destroy the facilities used by the regime to produce, manufacture, and store chemical weapons, preserve the rights of the victims, and hold those responsible for chemical weapons attacks in Syria accountable. These decisions are divided between eight decisions adopted by the OPCW’s Executive Council and two adopted by the OPCW’s Conference of the State Parties, with the report providing an outline of those 10 decisions.

Moreover, the report identifies the governments that voted against the decisions adopted by the OPCW, stressing that a number of what the report describes as ‘morally bankrupt’ governments which voted once or more in favor of the Syrian regime’s use of chemical weapons in Syria, have thus emboldened the regime to use these weapons repeatedly, even after its ratification of the CWC. The report also notes that that these votes are a message of disapproval against the expansion of the OPCW’s mandate, against the reports released by the OPCW, which were based on rigorous methodology, and most importantly against the victims who were killed or injured by the Syrian regime’s unconscionable and repeated use of internationally outlawed chemical weapons, that is, weapons of mass destruction, against the Syrian people.

These states, the report further adds, share a number of common characteristics, such as dictatorial and oppressive leadership, opposition to fundamental human rights, and, in some cases, absolute loyalty to Russia and Iran, i.e., the Syrian regime’s two main allies. Still, however, those states constitute a minority which has been consistently defeated many times in votes. There are 29 states that voted against one or more OPCW decisions, including four who voted in support of the regime on decisions proposed both by the Executive Council and the Conference.

The report stresses that the most recent decision adopted by the OPCW, stripping Syria of its privileges as a state party in the CWC, will not be enough to deter the regime and its allies, noting that action must be taken by the UN General Assembly. In case the UN General Assembly is unable or unwilling to act, the report emphasizes, the democratic, liberal states of the world must demonstrate their adherence to international law in every way, shape, and form, and as such establish an alliance to achieve this.

The report calls on the OPCW to promote and support the OPCW’s team on Syria, which is facing ruthless opposition from Russia and many dictatorships around the world. This is particularly vital since the OPCW’s work on the issue of chemical weapons in Syria is arguably the most important task that the OPCW has yet had to address since its establishment. There is still much work to be done concerning Syria compared to the almost non-existent use of chemical weapons elsewhere in the world. The report also calls on the OPCW to modify the voting mechanism in order to allow the presence of civil society organizations, especially those actively working on the issue of chemical weapons.

The report also calls on the OPCW’s state parties to take action at all levels to deter the Syrian regime and end all forms of cooperation with it, as well as take action in light of the Syrian regime’s contravention of the convention before the International Court of Justice (ICJ), similar to the case brought by Canada and The Netherlands over the application of the UN Convention Against Torture, in addition to making other recommendations.

Download the full report

Press Release:

The Hague – The Syrian Network for Human Rights today released a statement marking the 10th anniversary of the Syrian regime’s largest chemical attack that targeted Two Ghoutas, in which the group stressed that although a decade has passed since the largest chemical weapon attack in the modern age, the criminal regime is still protected by its impunity.
The statement first summarizes the events of August 21, 2013, noting that the details of the chemical attack on the two Ghoutas demonstrate that the Syrian regime had a premeditated and deliberate objective of killing as many residents as possible, including women and children, with the calculated aim of silently, fatally gassing them in their sleep, thereby minimizing any chance of survival. The statement adds that the weather in the region had been forecast to be relatively cool and calm between 02:00 and 05:00 that night, meaning those responsible knew that the air would be still and the heavy poison gas would naturally drift downwards and settle at ground level rather than blowing away.
As the statement further notes, the 1,144 individuals killed in that night’s attack were asphyxiated by the chemical weapons used. Of those, 1,119 civilians, including 99 children and 194 women (adult female), while the remaining 25 were armed opposition fighters. Additionally, 5,935 survivors suffered severe respiratory problems and suffocation. The statement additionally observes that the death toll from the Two Ghoutas attack accounts for 76 percent of all the victims killed in the chemical weapons attacks carried out by the Syrian regime between December 2012 and the last known chemical weapons attack documented on SNHR’s database, which took place in May 2019 in al-Kbeina in rural Latakia.
The statement further notes that, as SNHR’s database attests, a total of 222 chemical weapons attacks have been documented in Syria since the first documented use of chemical weapons on December 23, 2012, up until August 20, 2023. Approximately 98 percent of all these attacks have been carried out by Syrian regime forces, while approximately two percent were by ISIS. The statement ads that the 217 chemical weapons attacks carried out by the Syrian regime resulted in the deaths of 1,514 individuals, divided into 1,413 civilians, including 214 children and 262 women (adult female), 94 armed opposition fighters, and seven Syrian regime troops who were being held in armed opposition prisons. The chemical weapons attacks carried out by the Syrian regime also injured 11,080 individuals, including five regime troops where being held in armed opposition prisons.
Meanwhile, ISIS carried out five chemical weapons attacks between April 9, 2013, when the group first emerged in Syria, and August 20, 2023, all of which took place in Aleppo governorate. A total of 132 individuals were injured in the chemical weapons attacks carried out by ISIS.
The statement also divides the 222 chemical weapons attacks according to the UN Security Council resolutions that addressed the use of chemical weapons – the Syrian regime carried out 33 attacks before Security Council resolution 2118 and 184 after, while 115 chemical weapons attacks were carried out after Security Council resolution 2209. Furthermore, the Syrian regime caried out 59 attacks after the establishment of the Joint OPCW-UN Investigative Mechanism (JIM) and Security Council resolutions 2235. The five attacks carried out by ISIS, the statement adds, all violated Security Council resolutions 2118, 2209, and 2235.
The statement holds the head of the Syrian regime and Commander-in-Chief of the Syrian Army Bashar Assad responsible for moving and using chemical weapons. The statement stresses that far less momentous actions don’t take place without his full knowledge and approval due to the Syrian regime‘s highly centralized operational structure. Using chemical weapons, the statement adds, is a calculated policy for the Syrian regime based on a central, executive decision, in which the institutions of the military and intelligence are incriminated, in particular the leaderships of the General Military Intelligence Directorate, Air Force Intelligence Directorate, the National Security Bureau, and the Syrian Scientific Studies and Research Center (especially Institute 1000 and Branch 450). SNHR’s data shows that no fewer than 387 individuals, who are high-ranking military officers, security officials, and civilian and military personnel, were involved in this attack. All of these individuals have rightfully earned their place on the US and EU sanction lists.
The statement calls on the UN Security Council and the UN to impose economic, political, and military sanctions on the Syrian regime under Chapter VII of the Charter of the United Nations, which would serve as a symbolic compensation for the families of the victims. The statement also calls on the UN Security Council and the UN to prosecute the individuals responsible whose names and details we have published, and to investigate the extent of their involvement in the use of chemical weapons and add them to the lists of sanctioned figures and terror sponsors.
The statement also stresses that the Syrian case must be referred to the International Criminal Court (ICC), and that all those involved must be held accountable. An alternative option would be to establish a special tribunal to try those involved in war crimes and crimes against humanity against the Syrian people, to help put an end to the shameful impunity that has now been going on for over a decade.

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The Hague – The Syrian Network for Human Rights

This week marks the sixth anniversary of the Syrian regime’s chemical weapons attack on Khan Sheikhoun city on April 4, 2017, and the fifth anniversary of the Syrian regime’s chemical attack on Douma city on April 7, 2018. Regarding the attack on Khan Sheikhoun city in Idlib governorate, the Syrian Network for Human Rights (SNHR) documented that 91 civilians, including 32 children and 23 women (adult female), died of suffocation, while nearly 520 others were injured. In the attack on Douma in the Damascus Suburbs governorate, SNHR documented that 43 civilians, including 19 children and 17 women (adult female) died of suffocation, while nearly 550 others were injured.

The Independent International Commission of Inquiry on the Syrian Arab Republic (COI) concluded that the Syrian regime was responsible for the two attacks on Khan Sheikhoun and Douma city, while the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) proved that chemical weapons were used in Khan Sheikhoun and Douma without ascertaining which party was responsible for the two attacks. The OPCW-UN Joint Investigative Mechanism (JIM), established in accordance with Security Council resolution 2235 in August 2015, proved that the Syrian regime was responsible for the Khan Sheikhoun attack, with its mandate coming to an end by the way of a Russian veto before the Douma attack.

On January 27, 2023, the OPCW’s Investigation and Identification Team (IIT) released its third report, which states that “there are reasonable grounds to believe” that at least one Mi8/17 helicopter dropped two cylinders on apartment buildings in an area in the center of Douma city between 19:10 and 19:40 on April 7, 2018, in a military attack by Syrian regime forces. The helicopter, operated by the Russian-backed Nemer ‘Tiger’ forces, operated out of al-Dmair Airbase.

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Press release: (Download the full report below)

Paris –The Syrian Network for Human Rights (SNHR) revealed in its report released today to mark the International Day for Mine Awareness and Assistance in Mine Action that it has documented that landmines continue to contaminate large areas of Syria, threatening the lives of millions, with the report including maps showing the spread of landmines in many Syrian governorates. SNHR adds that 3,353 civilians, including 889 children, have been documented as having been killed by antipersonnel landmines (APLs) in Syria since March 2011.
The 29-page report defines APLs as a type of munition designed to be installed above or below the ground, which are triggered and detonated when either a person or a vehicle touches or approaches them. In line with this definition, unexploded live cluster munition remnants are considered APLs. Such cluster munition remnants are scattered across Syria, making them a threat to the lives of Syria’s future generations. The report also summarizes the characteristics of the use of APLs in Syria, the resulting casualties, and the locations of many areas where landmine explosions that resulted in civilian deaths were recorded, in addition to locations where cluster munition remnants have been scattered to enable local residents to avoid them.
Fadel Abdul Ghany, Executive Director of SNHR, says:
“Pinpointing the locations of minefields in Syria requires massive efforts. It is our hope that the maps we’ve included in this report can be useful, so civilians can avoid traveling through or working in land in these areas, while the controlling forces should fence off those areas and seriously work on removing landmines. Donor states should also pay more attention to this crucial issue.”
As the report explains, while the Syrian regime had used landmines before 2011, the use of landmines increased exponentially and massively after the start of the popular uprising in March 2011, which subsequently turned into an internal armed conflict. Since the end of 2011, the Syrian regime has planted landmines on the borders with Lebanon and Turkey. Many of the parties to the conflict and controlling forces have used APLs, while only two parties, namely the Syrian regime and Russian forces, have used cluster munition remnants. In this context, the report notes that it is not possible, in most cases, to determine which party planted an individual landmine that subsequently exploded and as such to determine the party responsible for the resulting death and/or injury. There are challenges and difficulties that are unique to the process of assigning culpability in the deaths and injuries resulting from APL explosions, which includes the fact that most parties to the conflict use these weapons, and, with the passage of time, various different parties and forces have taken or lost control of areas where landmines are located. None of the parties to the conflict and controlling forces in Syria have disclosed maps showing the locations where they planted landmines. Although identifying a specific perpetrator is difficult, however, the report attributes culpability in deaths and injuries resulting from the explosion of all cluster munition remnants to Syrian-Russian alliance forces, while also outlining the most notable difficulties and challenges arising in assigning individual responsibility to one of those two parties.
The report, which draws primarily upon the information contained on SNHR’s databases, incorporates a hybrid methodology grounded in a statistical methodology in analyzing data through statistical analysis. Furthermore, SNHR utilizes a descriptive chronological methodology to provide a summary of the use of APLs in Syria in the context of the conflict, as well as using a descriptive analytical methodology in creating maps showing the areas where landmines are believed to be planted or where minefields are located, as well as maps showing where cluster munitions are scattered. Those areas are consequently still contaminated by APLs that continue to pose a serious threat to civilians’ lives.

As the report further reveals, the low cost and ease of manufacturing landmines have also enabled other parties to the conflict to use these munitions excessively without showing any concern for removing them or even disclosing their locations, which is glaringly evident in the governorates that saw clashes and changes of the controlling forces. On a related note, the report provides details of some of the most prominent types of landmines used, including cluster munition remnants, whose deployment in Syria SNHR was able to document during the course of the conflict.
The report also includes maps showing the approximate locations of areas believed to be contaminated with APLs in many Syrian governorates. Those landmines will continue to pose a grave threat to Syria’s future generations for decades to come, first and foremost to children. The report also stresses that these maps reflect the bare minimum of the landmines and unexploded munitions in Syria in light of the many challenges faced by the SNHR team in the course of creating the maps, all of which affect, in one way or another, the areas that the team members have been able to pinpoint.
The report documents the deaths of no fewer than 3,353 civilians; including 889 children, 335 women, eight medical personnel, seven Civil Defense personnel (White Helmets), and nine media activists, in hundreds of APL explosions in Syria between March 2011 and April 4, 2023. This death toll is divided into:
– 2,971 civilians; including 765 children, 304 women (adult female), eight medical personnel, seven Civil Defense personnel (White Helmets), and nine media activists; who were killed by the explosion of landmines across Syria.
– 382 civilians, including 124 children and 31 women, who were killed by the explosion of cluster munition remnants left by previous cluster munitions attacks carried out by Syrian regime forces and Russian forces between the first documented use of cluster munition in July 2012 and April 4, 2023.
The report additionally includes graphs showing the running count of the death toll and distribution by year and governorate.
Moreover, the report stresses that landmines have caused disfigurement and serious injuries to civilians. Even though it is difficult to accurately determine the number of victims injured as a result of landmine explosions, we estimate that at least 10,400 civilians have been injured, with many having to undergo amputation of limbs as a result amputated, and now being in need of artificial limbs and of rehabilitation and support programs. All these factors underline that the continuing presence of landmines continues to pose a major obstacle to the work and the return of IDPs, as well as the work of relief workers, Civil Defense personnel, and to their equipment, not to mention to the process of reconstruction and development.
The report concludes by noting that the fact that landmines continue to cause deaths and injuries to the present day is an alarming indication of their extensive use by the various parties to the conflict in Syria. This also suggests that numerous landmines planted in many other areas of the country have yet to be discovered. The report adds that landmines are classified as indiscriminate weapons whose use is prohibited by international law, and whose only aim to create mass terror and fear. The report holds the UN Security Council responsible for the continuing state of insecurity in Syria, due to its shameful failure to protect civilians in the country for the past 12 years, or to bring about any process of political transition towards democracy to date.
The report calls on the UN and the international community to Increase the provision of logistical assistance to the local organizations and local police forces engaged in detecting and disarming landmines, and to allocate a significant sum from UN funds for the removal of landmines to landmine-removal in Syria, especially in those areas where authorities show willingness to undertake this mission in a transparent and honest way. The report also calls for starting the process of compensating victims and their families, and focusing on providing psychological treatment for the survivors, in addition to making a number of other recommendations.

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