The Hague – The Syrian Network for Human Rights:

The Syrian Network for Human Rights (SNHR) today (October 15,2024) released a report condemning the Israeli occupation of Syrian lands in Quneitra in the Syrian Golan since September 15, 2024. On that date, Israeli forces accompanied by tanks, bulldozers, and excavation equipment advanced 200 meters into Syrian territory to the east of the 1974’s United Nations Disengagement Observer Force (UNDOF) disengagement line, which is situated to the west of the town of Jabata al-Khashab in Quneitra, in the occupied Syrian Golan. There, they began bulldozing agricultural land, digging trenches and earth berms east of the UNDOF line and along the ‘Sufa 53’ road, which Israel also constructed within Syrian territory in 2022. They also established monitoring positions, fortified by earth berms and trenches as deep as 5-7 meters, each a kilometer from the other. Then, on October 11, 2024, Israeli forces bulldozed agricultural lands near Koudna town. This was followed by an Israeli announcement of establishing what they called a “security fence” on the border with Syria.

The report notes that, through this action, Israeli occupation forces are establishing themselves to the east of the 1974 UNDOF disengagement line within Syrian territory, violating the disengagement agreement signed between Syria and Israel on May 31, 1974. This agreement was concluded in compliance with UN Security Council resolution 338, issued on October 22, 1973, which stipulates the creation of the UNDOF line, with Syrian territory to the east of it and Israel to the west.

The report further stresses that Israel’s ongoing infringement of Syrian territory since September 15, 2024, was not the first of its kind. Previously, in 2022, Israeli forces advanced into Syrian territory east of the UNDOF, and constructed a road named ‘Sufa 53’, which cuts through Syrian territory, with some parts extending into Syria by up to two kilometers.

Moreover, the report condemns the Syrian regime’s bringing in dozens of Iranian militia groups, which facilitated the violation of Syrian sovereignty by hosting dozens of non-state groups. The Syrian regime has also allowed Israeli Air Force violations of Syrian air sovereignty that have become an almost daily occurrence, passing without any significant condemnation or attention.

The report concludes by emphasizing that the recent Israeli actions in Syrian territory, including establishing observation points and the ‘Sufa 53’ road east of the 1974 disengagement UNDOF line, violate international law, which prohibits the annexation or seizure of land by force or threat. These actions constitute an act of aggression and a threat to international peace and security. Furthermore, the Syrian regime’s failure to fulfill its constitutional duty to preserve Syria’s independence, unity, and territorial integrity may encourage Israel to seize and annex more Syrian land, exploiting the ongoing regional conflict and international indifference.

The report calls on the UNDOF to provide comprehensive reports detailing recent Israeli attacks on Syrian territory. The UN and the UN Security Council must also uphold their responsibility by ending systematic Israeli attacks and enforcing relevant international resolutions. Additionally, the international community must condemn Israel’s flagrant violations of Syrian sovereignty and the 1974 disengagement agreement, and intensify diplomatic efforts to prevent further Israeli annexation of Syrian lands, with a focus on addressing the root causes of regional conflicts and instability.

In addition, the report stresses, all stakeholders, including regional powers and the international community, must act toward reaching a comprehensive and inclusive political settlement in Syria, in accordance with UN Security Council resolution 2254, with the report also providing a number of other recommendations.

Press release: (Download the full report below)

The Hague – The Syrian Network for Human Rights (SNHR) today released its ninth annual report on the most notable violations by Russian forces since the launch of Russia’s military intervention on September 30, 2015. In the latest report, the group reveals that Russian forces have killed 6,969 civilians to date in Syria, 44 percent of whom were women and children. Russian forces have also carried out 1,251 attacks on vital civilian facilities.

The 32-page report notes that, since Russia officially launched its military intervention in Syria on September 30, 2015, thus becoming a full-fledged party to the Syrian conflict, SNHR has documented numerous human rights violations perpetrated by Russia’s armed forces. Indeed, Moscow had adopted a very clear stance from the very beginning of the popular uprising that began in March 2011 calling for a political change and the end of the absolute, authoritarian hereditary rule of the Assad family that has ruled Syria since 1970. In keeping with this position, Russia has thrown all its political weight behind the Syrian regime. Russia has also backed the regime militarily, with actions ranging from providing military advice, to subsequently launching a direct and massive military intervention, which is wholly illegitimate, as SNHR has explained in numerous reports, since it is based on receiving the approval of a regime that attained and has clung to power through military brute force, rather than through constitutional means or democratic elections. The report also notes that that Russia’s military intervention has involved innumerable human rights violations including killing, large-scale destruction, forced displacement, the use of cluster munitions, and the bombardment of vital civilian facilities.

In the words of Fadel Abdul Ghany, SNHR Executive Director:

 “Russia has never launched even one investigation into any violations committed by its forces, nor has it held accountable any commander for the bombing of hospitals, markets, and schools despite having committed thousands of human rights violations. On the contrary, Moscow has been denying the credibility of documented reports, and calling them fabrications and misinformation, sinking to the same level as the Syrian regime. Moscow must uphold its legal responsibilities, launch serious investigations, and start compensating victims.”

The report notes that Russia’s military intervention has helped the regime to recapture large areas that broke out of the regime’s control in the period 2011-2015. This is far from the only Russian violation against Syria’s people; Russia has supported the Syrian regime in every conceivable way, including providing supposed justifications for the use of chemical weapons, trying to undermine the credibility of the reports issued by the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW), exploiting cross-border humanitarian aid, using its media platforms to spread pro-regime propaganda, and trying to rehabilitate and polish the Syrian regime’s image. On the political front, Moscow’s support has been manifested by blocking any international condemnation of the Syrian regime at the UN Security Council. In fact, Russia has crippled the Security Council in regard to holding the Syrian regime accountable for the crimes against humanity. Russia has used its veto powers 18 times to date, four before its military intervention in 2015, and 14 more times since then, which indicates its involvement in the commission of widespread violations with the Syrian regime, and its desire to shield itself from any referral to the International Criminal Court (ICC). Russia has also voted at all Human Rights Council (HRC) sessions against any resolutions condemning the savage brutality used by the regime against Syrian dissidents, on a total of 21 occasions. In addition to all these points, Russia has instructed its allies at the HRC, including Algeria, Venezuela, and Cuba, to vote in favor of the Syrian regime.

The report stresses that SNHR has been able to construct a large database containing compelling evidence on the violations committed by Russian forces in unlawful attacks in Syria, many of which amount to crimes against humanity and war crimes. On this subject, SNHR has published news articles on all the most prominent attacks by Russian forces documented by the group. The report adds that SNHR has also consistently worked tirelessly to supply detailed reports and investigations recording all the attacks by Russian forces that resulted in massacres or the destruction of primary service civilian facilities, such as hospitals and schools, or involving the use of internationally prohibited weapons, such as cluster munitions. This work has been carried out in addition to SNHR’s annual report that we release on September 30 of every year. Furthermore, the report notes that SNHR has worked steadfastly to expose Russia’s pro-regime practices and crimes against the Syrian people since the start of the popular uprising for democracy in Syria in March 2011. These includes Russia’s support for the regime in the economic, political, and international spheres.

The report provides an updated breakdown of the most notable human rights violations committed by Russian forces since the launch of the military intervention on September 30, 2015, up until September 30, 2024. In assigning culpability to Russia in certain attacks, the report explains, SNHR draws upon a wide range of scrupulously cross-checked information, statements by Russian officials, and a large number of first-hand accounts.

The report further notes that, as SNHR’s database attests, Russian forces in Syria have killed 6,969 civilians, including 2,055 children and 983 women (adult female) to date, and committed no fewer than 362 massacres. Analysis of the data shows that the intervention’s first year (2015-2016) was the bloodiest to date, with 3,564 civilians killed, accounting for about 51 percent of all victims killed to date, while Aleppo governorate saw the most victims (around 41 percent) followed by Idlib (38 percent).

Furthermore, the report documents that Russian forces have so far killed 70 medical personnel, including 12 women, mostly in Idlib governorate, with the highest proportion of these victims also killed in the first year of the intervention, as well as 24 media workers, all of whom were killed in the governorates of Aleppo and Idlib.

As the report further reveals, Russia has carried out no fewer than 1,251 attacks on vital civilian facilities, including 224 schools, 209 medical facilities, and 61 markets, since the launch of its military intervention. As the graphs included in the report show, the intervention’s first year saw 452 attacks on vital civilian facilities by Russian forces, with Idlib being subjected to the largest number of attacks, 633 in all, accounting for 51 percent of the total.

The report also reveals that Russian forces have carried out at least 237 cluster munition attacks and no fewer than 125 attacks using incendiary materials since the launch of Russia’s military intervention on September 30, 2015.

The report stresses that the ferocious level of violence shown in Russia’s attacks has played a major role in displacement movements in Syria, with Russian attacks, in parallel with those of the Syrian-Iranian alliance, leading to the displacement of approximately 4.9 million people, most of whom have been displaced more than once.

The report concludes by reiterating that the Russian regime has been implicated since the very start of the uprising for freedom in supporting the Syrian regime, which has committed war crimes and crimes against humanity against the Syrian people, by providing the regime with weapons, military expertise, and direct military intervention on the side of the regime. The report further notes that Russia has frequently used its right to veto despite becoming a direct party to the Syrian conflict, which is a blatant violation of the United Nations’ Charter. All of Russia’s vetoes have been employed by the Syrian regime to ensure its impunity, the report adds, further noting that the Russian authorities have not conducted any serious investigations into any of the attacks listed in this report or in previous reports. The report holds the Russian leadership, both military and political, responsible for all of these attacks, based on the principle of command responsibility under international humanitarian law.

The report calls on the UN Security Council to refer the Syrian case to the International Criminal Court and to hold all those involved accountable. It further calls on the international community to increase support for relief efforts, and to endeavor to employ universal jurisdiction for these crimes in fair trials held in national courts to ensure that all perpetrators are held to account, to support the political transition process, and to put pressure on all parties to oblige them to implement the political transition process within no more than six months.

The report additionally recommends that the Independent International Commission of Inquiry on the Syrian Arab Republic (COI) should conduct extensive investigations into the incidents included in this report and should clearly hold the Russian forces involved responsible if sufficient evidence is found of their involvement. It further calls on the European Union to impose economic sanctions on Russia for the crimes against humanity and war crimes it has perpetrated in Syria, as well as making a number of other recommendations.

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 – The Syrian Network for Human Rights (SNHR)

The Syrian Network for Human Rights (SNHR) today released its 13th annual report on enforced disappearance in Syria, to mark the International Day of the Disappeared, which is observed annually on August 30. In the report, the group notes that at least 113,218 of the people arrested by the parties to the conflict in Syria since March 2011, including 3,129 children and 6,71 women, are still forcibly disappeared. SNHR also stressed that there is no end in sight for the crime of enforced disappearance in Syria.

The 22-page report notes that, in Syria’s case, enforced disappearance has become an exceptionally pressing and critical issue, so much so that it can be called a phenomenon, given the breadth of its scope and the way in which it’s proliferated since the start of the popular uprising for democracy in Syria in March 2011. In the years since then, rates of enforced disappearances have only increased, in what is one of the most overwhelming human tragedies that continues to haunt and devastate the lives and hearts of the Syrian people, as it’s done for over 13 years to date, with numerous lives, including those of both the forcibly disappeared persons and their loved ones, being shattered and destroyed as a result of this horrendous crime. The Syrian regime, the report adds, has used enforced disappearance as a strategic instrument to consolidate control and crush its opponents. To achieve this objective, the regime has utilized this strategy in a deliberate and direct manner against all those who became activists or participated in the popular uprising for democracy, particularly in its early years that saw the highest rates of enforced disappearances, in order to crush and undermine the anti-regime protests. Subsequently, these practices grew in scale and targeted specific populations based on their regional or sectarian identity, as the protests spread across the country. Similarly, these ‘disappearances’ have also been among the regime strategies to terrorize and collectively punish society. By no means are these barbaric practices isolated or random occurrences. Rather, they’re part of a systematic strategy used by the regime security establishment, which carries out enforced disappearances in an organized and calculated manner involving the highest echelons of power in the state and the security apparatus, meaning that all the various levels of the military and security establishment are implicated in these crimes, along with the judiciary that has failed to uphold its role in protecting the rights of forcibly disappeared persons. Indeed, the judiciary itself has served as another instrument used by the regime to facilitate and cover up enforced disappearance crimes.

As the report explains, SNHR has been engaged in investigating and documenting enforced disappearance cases since March 2011, building a central database for this purpose that contains information and items of evidence regarding the victims of arbitrary arrest and enforced disappearance in Syria. The report reveals that SNHR has been able to collect tens of thousands of items of data and documents that support the processes of investigation and analysis of enforced disappearance carried out by SNHR itself, and by the UN and various respected international bodies, or as part of the litigation processes taking place under universal jurisdiction. In all of this, SNHR’s objective has been to realize a comprehensive and thorough path to ensuring that the perpetrators are held to account and that victims and that victims and their families receive full reparation. The constantly increasing number of enforced disappearance cases in Syria since 2011 is, after all, a direct result of the impunity that has shielded the main perpetrators for too long, which, shamefully, continues to do so.

As SNHR’s database attests, at least 157,634 of the people arrested by the parties to the conflict and controlling forces in Syria since March 2011 up until August 2024, including 5,274 children and 10,221 women (adult female), are still under arrest and/or forcibly disappeared. Syrian regime forces are responsible for the vast majority of arrests and enforced disappearances, detaining 86.7 percent of all such victims. Meanwhile, at least 113,218 of the aforementioned people arrested by the parties to the conflict and controlling forces in Syria since March 2011 up until August 2024, including 3,129 children and 6,712 women (adult female), are still forcibly disappeared. Of the 113,218 enforced disappearance cases, Syrian regime forces are responsible for at least 96,321 cases, including of 2,329 children and 5,742 women (adult female), while ISIS has been responsible for 8,684, including of 319 children and 255 women (adult female). Moreover, Hay’at Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) has been responsible for 2,246 enforced disappearances, including of 17 children and 32 women (adult female), while all armed opposition factions/Syrian National Army (SNA) have been responsible for 2,986, including of 261 children and 574 women (adult female). Lastly, Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) have been responsible for 2,981 enforced disappearances, including of 203 children and 109 women (adult female).

These figures, which draw upon SNHR’s data, show that the Syrian regime has arrested and ‘disappeared’ by far the largest proportion of Syrian citizens in these categories. A detainee usually becomes a forcibly disappeared person immediately after or a few days after their arrest, which is reflected in the massive number of forcibly disappeared persons, the largest proportion of whom – approximately 85 percent – have been forcibly disappeared by Syrian regime forces. The enormous number of enforced disappearance victims confirms that this is a systematic, routine practice carried out in a widespread manner against tens of thousands of detainees. As such, it constitutes a crime against humanity.

The report also documents that Syrian regime forces registered at least 1,634 forcibly disappeared persons, including 24 children and 21 women, as well as 16 medical personnel, as dead in the civil registry records since the start of 2018 up until August 2024. In all these 1,634 cases, the cause of death was not revealed, and the regime failed to return the victims’ bodies to their families or even to notify the families of their loved ones’ demise at the time of death. Among these 1,634 cases were also four people who have been identified from the photos of torture victims leaked from regime military hospitals, known as the ‘Caesar photos’. According to the death certificates issued by the Syrian regime’s civil registry offices, the largest proportion of these 1,634 victims died in 2014, followed by 2013 and then 2015.

In 2024, the report adds, the parties to the conflict in Syria have continued to use enforced disappearance as an instrument of oppression to consolidate control, as well as to blackmail victims and their families. As SNHR has documented, all parties to the conflict, including Syrian regime forces, the SDF, HTS, and all armed opposition factions/SNA, have been responsible for the enforced disappearance of civilians. The report stresses that the majority of enforced disappearances carried out by regime forces since the beginning of this year targeted refugees who were forcibly deported from Lebanon, as well as refugees returning from Jordan via the Nasib Crossing in southern Daraa governorate, and refugees returning via Damascus International Airport in Damascus city. These detainees are usually taken to regime security and military detention centers in Homs and Damascus governorates. Since the start of 2024, SNHR has documented the Syrian regime’s arrest of 156 of the refugees forcibly deported from Lebanon, including four children and three women.

Meanwhile, in 2024, the SDF has also continued to use enforced disappearance as an instrument to crush any form of political or social dissent, and as a means of tightening its security grip in areas under its control. To achieve these ends, the group established secret detention centers, where detainees are forbidden any contact with the outside world. Our data suggests that the SDF routinely use unproven allegations, such as “affiliation with ISIS”, “security threats”, and “terrorism”, as pretexts to justify the detentions they carry out in a widespread manner. US-led International Coalition forces have even been involved in some of these operations which targeted individuals including children, women, and persons with special needs under the pretext of “failing to inform the authorities”, although the actual goal of these practices is to consolidate control and spread fear in the areas under the SDF’s control. Those detained over these accusations have been forced during interrogation to confess to acts they never committed under the coercion of torture and various threats. They were also denied any opportunity to contact their lawyers either during interrogation or when they were referred to court.

Additionally, the report records that at least 92 individuals were kept under arrest/detained in HTS detention centers between January 2024 and June 2024 over their participation in anti-HTS protests. Meanwhile, armed opposition factions/SNA have also carried out arbitrary arrests/detentions, including of women. Most of these detentions were conducted on a mass scale, targeting individuals coming from areas controlled by the Syrian regime or the SDF. In addition, we documented detentions that exhibited an ethnic character, with these incidents concentrated in areas under the control of the armed opposition factions/SNA in Aleppo governorate. Most of these arrests occurred without judicial authorization and without the participation of the police force, which is the sole legitimate administrative authority responsible for arrests and detentions through the judiciary, as well as being carried out without any clear charges being presented against those being detained. Furthermore, we documented raids and arrests by SNA personnel targeting civilians who were accused of working with the SDF, with these arrests being concentrated in some of the villages which are administratively part of Afrin city in Aleppo governorate.

The report concludes that, based on our database on cases of arbitrary arrest, torture, and enforced disappearance at the hands of regime forces, there is no indication at all of any willingness on the regime’s part to cease torture, or even to introduce the most minimal and basic of measures mentioned above in response to the International Court of Justice (ICJ) ruling. Furthermore, at least 136,614 people are still arbitrarily detained and/or forcibly disappeared by the regime, and enduring torture in regime detention centers. Despite being responsible for such unimaginably horrific suffering, the Syrian regime has not launched even one investigation into the disappearance or torture of any detainees by its personnel. On the contrary, the regime has enacted ‘laws’ shielding them from accountability.

The report calls on the UN Security Council and the UN to protect tens of thousands of detainees and persons forcibly disappeared by the Syrian regime from the severe risk of dying due to torture, and save those who are still alive. Also, the report calls on the ICJ to take more decisive provisional measures against the Syrian regime in light of the abundance of evidence showing the regime’s lack of commitment to the previous provisional measures, especially considering that the case brought against the Syrian regime before the ICJ is a genuine test of the ICJ’s credibility and power. As such, the report states, the ICJ must take immediate and effective measures to address those violations and ensure the realization of justice and accountability. All possible measure must be taken against the Syrian regime, the report adds, including the UN Security Council issuing a binding resolution calling for ending systematic torture, which constitutes crimes against humanity, and unequivocally condemning the Syrian regime’s breach of the ICJ Order, with the report also making a number of other recommendations.

Download the full report

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.

The Hague – The Syrian Network for Human Rights:

The Syrian Network for Human Rights (SNHR) today, Thursday, August 15, 2024, released its third periodic monitoring report entitled, ‘In the Nine Months Since the ICJ Issued its Order, the Syrian Regime Has Killed at least 43 Individuals due to Torture, and Arrested At least 756 Civilians, Including Nine Children and 24 Women‘, stressing that this latest report again proves the Syrian regime’s blatant violation of the Order issued by the International Court of Justice (ICJ), as the ICJ must carry out an evaluation of the regime’s compliance and issue a statement on its findings. This latest SNHR report on the issue is the third report in a series of reports and news articles released by the group as part of its daily efforts to monitor the Syrian regime’s compliance with the ICJ Order issued on November 16, 2023.

The data contained in this report shows a continuation of the same pattern; that is to say, the Syrian regime continues to blatantly violate international law. Despite the binding legal obligations upon the Syrian regime, it has failed to take any actual steps to end torture in its detention centers. On the contrary, SNHR has documented that the Syrian regime is noticeably targeting residents of areas under its control, as well as refugees and internally displaced persons (IDPs) returning to these areas, showing an utter disregard for the ICJ’s Order, as the regime continues to commit crimes and violations against detainees and forcibly disappeared persons. The report also stresses that the Syrian regime has persistently demonstrated utter disregard for the ICJ’s Order and for the demands of most of the mandates of the special procedures at the UN Human Rights Council (HRC), as well as the resolutions adopted by the UN Security Council and the UN General Assembly, especially on the issue of detention and torture. Despite thousands of items of evidence and accounts proving and documenting the continuing nature of these practices, the regime has not taken even one step to end them. All these points underline the imperative need to take decisive action to put pressure on the Syrian regime, including imposing sanctions and enforcing a diplomatic blockade, in order to compel the regime to show respect for human rights, and ensure that those responsible can no longer be shielded by impunity.

During the period between the issuance of the ICJ’s Order on November 16, 2023, and August 15, 2024, SNHR has documented the commission of serious human rights violations in a systematic manner in Syrian regime detention centers. These include torture and physical and psychological assaults against detainees. In this period, SNHR has documented at least 756 cases of arbitrary arrest at the hands of Syrian regime forces, including of nine children and 24 women, with all those detained being held in various regime detention centers. Of these 756 arrested, 97 have been released, while the remaining 659 have been categorized as enforced disappearance cases. These cases also include a number of arrests involving ‘refugees and IDPs’ who returned to regime-held areas. There have been also arrests targeting refugees and IDPs who were trying to return to their original areas, now under regime control. Some of the refugees affected returned from Lebanon and Türkiye via the Kasab Border Crossing and Damascus International Airport in Damascus city. As of this writing, SNHR has documented at least 156 arbitrary arrests/detentions by Syrian regime forces targeting refugees/IDPs who were attempting to return to regime-held areas, including two children and five women (adult female), since the start of 2024.

Additionally, since the ICJ issued its Order on November 16, 2023, up until August 15, 2024, SNHR has documented no fewer than 43 deaths due to torture in regime detention centers. Only four of the victims’ bodies have been returned to their families. Among those 43 victims were at least four former refugees who had either been forcibly deported or had returned to regime-held areas. In addition, SNHR has recorded 16 cases of people classified as forcibly disappeared who have been registered as dead in the civil registry records between November 16, 2023 and August 15, 2024. Among these cases are victims from the same families, political activists, and university students. In all the cases, the cause of death was not given, and the Syrian regime has not returned the victims’ bodies to their families or notified the families of their loved ones’ deaths at the time they took place. The group suspects that the Syrian regime is sending newly released information about forcibly disappeared persons to the civil registry offices to register their deaths.

The report concludes that the Syrian regime is still committing acts of torture of every variety, beginning with arbitrary arrest, which is, in and of itself, a form of torture since it is carried out in a manner more akin to an abduction than a legitimate arrest with no judicial warrant being shown. The process of arrest also involves the use of excessive violence and beatings of various types and degrees, which usually begin from the very first moment of the arrest, and continue throughout the detention period, which also includes subjecting detainees to cruel and inhumane detention conditions, as well as referring them to exceptional security courts, where trials are conducted in a way that is closer to an interrogation at a security facility than a legitimate courtroom trial.

The report stresses that this case is a genuine test of the credibility and power of the ICJ. As such, the ICJ must take immediate and effective measures to address these violations and ensure the realization of justice and accountability. All possible measure must be taken against the Syrian regime, including the UN Security Council issuing a binding resolution calling for ending systematic torture, all of which constitute crimes against humanity, and unequivocally condemning the Syrian regime’s breach of the ICJ’s Order.

The report also calls on the UN Security Council to impose targeted sanctions on Syrian officials who have been directly involved in torture and arbitrary arrest, or those responsible for such practices. Furthermore, the report calls on the UN Special Rapporteur on Torture to continue to monitor the Syrian regime’s compliance with the ICJ Order and release periodic statements stressing and clarifying the regime’s failure to comply. In addition, the report calls on the Arab League to take a clear stance against the Syrian regime’s brutal practices that continue to kill Syrian people under torture, and to re-suspend Syria’s membership of the Arab League until it demonstrates greater compliance with the ICJ’s Order, as well as making a number of other recommendations.

The Hague – The Syrian Network for Human Rights (SNHR) revealed, in a brief report released today, that it has submitted a report for the UN Human Rights Committee 141^st Session, in which the group notes that the Syrian regime has violated the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR), with many of its violations constituting crimes against humanity.

In July 2024, the UN Human Rights Committee examined the fourth periodic report by the Syrian Arab Republic on its compliance with the provisions of the ICCPR, marking the first time that the UN has examined the status of human rights in Syria and the Syrian regime’s compliance with the ICCPR since the start of the popular uprising in Syria in March 2011.

The report stresses that the Syrian regime, under Bashar Assad, has not submitted any reports to the UN Human Rights Committee since 2004. The fourth periodic report to be submitted by the regime, which was due for submission in 2009, was submitted on December 29, 2021, in a conspicuous demonstration of the regime’s dismissal of and contempt for human rights and for the principles of the ICCPR. On top of that, Syria should have been a critical case due to the numerous human rights violations committed by the country’s ruling authority in the wake of the popular uprising in March 2011. In light of these facts, the UN Human Rights Committee should have asked the Syrian regime to submit additional periodic reports, or at least bring the date for submitting its periodic report forward.

As the report further reveals, SNHR has reviewed the report submitted by the Syrian regime’s government to the UN Human Rights Committee that reflects its supposedly great commitment to the ICCPR. In response to this, SNHR has submitted an alternative report refuting much of the content of the regime’s report, and clearly illustrating how Syria has reached rock bottom in respect to many fundamental human rights, becoming one of the world’s worst countries in terms of committing various types of violations. With the Syrian regime led by Bashar Assad remaining in power, SNHR has documented the commission of many crimes of killing, arrest, enforced disappearance, torture, and restriction of freedoms by regime forces, especially by the regime’s security apparatus, with many of these violations amounting to crimes against humanity. The report further proves that the Syrian regime has violated numerous ICCPR articles, as well as routinely breaching human rights. The report submitted by SNHR draws upon the information archived on the group’s database, mainly focusing on data concerning breaches of the rights to life and to liberty and security of person, as well as on violations related to arrests; unlawful detentions; enforced disappearance, torture and inhumane punishments and treatment; freedom of opinion, expression, and peaceful assembly; freedom to hold political views, and to form political parties, and freedom to participate in free elections, in addition to violations related to the issue of refugees, internally displaced persons (IDPs), and the freedom of movement. The report provides figures on these violations documented during the period between August 2020 and June 2024. The report also provides a summary of Syria’s legal and constitutional framework, and of the scope of Syria’s commitment under international human rights treaties, stressing that none of the current international human rights conventions and instruments ratified by Syria had any tangible effect on the formulation of the 2012 Constitution, or of any domestic laws and legislative articles. Indeed, as the report notes, the country’s current constitution blatantly contravenes the most fundamental human rights.

The report concludes by reiterating that the Syrian regime has practiced torture in a widespread and systematic manner. These torture practices have led to related outrages as severe as the loss of life, constituting blatant violations of international human rights law. It has also been well-established that the Syrian regime is fully aware of these practices, and of the fact that the inhumane detention conditions maintained in its prisons will eventually lead to death. Furthermore, the conscious decisions to carry out these practices have been issued from the very pinnacle of the regime’s power hierarchy, starting with the President of the Republic, who directly controls the ministries of interior and defense, the National Security Bureau, and their various subsidiary security agencies.

The report further stresses that the legislative process in Syria has been stripped of all standards regulating legislation, especially those related to the conflict. This process has also contravened constitutional and legal articles in many of the articles of legislation that have been promulgated. The legislative authority, i.e., the People’s Assembly of Syria, lacks any autonomy and is completely subservient to the executive branch in every way, from appointing its members to controlling the laws passed by it.

On July 10, 2024, the report reveals, SNHR took part in the informal briefing session that preceded the official consideration session for the Syrian Arab Republic. In the informal session, SNHR answered questions and inquiries from members of the UN Human Rights Committee. In the following two days, July 11-12, the formal sessions discussing Syria’s compliance with the ICCPR took place, during which the report submitted by the Syrian regime on its compliance with the ICCPR was considered. SNHR has also taken part in a formal briefing session by submitting a video package summarizing the SNHR report, including recommendations to the Committee.

Finally, the report welcomes the recommendations made by the UN Human Rights Committee, in addition to providing some comments on the closing observations of the Committee’s report.

The Hague – The Syrian Network for Human Rights (SNHR) today, Wednesday, July 24, 2024, released its latest report, ‘The Syrian Regime’s 2024 Parliamentary Elections Are Illegitimate and Predetermined by the Regime’s Security Apparatus – The People’s Assembly of Syria is Nothing More than Another Instrument of Oppression and Control Used to Crush Syrians’ Rights’. In the report, the group stresses that the 2024 elections for the People’s Assembly of Syria are invalid, illegitimate, and lack any credibility, and that they violate international resolutions and international human rights law. SNHR further asserts that these elections are also based on an invalid constitution and electoral law blighted by contradictions, loopholes, and transgressions.

The 21- page report notes that the elections for this term of the People’s Assembly of Syria, like their predecessors, are the furthest possible thing from free and fair in nature. These electoral processes and their outcomes have never represented the will of the Syrian people and Syrian society. Rather, they are charades imposed through the brute force and authority of the regime’s security apparatus. They are nothing but a nominal staged ‘procedure’ devoid of any actual political substance. It should also be noted that the geographical area covered by this latest election was limited to only two-thirds of Syrian territory, with as many international actors present in the country as it has seen to date, and with the election held in the midst of a devastating economic crisis, as the value of the Syrian Pound continues its sharp decline, while rates of inflation, unemployment, and poverty continue to surge. In addition to these points, SNHR points out that over half the Syrian population is currently displaced, either as internally displaced persons (IDPs) or as refugees, according to the UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR), while the regime continues to commit numerous egregious violations.

As the report further reveals, the Syrian regime has placed special emphasis on this particular legislative term for a number of reasons, the most prominent of which is to continue its intrusion into the constitution and to issue legislative articles that solely serve the regime’s interests; continue to provide cover for the regime’s crimes, perpetuate the illusion of political reform, and rehabilitate pro-regime figures.

The report identifies a number of individuals in this Assembly who have been responsible for violations against the Syrian people, as documented by SNHR’s database. These figures include retired military officers, militia commanders, and war profiteers who have been named on international sanction lists. Some members were also re-elected even after their impunity had been lifted and they had been prosecuted over corruption charges.

The report also stresses that SNHR believes that, for the regime, the most crucial task to be asked of this Assembly is to vote in favor of a constitutional amendment that would allow the head of the Syrian regime to nominate himself for a new presidential term, after the current one ends in mid-2028, in light of the current constitutional limitations on the number of presidential terms a president can serve, as stipulated in Article 88 of the 2012 Constitution. Under the current regulations, a president cannot nominate themselves for three consecutive terms, with the current term set to end in mid-2028. This objective is in addition to the conventional roles played by the People’s Assembly of Syria in rubber-stamping the decisions of the executive authority and the security apparatus, effectively providing a civilian façade to cover up the regime’s crimes and lend the appearance of legitimacy to its absolute hegemony over the executive, legislative, and judicial branches of government.

As Fadel Abdulghany, SNHR Executive Director, says:

 “The Syrian regime is weaponizing the state’s institutions against the Syrian people, even as it increases, furthers and perpetuates its tyranny. Chief among these institutions is the People’s Assembly of Syria which is engaged in devising and promulgating laws and legislative articles that contradict peremptory norms and violate fundamental human rights. The elections for the People’s Assembly of Syria are conducted in an environment ruled by despotism, wherein the Syrian people cannot choose freely. The members of the Assembly are effectively selected by the security apparatus. These are unlawful elections that only reflect and represent the will of the Syrian regime.”

The report identifies the six main reasons that render Syria’s fourth parliamentary elections invalid & illegitimate:

1. These elections were held in overt defiance of international resolutions, and disregarding the political process, particularly the Geneva I Communiqué, which was included in UN Security Council resolutions 2118 and 2254; 2. These elections were held in a corrupt and illegitimate environment, and were based on the illegitimate 2012 Constiutoin and Law No. 5 of 2014 on Regulating General Elections which is riddled with articles that contravene human rights and contradict the principle of equality among all citizens, as well as the principle of separation of authorities; 3. There’s a complete lack of any real judicial safeguards in any elections held by the regime due to the High Elections Committee and the Supreme Constitutional Court of Syria having no autonomy; 4. Regime tampering with voter numbers and the issue of the electoral record with the lack of accurate population statistical figures; 5. Disparity in the distribution of seats, which is based on the discretion of the President of the Republic and; 6. The Baath Party’s complete domination over the elections and the fact that it has absorbed most of the seats.

In all, the Baath-sponsored National Unity electoral list won 185 seats, or 74 percent of the People’s Assembly, with 169 seats going directly to the Baath Party itself, accounting for 67.7 percent of the total, a two-seat increase from the 2020 election. Meanwhile, the bloc allied with the Baath Party won 16 seats, accounting for 8.64 percent, the same number of seats they had in previous terms. Outside the National Unity list, independents won only 65 seats. Needless to say, the Baath Party has full hegemony over the People’s Assembly with a two-thirds majority.

The report concludes that holding these elections indicates that the Syrian regime continues to operate through utilizing security and military criteria in managing Syria’s affairs. It treats internal and external stakeholders as if it had been victorious in the war and were not obliged to make substantial changes to its behavior and approach. Moreover, the Syrian regime’s insistence on conducting these elections reflects its refusal to make any changes or concessions, even if these are only symbolic, either domestically within Syria itself or within the international community. Holding free and fair elections requires comprehensive legal and political reforms that achieve political transition and remove legislation which entrenches tyranny and human rights violations. Additionally, the regime security apparatuses’ dominance, their complete impunity, and the regime’s control over the judicial and legislative branches, along with the lack of freedom of opinion, leave no room for establishing genuine opposition parties. Instead, parties which effectively exist only in name have been created, with the Baath Party remaining, in reality, the sole party for decades. The so-called ‘National Progressive Front’ consists of a supposed alliance of these nebulous parties, with the Baath Party as its backbone. The security apparatuses impose candidate lists consisting of regime loyalists, most of them affiliated with the Baath Party, as a form of compensation for its most devoted supporters.

The report calls on the UN and the international community to reject these elections and to declare them illegitimate since they violate UN Security Council resolutions. Furthermore, the report calls for placing members of the Syrian People’s Assembly of Syria on EU, US, Canadian, and global sanction lists for passing laws and decrees that violate fundamental human rights principles.

The report also calls on the UN Security Council to take serious steps to implement UN Security Council Resolution 2254, which calls for the establishment of a transitional governing body, and for achieving a political transition that ensures free and democratic presidential, parliamentary, and local elections.

Moreover, the report calls on the UN Human Rights Office (OHCHR) and the Independent International Commission of Inquiry on the Syrian Arab Republic (COI) to raise the subject of the egregious human rights violations seen in these elections, in addition to making other recommendations.

The Hague – The Syrian Network for Human Rights (SNHR) today released a report entitled, ‘The Syrian Regime is Using Provisional Seizure of Assets as An Instrument of Collective Punishment’, in which the group revealed that at least 817 civilian residents of the town of Zakya in Rural Damascus governorate have been subjected to mass provisional seizure orders by the Syrian regime since the start of 2024.

This report is one in a series of reports released by SNHR examining the administrative decisions issued by the Syrian regime’s official institutions and their major legal consequences, and analyzing how these decisions affect the people concerned. This report’s particular focus is on the orders for the provisional seizure of transferrable and non-transferrable assets that were issued against the residents of Zakya between the start of 2024 and June 2024, with the regime’s Ministry of Finance issuing hundreds of new provisional seizure orders of a kind not seen previously there against the town’s residents during this period.

The 16-page report notes that provisional seizures of transferrable and non-transferable assets have been used by the Syrian regime as one of the most notoriously effective means to generate funds through seizing and subsequently disposing of assets identified in seizure orders. Equally important is the fact that this has been used as an additional form of punishment against most dissidents and their families, subjecting them to even more legal, social, and economic restrictions, oppression and injustice. As shown by the documents on provisional seizure orders issued by the Syrian regime, copies of which are retained in SNHR’s archives, arbitrarily arrested detainees and forcibly disappeared persons in regime detention centers, and the displaced, including internally displaced persons (IDPs) and refugees, are among the groups most grievously affected by the provisional seizure orders issued by the Syrian regime, with these provisional seizure orders usually subsequently going on to effectively become executive seizures of property.

Since late-2023, the report notes, SNHR began noting that the regime is now using this policy in specific areas that had been outside its control, which were later recaptured and subjected to settlement agreements. In this way, the policy has exhibited more visibly discriminatory characteristics based on security-related and retaliatory considerations, with the resulting procedures lacking any trace of justice or transparency, not to mention blatantly contravening domestic and international laws.

As the report reveals, since the start of 2024, the Syrian regime’s executive arm has been increasing the number of provisional seizure orders issued against the transferrable and non-transferrable assets of Zakya town’s residents, in the form of orders issued by the regime’s Ministry of Finance. These orders are based primarily on Legislative Decree No. 63 of 2012, in addition to the notices and other official documents issued by Branch 285, the Interrogation Branch affiliated with the regime’s General Intelligence Directorate or ‘State Security’ division in Damascus city. In other words, those orders are not being issued by a judicial body, but by regime security authorities as a result of the excessively broad powers given by the regime to its official executive bodies with regard to issuing provisional/administrative seizure orders on assets and properties, mainly to the head of the Ministry of Finance under the pretext of combating money-laundering and terrorism. These powers even allow the seizure of the assets of the wives of wanted individuals, unlike judicial seizure orders, whose powers are limited to the property of the person whose assets are subject to expropriation.

The report reveals that at least 13 mass provisional seizure orders affecting no fewer than 817 civilians were issued by the Syrian regime’s Ministry of Finance in Rural Damascus governorate between January 2024 and June 2024. During this period, February saw the highest number of provisional seizure orders issued by the Syrian regime’s Ministry of Finance, as well the highest number of civilians affected in a single month. These orders included lists of names of individuals forcibly disappeared in regime detention centers, missing persons, individuals who had agreed to settle their security situation with the regime, and others wanted by the regime’s security authorities, including displaced persons and activists.

The report contains a number of graphs, which show that the group in Zakya town targeted most intensively in provisional seizure orders was individuals who had agreed to settlements with the regime-formed military and security committee following the regime’s takeover of the town in January 2017. This shows that the regime is adopting an ongoing policy of persecution of the town’s residents. After this group, the next worst affected category was IDPs or refugees forcibly displaced from the town. The report further reveals that neither the Ministry of Finance or any other official regime official body, has notified those affected by the provisional seizure orders of them in any official capacity. Rather, most of those affected found out about the orders through contacts in the government real estate registry offices and the municipality, while others learned of them only after the documents had been circulated on social media, or simply by accident while doing some paperwork in the Real Estate Registry Directorate in Rural Damascus governorate.

The report reaches a number of conclusions. Most prominently, provisional seizure orders issued by the Ministry of Finance against the residents of Zakya town in Rural Damascus governorate have no judicial grounds, due to being issued based on security authorities’ decisions. This further proves that the regime’s security apparatus controls all aspects of the state institutions which are subjugated to the service of the interests of the security apparatus. Furthermore, the Law on Managing and Investing Transferrable and Non-Transferrable Assets That Were Seized Pursuant to an Unappealable Judicial Ruling is the worst legislation yet introduced in relation to stripping citizens of their property.

The report calls on the UN Security Council and the UN to expedite the process of bringing about a political resolution in Syria in accordance with Geneva Communiqué 1, and UN Security Council resolutions 2118 and 2254, which will help to secure the release of political prisoners, end torture, and end the operations of exceptional security courts. Moreover, the UN Security Council and the UN must condemn the Syrian regime’s hegemony over the three branches of government, and expose its practices of promulgating laws through which it can seize the assets of IDPs, refugees, forcibly disappeared persons, and killed victims who have not been registered as dead.

The report also calls on the UN Human Rights Office (OHCHR) to give a clear image of the sheer monstrosity of the laws promulgated by the Syrian regime before the Security Council and all the world states. The report also makes a number of additional recommendations.

Press release: (Download the full report below)

The Hague – The Syrian Network for Human Rights (SNHR) today released its 13^th annual report on torture in Syria, marking the International Day in Support of Victims of Torture which is observed on June 26 every year. These annual reports aim to shed light on the brutal torture practices, which have only grown worse since 2011 and to give some idea of the massive loss and devastation that have befallen the survivors who are still grappling with the traumatic effects of torture to this day. The report stresses that 15,383 deaths due to torture have been documented in Syria, since March 2011 up until June 2024, including of 199 children and 115 women (adult female).

The report notes that no fewer than 157,287 of the people arrested between March 2011 and June 2024, including 5,264 children and 10,221 women, are still imprisoned and/or forcibly disappeared in the various detention centers operated by the parties to the conflict and controlling forces in Syria. Of this total, at least 112,713, including 1,305 children and 6,698 women, are categorized as forcibly disappeared persons. The Syrian regime is responsible for 86 percent of these enforced disappearance cases.

The report also documents 15,383 deaths due to torture at the hands of the parties to the conflict and controlling forces in Syria since March 2011 up until June 2024, with the victims including 199 children and 115 women (adult female). Of this total, the Syrian regime has been responsible for 15,098 deaths, including of 190 children and 95 women, while ISIS has been responsible for 32 deaths, including of one child and 14 women. Meanwhile, Hay’at Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) has been responsible for 56 deaths, including of two children and one woman, whereas Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) has been responsible for 105 deaths, including of three children and two women, in addition to 62 deaths at the hands of all armed opposition factions/Syrian National Army (SNA), including of one child and two women. Lastly, other parties have been responsible for 30 deaths, including of two children and one woman.

As the report further reveals, the Syrian regime is also responsible for the arrest of the largest proportion of Syrian citizens currently detained, with all detainees in regime detention centers being subjected to one or more forms of torture. Correspondingly, the Syrian regime has been responsible for by far the largest number of deaths due to torture, accounting for at least 98 percent of all deaths due to torture recorded. This staggeringly high number suggests that torture is a systematic, recurring, and widespread practice in regime detention centers which is used against tens of thousands of detainees. As such, it amounts to a crime against humanity. Additionally, the report notes that Homs and Daraa governorate are ranked first and second respectively as the two governorates from which the largest number of victims of death due to torture originally came. In this context, the Syrian regime has been known to direct torture against specific victims over their affiliation with anti-regime individuals or groups as a form of collective retaliation.

The report adds that no fewer than 1,632 of the people forcibly disappeared by the regime, including 24 children and 21 women as well as 16 medical personnel, have been registered as dead in the civil registry records since the start of 2018 up until June 2024. In all these cases, the causes of the victims’ death have not been disclosed, their bodies have not been returned to their families, and the deaths were not announced at the times they took place.

On another note, since early 2015, SNHR has identified 1,017 of about 6,786 victims who appeared in the photos leaked from regime military hospitals, known as the ‘Caesar Photos’. Of this total, 836 victims have already been documented on SNHR’s database.

The report stresses that the Syrian regime continues to breach the order issued by the International Court of Justice (ICJ), having taken no action to end torture in its detention centers. These findings are based on SNHR’s detailed daily monitoring of the international human rights violations taking place in regime detention centers, as well as of any arrests/detentions carried out by regime forces, in addition to analysis of the domestic articles of legislation that have been promulgated, repealed, or amended, and of any changes to the regime’s security structure, i.e., the bodies primarily responsible and implicated in committing violations against civilians in Syria. To that end, since the ICJ issued its order on November 16, 2023, up until May 16, 2024, SNHR has documented 534 arbitrary arrests, including of eight children and 21 women. Of these detainees who were arrested and placed in various regime detention centers, 63 were released, while the remaining 471 have been subsequently categorized as forcibly disappeared persons. Furthermore, in the same period, SNHR has documented 29 deaths due to torture in regime detention centers. Only one victim’s body was returned to their family, while all the other victims’ bodies have yet to be returned. Lastly, SNHR recorded that 14 forcibly disappeared persons have been registered as dead in the civil registry’s records. Among these cases were victims from the same families, political activists, and university students. In all the cases, the cause of death was not given, and the Syrian regime has not returned the victims’ bodies to their families or notified the families of their loved ones’ deaths at the time they took place.

The report also proves that all controlling forces in Syria have practiced torture against their opponents, and that those practices persist to this day. Furthermore, the report stresses that the Syrian regime has explicitly violated the Syrian Constitution and the UN Convention Against Torture which the regime ratified in 2004.

The report calls on the international community and the state parties to the UN Convention Against Torture to take the necessary action to establish its jurisdiction over perpetrators of torture, and to enact significant and serious punitive measures against the Syrian regime, in order to deter it from killing more Syrian civilians under torture. Pressure must also be applied on other parties to the conflict, through every avenue possible, to put a definitive end to the use of torture. The state parties to the Geneva Conventions must do far more to fight crimes against humanity and war crimes. Moreover, states that have the ability to invoke universal jurisdiction must make a far greater effort to launch cases against violation perpetrators on Syria on a wider scale.

The report also calls on the ICJ to issue a statement assessing the Syrian regime’s commitment to the provisional measures indicated by the Court, as eight months have now passed since the order was issued.

Meanwhile, the report calls on the parties to the conflict in Syria to abide by the principles of international human rights law and stop using torture against political or military opponents and extracting confessions under torture, while launching investigation into such crimes in order to hold their perpetrators accountable. Additionally, the report calls for compensating the families and the victims, as well as for the immediate and unconditional release of all arbitrarily arrested detainees, especially children and women, and the disclosure of the fate of tens of thousands of forcibly disappeared persons. The report also makes a number of additional recommendations.

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.