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The Hague – The Syrian Network for Human Rights today released a report entitled, “How The Syrian Regime Uses the Humanitarian Organizations SARC and STD to Steal Humanitarian Aid”, stressing that alternative means must be devised to deliver humanitarian assistance to those truly in need in regime-held areas.

As the 38-page report explains, Bashar Assad first began nurturing various nascent NGOs after being named president in 2000. More particularly, he enhanced the role of those NGOs which enjoyed and continue to enjoy sustained state subsidization, such as the Syrian Arab Red Crescent (SARC). In tandem with these initiatives, the Syrian regime established full hegemony over those organizations by controlling the appointment of officials in a way that ensures complete government control over the organizations. Bashar Assad’s regime had quickly realized that these organizations would be a vital source of revenue, a realization which drove its decision to co-opt them rather than suppressing them as his father had. Meanwhile, Bashar Assad’s wife Asma founded a number of community-based initiatives and bodies that were subsequently incorporated under the banner of the Syria Trust for Development (STD), which, like the SARC, has been a vital instrument in enabling the Syrian regime to control the humanitarian relief sector. That is to say, the STD and the SARC are both used by the Syrian regime as a form of ‘soft power’, assisting in achieving the regime’s goals, and as a gateway to taking control of donors’ funds and monopolizing international support, with the regime introducing a requirement that all relief and development funds coming from UN bodies and donor states must go through those two organizations.

The report explains how the Syrian regime seized and misused funds intended as humanitarian assistance to achieve its goals and to further control the intended beneficiaries of those funds by controlling the NGOs receiving and managing these monies. The report focuses on the SARC and the STD in particular because they are the two most prominent front organizations or government-organized non-governmental organizations (GONGOs) used by the regime to receive aid funds. In fact, the Syrian regime initially forced UN bodies and donor governments to exclusively work with the SARC as the sole body authorized to receive aid funds. The regime demanded that all international humanitarian agencies should sign agreements and memoranda of understanding with the SARC which dictate that no projects can be implemented or field visits conducted without first obtaining the SARC’s permission. Subsequently, the STD was added as a second organization authorized to receive aid.

The report further reveals that the Syrian regime was keen on establishing full hegemony over the SARC, and the STD, for two reasons – firstly, the SARC has the credibility afforded it by association with the internationally respected reputation and trusted ‘brand names’ of the Red Cross and the Red Crescent, being affiliated with both. Second, the sanctions imposed on the regime and its senior officials do not apply to the SARC which receives direct, sustained and substantial support from several international parties, including UN agencies and bodies, the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC), and the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC), not to mention aid given by other nations’ Red Crescent & Red Cross organizations, such as the British Red Cross, Danish Red Cross, Netherlands Red Cross, etc.

As Fadel Abdul Ghany, SNHR Executive Director, says:
“The February 6 earthquakes renewed a discussion we’ve been having since 2015 about the Syrian regime’s theft of humanitarian aid. As such, we decided that we now needed to produce an extensive report shedding light on the Syrian regime’s misuse of the two most prominent organizations in this sector, namely the Syrian Arab Red Crescent and the Syria Truth for Development, to steal UN and international aid. In fact, as much as 90 percent of all aid is stolen, meaning that whatever was sent as humanitarian aid to these bodies is being misused by them to fund the Syrian regime that has been involved in crimes against humanity and war crimes.”

As the report further reveals, with the start of the uprising in 2011, the Syrian regime eliminated the electoral process in the SARC altogether, and began directly appointing officials. This coincided with the introduction of a policy to ensure the loyalty of SARC volunteers and employees, by enlisting more pro-regime personnel at the expense of those opposing such policies within the SARC, using the regime’s well known customary methods of intimidation and oppression, ranging from arbitrary discharge to arrest and detention, as well as directly targeting SARC ambulances and killing paramedics. In this context, the report reveals that no fewer than 54 of the SARC volunteers arrested between March 2011 and October 2023, including three women, are still under arrest and/or forcibly disappeared, while five have died due to torture in regime detention centers in the same period.

Moreover, the report notes that one of the most prominent strategies adopted by the regime to establish hegemony over the SARC and to ensure the loyalty of both officials and employees has been the use of corrupt employment policies based on nepotism. In fact, both nepotism and discrimination have been two of the most visible aspects of corruption within the SARC, which has effectively become an instrument in the hands of the regime used to reward regime clients by giving them aid, regardless of whether or not they actually deserve such aid, while simultaneously punishing dissidents by denying them aid even if they actually deserve it. Needless to say, these practices directly contradict the principle of impartiality, which is a foundational principle for the International Red Cross and Red Crescent Movement that certainly should be upheld by the SARC as a member of the same movement. An additional dimension of corruption in the SARC, the report adds, is the fact that all these types of corruption are taking place amid a complete absence of transparency by the SARC, on one hand, and of any effective accountability mechanisms that donor parties can invoke on the other, including external auditing. That is to say that, while the SARC does provide its donors with reports about the projects the organization is supposedly involved in and about the aid recipients, there is no mechanism in place to verify the authenticity and accuracy of those reports, or to track how much of the funds has been spent and on what. The SARC official website publishes annual and semi-annual reports on the project it has carried out overinveinertain periods of time. However, even a cursory examination of these reports will show that they lack any institutional professionalism and transparency, since they simply list projects that have supposedly been completed and give figures for recipients, but fail to provide any details or to include any evidence of these projects being accomplished.

As the report also reveals, since her husband assumed the Syrian presidency in 2000, Asma Assad has worked tirelessly to establish her own foothold as an influential figure in the Syrian regime. She subsequently founded various projects and initiatives, all of which were eventually incorporated into one umbrella organization called the Syria Trust for Development (STD), which received legal accreditation in April 2007, and was later added to the bodies overseen by the Syrian regime’s Ministry of Social Affairs and Labor. The STD has been promoted as an entity that supports local initiatives, promotes active citizenship and entrepreneurship, and encourages the involvement of civil society in decision-making and development issues. Since its inception, the STD has, amongst other things, established control over Old Aleppo’s markets, and the al-Sulaymaniyya Takiyya, which is a hub for tradesmen in the capital Damascus. Moreover, the STD has established a monopoly over many other sectors, including the development sector. Thanks to its exclusive contracts, the organization receives the lion’s share of international funds intended for reconstruction and early recovery. In addition to this, the STD has established a monopoly over the provision of aid and legal support for internally displaced persons (IDPs) through its ‘first legal response’ program. Meanwhile, although the STD depicts itself as a non-for-profit organization, a wide variety of incidents thoroughly disprove this claim. In fact, the STD itself has been used as a means for generating massive profit under the cover of civil work and humanitarian aid. Some of the companies associated with the STD have earned enormous profits since its foundation through many means, including winning bids for UN projects and managing for-profit projects. Yet, the STD does not disclose any data on its profits and sources of income amid a typical complete lack of any transparency.

The report adds that one of the clearest manifestations of the STD’s endemic corruption is the way in which it provides a murderous authoritarian regime with a civilized, humanitarian facade. Since its inception, the STD has been used to polish the regime’s image, and even provide cover for its crimes. The STD has organized many pro-regime demonstrations and spearheaded numerous propaganda campaigns for the regime. Asma Assad herself has slipped pro-regime political messages into many of the speeches she has delivered at STD events and other events, in which she’s spoken about her husband’s “steadfast” leadership in the face of foreign “conspiracies”. In addition, the STD also supervises many projects and initiatives that support the regime military and exalt its supposed heroism. Similarly, the STD is used in efforts to undermine the international isolation imposed on the regime. Amongst other things, the STD has participated in exhibitions in the UAE, sent samples of Syrian handcrafts to Italy, and been represented in cultural events in different parts of the world, as part of the regime’s efforts to send subliminal messages associating Syria’s culture, history, and people with Asma Assad and her husband.

The report outlines three practices that exemplify the endemic corruption and nepotism in the STD. First, the STD is prominently used to integrate funds intended for humanitarian assistance into the war economy by designating large proportions of aid to support the war efforts. Second, the STD has been used as an instrument to reward regime loyalists and punish dissidents by denying them whatever international aid has not already been stolen by the regime. In this, the STD uses aid from the UN and other donors in an effort to alleviate public anger over the dire economic conditions in regime-held areas. Through that aid, the STD tries to reduce the growing disparity between those in the regime elite and its public support base. This is done by providing aid to regime loyalists, whether or not they deserve or need such aid. Third, even that aid which is intended for loyalists goes through a second round of corruption and nepotism. Many regime loyalists have talked about how they never received aid, even when they deserve it, simply because they do not have any contacts with “wasta” [figures with power, nepotistic influence or insider connections with the regime, typically government officials who can secure privileges for someone]. This shows that outside the regime elite, even regime loyalists do not receive those illusory ‘benefits’ from the STD that Asma Assad has repeatedly mentioned at conferences and in media appearances in an effort to win international support by feigning the appearance of a philanthropist eager to help the poor and needy. This pretence, however, has no relation to reality on the ground.

The report shows how the Syrian regime has succeeded in transforming NGOs, such as the SARC and the STD, into GONGOs, a common phenomenon among oppressive regimes that aim to undermine campaigns involving civil society and to impose total state control over its institutions to achieve their own political and economic goals. The Syrian regime has also created a civil society organization in the STD whose only purpose in existing is to whitewash and promote the regime’s image. Furthermore, the report highlights how the Syrian regime has promoted the SARC and the STD to make them exclusive partners with the UN agencies and donor states. These two organizations have been used to support the Central Bank with hard currency and to seize vast sums of money from the international community, despite the sanctions imposed on the regime.

The report stresses that the SARC has clearly come under the full control of the security authorities since the outbreak of the popular uprising in March 2011. These regime security authorities have misused recipients’ data possessed by the SARC to persecute fugitives and dissidents. Cases have also been documented in which SARC centers have been used for arbitrary detentions. Moreover, the SARC can no longer operate without security clearance, especially in areas under opposition control. The report adds that the Syrian regime has enabled Asma Assad to eliminate civil society competitors in the humanitarian sector and assisted her in crushing other NGOs that opted for independence, so that the regime can exert absolute control over the humanitarian sector through the STD.

The report further stresses that institutions like the SARC and the STD cannot be seen as genuine or independent civil society or humanitarian organizations operating according to the principles of the International Red Cross and Red Crescent Movement, since these institutions, which are wholly controlled by the Syrian regime, cannot uphold impartiality, neutrality, and independence.

Moreover, the report concludes that the Syrian regime has exploited international aid by donor states to establish economic monopolies which have been used to amass vast personal wealth for the regime leadership. The regime has also indirectly benefited from UN bids for humanitarian projects established in regime-held areas.

The report calls on donor states to ensure that aid is being delivered to those who truly need it regardless of their political affiliations. This can be achieved, it explains, by imposing effective control mechanisms over the projects being funded and by communicating with organizations receiving those funds in an independent and impartial way to ensure that those organizations are distributing aid properly, and to ensure that executive partners in projects in Syria are not subject to sanctions, or associated with figures subject to sanctions or figures accused of committing grave human rights violations.

The report calls on the international community to condemn the Syrian regime’s control of humanitarian aid and impose sanctions on the regime for violating the rules of international humanitarian law and for transforming the SARC into an instrument wholly controlled by the security authorities which works to prolong the regime’s survival. Moreover, the report calls on the UN to refuse to enter into exclusive partnerships with bodies presided over by the regime to distribute aid, namely the SARC and the STD, and to reject the control of the security forces over the implementation of projects and over who benefits from said projects, and other forms of extortion practiced by the Syrian regime against UN agencies in order to direct aid in its own favor, in addition to making other recommendations.

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The Hague – The Syrian Network for Human Rights (SNHR) today released a report entitled, ‘Investigation Confirms the Syrian Regime’s Responsibility for the Massacre in Qarqour Village, Rural Hama, in Which Six Children Were Killed’, in which the group revealed that Syrian-Russian alliance forces have killed no fewer than 62 civilians since October 5 in Northwestern Syria, with 60 percent of the victims being children and women.

This report outlines the findings of an investigation conducted by the SNHR into a massacre in Qaraour village in western rural Hama, in which six children were killed. In doing so, the report sheds light on the details of the attacks, as well as summarizing the civilian death toll and the attacks on vital civilian facilities carried out by Syrian-Russian alliance forces and documented on SNHR’s database since the beginning of the most recent offensive on October 5, 2023, up until October 25, 2023. The report also sheds light on the Syrian regime’s use of cluster and incendiary munitions during this offensive.

The Syrian regime is responsible for the ground attack on Qarqour village in western rural Hama

As the report reveals, on Sunday, October 22, 2023, Syrian regime forces stationed in Jourien town in western Hama carried out a ground attack in which they fired an artillery shell at the northwestern outskirts of Qarqour village. The shell struck a tent set up there by a family next to their house, as an alternative residence following the devastating February 6 earthquakes that hit northwestern Syria, which severely damaged the house. The shell struck the tent when six children, four girls and two boys, were playing around a swing in front of it, killing all of them, with the force of the blast dismembering some of their bodies. The report adds that this regime attack took place in tandem with Russian Orlan-10 reconnaissance aircraft overflying the village. The aircraft took off from the airbase in Jourien town. In the aftermath of the massacre, Syrian regime artillery forces fired additional shells at the area around Qarqour village. As the Civil Defense (White Helmets) and medical teams were unable to reach the site of the massacre, family members of four of the children transferred their bodies by motorbike to the nearby village of Frayka, which is administratively part of Idlib governorate, where they were buried, while the remains of the other two children, from al-Mohsin family, were buried at the massacre site after their scattered body parts were recovered.

Most notable violations committed by Syrian-Russian alliance forces in northwestern Syria between October 5-25, 2023

The report documented the killing of 62 civilians, including 24 children and 13 women (adult female), as well as three humanitarian workers, in the attacks carried out by the Syrian-Russian alliance forces on a number of areas in the governorates of Idlib, Aleppo, and Hama in northwestern Syria between October 5, and October 25, 2023. Of these civilian victims, 53, including 20 children and nine women, were killed by Syrian regime forces, while nine, including four children, were killed at the hands of Russian forces. Furthermore, the report recorded two massacres by Syrian regime forces and one massacre by Russian forces.

The report also documents no fewer than 65 attacks on vital civilian facilities at the hands of Syrian-Russian alliance forces in northwestern Syria between October 5 and October 25, 2023. Eighteen of the attacks documented in the report targeted schools, 10 targeted medical facilities, five targeted Civil Defense (White Helmets) facilities and vehicles, 11 targeted mosques, and seven targeted camps/gatherings of internally displaced persons (IDPs). The report further reveals that Syrian regime forces used cluster munitions in at least one attack targeting Idlib governorate, with one civilian killed and eight others injured in that attack. Meanwhile, the report also documents no fewer than seven attacks by Syrian regime forces using incendiary munitions that targeted civilian areas far from the frontlines, during the same period.

The report stresses that Syrian-Russian alliance forces have yet again, in these attacks, violated multiple rules of international humanitarian law, most notably in their failure to distinguish between civilian and military targets. These forces have bombed hospitals, schools, and other civilian facilities, violations which constitute war crimes. Moreover, Syrian-Russian alliance forces have again categorically violated Security Council resolutions 2139 and 2254 that call for ending indiscriminate attacks, in addition to violating many of the rules of customary international humanitarian law, as well as violating Articles 7 & 8 of the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court (ICC), through the crime of murder, all of which constitute war crimes and crimes against humanity.

The report calls on the UN Security Council to take further action after the adoption of resolution 2254, which explicitly “demands that all parties immediately cease any attacks against civilians and civilian objects as such.” The Security Council should also adopt a resolution to establish a ceasefire in Idlib that must involve punitive procedures in cases of non-compliance for all parties involved.

Additionally, the report calls on the international community to renew pressure on the UN Security Council in order to refer the dossier on Syria to the ICC, and to work towards establishing justice and accountability in Syria through the United Nations General Assembly and the UN Human Rights Council, and activate the principle of universal jurisdiction, in addition to making other recommendations.

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The Hague – The Syrian Network for Human Rights (SNHR) today released a report entitled, “The Mechanisms by Which the Syrian Regime Has Used Laws to Expropriate Tens of Thousands of Homes, Properties and Areas of Land in Homs Governorate”, in which the group tries to break down the Syrian regime’s calculated policies to seize homes, properties, and areas of land through an unlawful quasilegal system.

The report is divided into two main sections, with each section being further subdivided into a number of chapters and research questions. The first section of this report, which focuses on ‘How the lives of Homs residents and their properties have been affected by them joining the uprising’, aims to briefly summarize Homs governorate’s involvement in the Syrian uprising and give a sense of its historical trajectory. To that end, it was important to also give a brief summary of the Syrian regime’s barbaric response to the peaceful demands of the Syrian people, as the report outlines the most notable gross violations perpetrated by the Syrian regime in the 12-plus years since the beginning of the uprising in March 2011, as well as the destruction left by the regime in Homs governorate. The second section tackles two case studies – Baba Amr neighborhood in Homs city and al-Qsair city in rural Homs. By taking one area of the city and another of rural Homs, the report tried to expand its scope of focus into both the city and rural areas in Homs governorate. As the report tackles both cases, the most notable violations and destruction taking place in both Baba Amr and al-Qsair are examined, in an attempt to track how that affected the process of forced displacement of the residents of the governorate, which set the stage for the regime to seize real estate properties.

The report adopts an investigative approach, according to which all the accounts, interactive maps, documentative photos, and video footage were exhaustively analyzed in order to arrive at informed conclusions, with a specific focus on the development of the situation on the ground. To that end, the report includes a small survey of the hundreds of Syrian citizens that SNHR interviewed from across Homs governorate and whose real estate properties have been affected and violated by the regime’s practices. As for the interactive maps, which includes satellite imagery, the report incorporates the criteria applied by the United Nations Satellite Center (UNOSAT) of the United Nations Institute for Training and Research (UNITAR).

The report stresses that, in the last five years since 2018, the Syrian regime intensified its efforts to seize citizens’ property and deprive them of their housing, land, and property rights (HLP) on the basis of laws and decrees it has unlawfully promulgated since 2011, taking advantage of the chaotic climate of an internal armed conflict, as well as exploiting its absolute control of the People’s Assembly of Syria. The regime has worked for years on building this quasilegal arsenal over the course of the internal armed conflict. The report adds that, while the laws and decrees put in place by the Syrian regime can potentially be used to target the properties of any Syrian, they are primarily and directly targeting three groups: First: The forcibly displaced (namely internally displaced persons ‘IDPs’ and refugees), currently numbering approximately 12 million Syrian citizens according to the UN Refugees Agency (UNHCR); second: forcibly disappeared persons, currently numbering approximately 112,713 Syrian citizens; and third: Approximately 500,000 Syrians killed since 2011 (both civilians and military combatants), the overwhelming majority of whose deaths have not been documented in the civil registry’s records. As it is widely established, most of those are regime dissidents and have been victims of the regime violations being committed since March 2011.

As the report further notes, there is a clear and firm connection between human rights violations and HLP violations, since gross human rights violations naturally drives people to flee, thereby making their properties subject to expropriation in accordance with the legals texts promulgated by the Syrian regime. In this context, the report outlines the most notable violations that forced people to flee. As such, the report notes that no fewer than 30,571 civilians were killed at the hands of the parties to the conflict and controlling forces in Homs between March 2011 and August 2023. The report also documented no fewer than 20 massacres exhibiting a sectarian character. Most of these massacres were committed in the early years of the uprising. Moreover, the report records that, of the people arrested between March 2011 and September 2023, 7,374 individuals are still detained and/or forcibly disappeared at the hands of the parties to the conflict and controlling forces in Homs governorate. The overwhelming majority of these violations have been perpetrated by the Syrian regime and its allies.

Meanwhile, the report records that no fewer than 3,636 barrel bombs have been dropped by the regime air force on Homs governorate since July 2012 up until August 2023, killing 708 civilians. The report also document seven chemical attacks at least taking place in Homs governorate since the first documented use of chemical weapons on December 23, 2012, up until August 2023. All of the seven attacks were carried out by Syrian regime forces. Additionally, the report records no fewer than 18 cluster munition attacks since the first documented use of cluster munitions in Syria in July 2012, up until August 2023, which resulted in the killing of no fewer than six civilians. Finally, the report documents the killing of 110 civilians in Homs governorate by the explosion of landmines between March 2011 and August 2023.

The report sheds light on two case studies in Homs governorate – Baba Amr neighborhood and al-Qsair city. To that end, the report outlines the most notable violations in both areas, while tracking the seizure of real estate properties owned by the Syrians and giving an idea of the scope of destruction taking place in Baba Amr and al-Qsair. Additionally, the report conducts a comparison between the destruction captured by satellite imagery and the actual destruction on the ground, in order to give further insight into the scope of pillage and seizure targeting lands and real estate properties, and the true size of destruction seen in many cities, villages, and neighborhoods across the governorate of Homs.

The report concludes that the maps indicate that the artillery and aerial attacks against many cities, neighborhood, and rural areas in Homs governorate was too excessive in relation to the anticipated military benefit for the regime or its allies in the ground, which suggests that these attacks had no military purpose, but were carried out for the sake of other goals, such as destroying and seizing the real estate properties of Syrian citizens by driving their owners out and then eliminating any possibility of them ever returning, which paves the way for the regime to take advantage of the properties and lands it seized for the sake of the reconstruction process. This has been the ultimate end goal pursued by the regime regardless of the violation it has committed, the severe material losses it has caused, or the fact that it has impoverished the Syrian people by seizing their properties and lands.

The report calls on the international community and the UN to condemn the Syrian regime’s hegemony over the three branches of government, to expose its practices in passing laws which are simply quasi-legal tools used to pillage the properties of IDPs, refugees, forcibly disappeared persons, and unregistered victims, in the hopes of repealing the future effects of these laws, which is one of the report’s most important objectives.
Furthermore, the report calls on donor states, investors, and humanitarian agencies operating in Syria to cease their direction of funds to the Syrian regime through reconstruction programs, and to introduce new mechanisms, so as to avoid those funds potentially being misused to violate the HLP rights of residents or the displaced, or so that these funds do not go to bodies that violate human rights and international humanitarian law.

The report also calls on the UNHCR to condemn the practices of the Syrian regime that involve widespread and systematic looting and taking control of the properties and the residential and agricultural lands owned by refugees and IDPs, and submit a report to the Security Council and the UN Special Envoy to Syria on this issue, since this is one of the main obstacles impeding the return of refugees and IDPs. The report adds that the UNHCR should reiterate that it is not possible to talk about a potential normalization of relations with the Syrian regime without first resolving the issue of refugees, which cannot be resolved without fully and wholly return real estate rights to their original owners in Syria, in addition to making other recommendations…

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The Hague – The Syrian Network for Human Rights (SNHR) today released a report entitled, ‘The Syrian Regime is Accused of Killing 15,051 Individuals, Including 190 Children and 94 Women, Under Torture in Its Detention Centers Since March 2011, While Nearly 136,000 Remain Forcibly Disappeared’, in which the group hailed the case brought by Canada and The Netherlands against the Syrian regime before the International Court of Justice (ICJ) as a serious step on the path of accountability.

The 14-page report stresses that torture is practiced inside Syrian regime detention centers in accordance with a well-planned, centrally organized, comprehensive, and calculated policy in which the overwhelming majority of regime detention centers are implicated, and which involves all the different echelons of power among the regime’s security authorities, from the lowest to the highest-ranking officers. Torture is used for different goals and motives, including to extract confessions which are later used to bring various charges against the detainees, given a lack of any tangible evidence to convict them except for such ‘confessions’ coerced through torture, or to take collective retaliation and revenge against all dissidents who dare to oppose the ruling authority (with detainees automatically classified in this category simply by virtue of being arrested), or because of their dissident activism.

Approximately 1,250 death certificates issued for forcibly disappeared persons who had died due to torture, with the Syrian regime failing to notify their families
The report notes that, in most cases, the Syrian regime does not notify victims’ families of their deaths in regime detention centers on the date of their death. Usually, families find out about their loved ones’ deaths either through former prisoners, following multiple visits to the Military Police’s headquarters in Damascus, or through the records in civil registry offices. Families usually learn of their loved ones’ death years after they happened. SNHR has obtained approximately 1,250 death certificates of forcibly disappeared persons who had died due to torture. The Syrian regime has not yet officially notified their families of their loved ones’ death as of this writing.

The Syrian regime has used no fewer than 83 methods of torture in its detention centers
The report outlines the numerous methods of torture seen in regime detention centers. In that, the report notes that these vary in severity and cruelty. Whichever methods are used, however, torture has been practiced so extensively in regime detention centers that almost every detainee who survived the regime’s detention centers has experienced one or multiple torture methods. The report categorizes those torture methods into eight main types, with every type including several torture methods, reaching a total of 83. As the report further reveals, death sentences have been carried out in a widespread manner in regime detention centers, including against children, where no fewer than 14,843 death sentences have been issued by the Military Field Courts between March 2011 and August 2023. Of those, 7,872 death sentence have been carried out. All of the 7,872 dead bodies of the victims executed have not been returned to their families, and their families have not been officially notified of their execution.

The case brought against The Netherlands and Canada against the Syrian regime before the ICJ is a serious step on the path of accountability
The report further reveals that The Netherlands and Canada, drawing upon the abundance of reports and evidence proving the Syrian regime’s violations of the UN Convention Against Torture and upholding their obligations as members of the Convention, have filed a case with the International Court of Justice (ICJ) against the Syrian regime for failing to uphold its obligations under the Convention. The two governments have also requested temporary measures to be quickly adopted to protect the victims. On September 28, 2023, the ICJ announced that the first public hearing session for the case filed by the Netherlands and Canda against the Syrian regime, based on the Convention Against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment of 1984, will be held on October 10, 2023.

The report hails this trial as a serious step on the path of long overdue accountability, after the Syrian regime has been given absolute impunity for 13 years. In that regard, the report expresses hope the court will impose the harshest possible provisional measures against the Syrian regime, which is known for destroying evidence and for its refusal to cooperate with UN bodies, or international and local human rights organizations.

The report emphasizes that the Syrian regime practices torture in a systematic and widespread manner, violating the right to life, which constitutes a blatant breach of international human rights law. It has been repeatedly proven that the Syrian regime has full knowledge of these practices, and is fully aware that these inhumane detention conditions lead inevitably to detainees’ deaths. The Syrian regime has deliberately allowed for, and carried out such practices through a decision made by a hierarchy that begins from the President of the Republic; related to him directly are the ministers of defense and interior and the National Security Bureau, and their affiliated security apparatuses.

The report calls on the governments of The Netherlands and Canada to call on the ICJ to adopt the harshest possible provisional measures against the Syrian regime, including calling on the Syrian regime to end torture and killings under torture, to repeal all sentences issued against arbitrarily arrested detainees since they are based on confession extracted under the duress of torture, and to improve imprisonment conditions since most deaths occur due to poor health conditions.

Furthermore, the report calls on the UN Security Council and the United Nations to, under Chapter VII of the Charter of the United Nations, protect tens of thousands of persons forcibly disappeared at the hands of the Syrian regime from lethal torture, and save those who are still alive, and devise a mechanism to oblige all parties to the conflict, especially the Syrian regime, to put an end to torture practices, and to disclose the locations of the victims’ bodies, and return these to their families, in addition to making other recommendations.

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The Hague – The Syrian Network for Human Rights (SNHR) today released a report entitled, ‘An Instrument of Death and Disappearance: How the Syrian Regime Uses Military Field Courts Against Activists and Dissidents’ in which it revealed that the Syrian regime has executed 7,872 of the individuals sentenced to death by its Military Field Courts between March 2011 and August 2023, including 114 children and 26 women. The report also reveals that at least 24,047 of the people arrested by regime forces and subsequently classified as forcibly disappeared, including 98 children and 39 women, have been referred to the Military Field Court in the same period, with their fate remaining unknown.

The 57-page report stresses that the Military Field Court is one of the worst exceptional criminal courts ever created in Syria’s history for two key reasons. First: its monstrous operations made it one of the main apparatuses founded by the Syrian regime to effectively streamline crimes of enforced disappearance and provide a chillingly efficient instrument to eliminate and crush dissent, terrorizing dissidents and civilian activists, including children and women, through the power of its sentences. Second: The sheer, harrowing number of the victims who have been lost to these courts, as confirmed by SNHR’s data. The report further notes that SNHR’s data indicates a strong correlation between enforced disappearances and trials at Military Field Courts, which strongly suggests that many of the 96,000-plus individuals classified as forcibly disappeared by the Syrian regime have been tried by Military Field Courts, given the systematic nature of enforced disappearances in regime detention centers, with these ‘disappearances’ being wholly non-random but resulting from deliberate and calculated decisions and directives issued by a highly sophisticated security, military, and judicial hierarchy which includes all the echelons and apparatuses of the regime’s power structure associated with detention centers, from the President of the Republic and the Vice-President on Security Matters, to the National Security Council, Ministry of Defense, the various security directorates, exceptional judicial institutions, the Command of the Military Police, the Command of the Military, the Ministry of the Interior and other regime agencies down through the chain of command. That is to say that the massive number of victims of enforced disappearance at the hands of the Syrian regime have been fed to the lethal machinery of this security, military, and judicial hierarchy, the most notable of which are the exceptional judicial institutions. Moreover, the Syrian regime has resorted to referring detainees and forcibly disappeared persons to the Military Field Court since March 2011, i.e., since the very early days of the popular uprising for democracy, long before the establishment of the Counterterrorism Court in July 2012. Needless to say, the Military Field Court has also continued to try detainees and forcibly disappeared persons in subsequent years. Additionally, analysis of the data shows a clear correlation between the number of victims forcibly disappeared at the hands of the Syrian regime and the victims referred to the Military Field Court. Meanwhile, there is a large disparity between the number of people who survived trial by the Military Field Court and those who survived trial by the Counterterrorism Court.

The report notes that, on September 3, 2023, the Syrian regime promulgated Legislative Decree No. 32 of 2023, which revoked Legislative Decree No. 109 of August 17, 1968, and its subsequent amendments, including the establishment of Military Field Courts. According to Legislative Decree 32/2023, all cases currently handled by Military Field Courts are henceforth to be referred to the military judiciary and to be processed in accordance with the Military Penal Code (Legislative Decree No. 61/1950 and its subsequent amendments). Nonetheless, SNHR believes that this dissolution was part of a range of policies and procedures adopted by the Syrian regime in its efforts to sweep the enforced disappearance issue under the rug, as this move came after the regime issued its ostensible amnesty decrees and registered forcibly disappeared persons as dead in the civil registry records, and may well presage other similar regime decisions in the future.

The report explains the history of the founding of Military Field Courts in Syria, their historical evolution, structure, jurisdiction, procedural laws, and legitimacy from constitutional and human rights standpoints, as well as how they serve as instruments fully controlled by the head of state and the Minister of Defense. The report also details how Military Field Courts fail to adhere to the most basic guarantees of a fair trial, such as the right to attorney, the right to a public trial, and the right to appeal, as well as revealing that their judges do not report to the judiciary with regard to various functions such as appointments, transfers, inspection and disciplinary matters. That is to say that the Military Field Court is, in reality, an instrument wielded by the head of the state, the Ministry of Defense, and the state security apparatus to perpetuate the regime’s tyrannical rule and crush anyone who dares to involve themselves in any dissident action. In light of the nature of the complexities of the Military Field Court in Syria and the Syrian regime’s enforced disappearance practices and the intersection between these, the report draws upon multiple analytical tools in analyzing the data in the hopes of arriving at accurate findings based on the contents of SNHR’s regularly updated database on detainees and forcibly disappeared persons which has been built up through daily monitoring and documentation since 2011. In addition, the findings of the report draw upon the tracking and monitoring of the court’s procedures and mechanisms. Having monitored those trials for approximately 12 years, SNHR can say with some confidence that we have managed to gain expert insight into the Military Field Court in terms of its legal, structural, and operational aspects, attaining an excellent understanding of its mechanisms and procedures despite the infamously shadowy and secretive nature of the Military Field Courts’ operations. SNHR has also been in contact with hundreds of families of detainees referred to these courts, as well as liaising with cooperative lawyers, and a number of former officers from the regime’s Military Police and various security agencies, who defected. SNHR has also spoken with many former and current detainees tried in the Military Field Court, whether they have been released or are still held in the central prisons across Syria. It should be noted that a total of 156 interviews were conducted by SNHR’s team for this report alone.

The report reveals that no fewer than 14,843 death sentences were handed down by Military Field Courts in Syria since March 2011 up until August 2023. Of those sentences, no fewer than 6,971 were subsequently reduced to timed/life imprisonment with hard labor, with most of the detainees receiving those reduced sentences still imprisoned. Meanwhile, at least 7,872 of the detainees sentenced to death by these courts have been executed, including 114 children, 26 women, and 2,021 military servicemen. None of these victims’ bodies were returned to their families following their execution, with the families also receiving no official notification of their loved ones’ deaths. It also must be emphasized that this figure is very much a minimum estimate of the actual number of executions carried out against detainees and forcibly disappeared persons in regime detention centers. Furthermore, the report documents that, as of August 2023, no fewer than 96,103 of the people arrested since March 2011, including 2,327 children and 5,739 women, are still forcibly disappeared in regime detention centers. Of these forcibly disappeared persons, the families of approximately 24,047, including 98 children and 39 women, learned through mediators or detention survivors that their loved ones had been referred to the Military Field Court, although the families have been unable to obtain any official information about their loved ones’ fate or even the most basic information about their status or whereabouts since their disappearance. It should be noted that this figure does not include detainees still facing trial by the Military Field Courts who are being held in central and civilian prisons scattered across Syria.

The report stresses that the mechanism of holding and referring detainees to Military Field Courts rests upon the resolutions adopted by the regime’s security agencies that have been accorded unbridled powers regarding the treatment of those detained in connection with the popular uprising that began in 2011. These powers included practices of torture, enforced disappearance, and bringing charges against detainees and forcibly disappeared persons based on information extracted under torture. It should also be noted that the Syrian regime has put in place various parameters and procedures to regulate these expansive powers, in order to maintain the organizational structure of its security apparatus, as opposed to having it operate in a disordered fashion. The report provides a summary of the most serious and notable crimes punishable by death, which are the ones potentially handled by the Military Field Court based on Article 47 of the Military Penal Code and the Syrian Penal Code. The report also stresses that SNHR has acquired many documents which show that Military Field Courts also handle case related to the Counterterrorism Law of 2012.

As the report notes, no fewer than 20 criminal acts are classified as being death penalty offences according to the Military Penal Code and the Syrian Penal Code which have been heavily used as grounds for bringing charges against detainees and forcibly disappeared persons. However, these 20 criminal acts were excluded by the amnesty decrees issued by the regime, except in the cases of a very limited number of detainees, and only in one or two amnesty decrees in the past 12 years. The report adds that, given the secretive nature of the regime’s operations, it was not possible to access any data clearly showing which crimes the defense minister refers to Military Field Courts. As such, the report believes there are other charges used besides those identified in this report.

The report also stresses that the monstrous character of the Military Field Courts is not limited to their sentences, but also applies to the conditions suffered by detainees referred to these courts in the course of their trials, as well as the mechanism through which victims are informed of their sentences. The report identifies at least 10 methods of intimidation and torture practiced by the Court during sessions against detainees, which exhibit a strategic and continuous manner.

The report outlines the most notable figures involved in ordering executions based on summary trials by the Syrian Regime’s Military Field Courts between March 2011 and August 2023, from the President of the Republic Bashar Assad and the officers who have held the position of minister of defense during that period, to officers who’ve held positions and served as functionaries in the Military Field Courts, the administration of the Military Police, and the Military Judiciary, as well as the management of the Sednaya Military Prison and others.

The report concludes by noting that the Syrian regime has clearly violated international customary law and Article 3 of the Geneva Convention by carrying out those trials in the context of an internal armed conflict, since these courts were not established in accordance with the law, nor are they even remotely independent, impartial, and fair in nature. The denial to any person of their right to a fair trial qualifies as a war crime according to the Rome Statute of the ICC. The report adds that the Syrian regime has disposed of many of the people who called for a political change through this court by imprisoning them for many years, sentencing them to death, and seizing their properties.

The report calls on the UN Security Council and the UN to find ways and mechanisms to implement Security Council resolutions 2041, 2042, 2139, and Paragraph 12 of resolution 2254 that concern detainees and forcibly disappeared persons in Syria, to work on putting an end to the crimes against humanity (torture and enforced disappearance) and the war crimes (execution) committed against the detainees in Syria, and to take urgent action under Chapter VII of the Charter of the United Nations.

The report also calls on the Syrian regime’s allies, most notably Russia, to apply pressure on the Syrian regime to repeal all laws that contravene international human rights law and are phrased in such a vague, broad way that they can be used in any number of ways against political opponents, and to end the support for a regime responsible for organizing these political trials that can be described as the most horrendous and horrific in modern history since supporting a regime that commits such acts is effectively being an accomplice to the crimes against humanity and war crimes that the Syrian regime is perpetrating against detainees and their properties The regime also makes a number of other recommendations.

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Press Release:

The Hague – The Syrian Network for Human Rights (SNHR) today released a report entitled, ‘Law No. 20 of 2022 Promulgated by the Syrian Regime Further Perpetuates the Oppression of Freedom of Opinion and Expression, and Has Been Used as Grounds for Dozens of Cases of Arbitrary Arrest and Torture’, in which the group noted that it has documented approximately 146 arbitrary arrests and one death due to torture in connection with Law No. 20 since the legislation was promulgated.

The 24-page report notes that the Syrian regime operates through only one branch of authority, namely the executive in the form of the regime’s security apparatus, which exercises power with no judicial or legislative checks, balances, or oversight since no genuine independent judicial or legislative authority can truthfully be said to exist. As such, the Syrian regime has enacted whatever laws the leader pleases, with one such article of legislation being Law No. 20 of 2022 that was passed on April 18, 2022.

Fadel Abdul Ghany, Executvie Director of SNHR, says:

“The Syrian regime has passed many laws that serve its mission of oppressing any movement, activism, or criticism against it. We have detailed this policy in our report on the laws employed to seize properties. We have noticed that Law No. 20 of 2022, which aims to further restrict freedom of opinion and expression, was issued in tandem with a rising wave of popular criticism against government institutions and popular discontent with the poor conditions or lack of provision of basic services such as water and electricity. We believe the main reason was the fact that some of this criticism was directed against Bashar Assad himself and was not limited to his puppet governments.”

The report stresses that Law No. 20 and 2022 have three crucial new characteristics that are not found in the preceding and now-repealed Legislative Decree 17/2012, which are: a much wider scope, new additions, and greater severity in the associated penalties. The report adds that the most crucial fact to know about this legislation is that it identifies and criminalizes some acts in a way that limits and restricts freedom of opinion and expression. It seems that these acts are identified in an especially broad, vague and non-specific way, with no precise criteria, definitions, or elements of a crime present in a material or moral sense. This applies to the texts of the Counter-Cybercrime Law, or the same acts when identified in the Syrian Penal Code (Law No, 148 of 1949) and its most recent amendments introduced in Law No. 15 of 2022. As such, these texts can be used as grounds to level charges against anyone detained by the police or security forces over their activities in cyberspace. The executive directives issued on May 10, 2022, by the Ministry of Communication and Technology in resolution no. 207 only affirm these conclusions.

As the report further reveals, the Counter-Cybercrime Law violates the right to access the internet and information. In doing so, it aims to restrict access to and block any and all websites accused of expressing views different to those of the Syrian regime’s or of publishing anti-regime discourse. The Syrian regime is actively seeking to enforce its control over what civilians can access and talk about. This is by no means a new policy; this new law only aims to update and legalize the existing policy in a more contemporary way that keeps pace with technological developments, and at the same time to punish and incriminate more civilians, while giving authorities more power to inspect and monitor people with no need for judicial permission, as part of an overarching regime policy that seeks to place more restrictions on information access and information transmission, and on taking part in any online discourse.

With over a year having now gone by since Law No. 20 of 2022 was passed, the report notes that Syrian regime forces have failed to follow the associated procedural rules, whether from the standpoint of the police forces charged with investigating cybercrimes, or that of jurisdiction and filing a public interest lawsuit. The report pinpoints three types of applied procedures adopted by the Syrian regime in relation to this law: First, The Criminal Security Directorate’s Counter-Cybercrime Division usually starts investigating potential cybercrimes after a personal complaint/request has been filed with the public prosecution service, which is the authority that refers cases to the Counter-Cybercrime division at the Criminal Security branch of each governorate. All of this so far is standard procedure commonly followed by the judiciary. However, the second procedure is more common – the Counter-Cybercrime Division investigates any act deemed to be of a criminal character as soon as it has come to the division’s attention. This process involves monitoring social media, websites, and any content published by posters, commentors, and followers in relation to the ‘crimes against the security of the state’ as specified in the Counter-Cybercrime Law or Articles 285, 286 or 287 of the General Penal Code. Thereafter, the purported offenders are detained, and judicial authorities are notified in order to obtain official permission to launch an investigation, after which the suspects are referred to the criminal or extraordinary courts depending on the nature of the alleged crime. The third and main procedures are carried out in regime security branches across Syrian governorates, especially the Political Security Intelligence and Military Security Intelligence Directorates, to which civilians, media workers, government employees, and well-known content creators on social media in regime-held areas are summoned for interrogation over their voicing criticism of living conditions there or of the performance of government institutions. In some cases, these summons target people who explicitly mention the presidency, the work of the security and military apparatuses, or the violations they are committing, and in other cases these individuals are summoned because of alleged contact with foreign media or human rights groups. Those summoned are subjected to torture and are often not referred to the judiciary. Instead, they are forcibly disappeared for months as the summoning security agency sees fit, although some are released after being threatened or forced to end their social media activities and ordered to never speak about public affairs again, whether positively or negatively. Those who are referred to the judiciary are usually referred to extraordinary courts such as the Counterterrorism Court and face multiple charges related to the Counter-Cybercrime Law, Counterterrorism Law, or the General Penal Code.

The report documents the arrest/detention of no fewer than 146 individuals, including 19 women, on the grounds of the Counter-Cybercrime Law, since the legislation was promulgated by the Syrian regime on May 18, 2022, up until August 18, 2023. Of these, the Syrian regime has released 59, and one died due to torture, while the remaining 86 are still under arrest/detention in regime detention centers. The report notes that 2023 saw the highest percentage of arrests in connection with the Counter-Cybercrime Law documented to date, which suggests that Syrian regime forces have been hunting down civilians on a wider scale since the law went into effect. Moreover, most of the civilians arrested on the grounds of the Counter-Cybercrime Law were lawyers, engineers, and university students, followed by state employees, media workers, and content creators on social media. This confirms that the Counter-Cybercrime Law was established by the Syrian regime to target all groups of people, especially those with no influence, such as ordinary civilians.

The report concludes that Law No. 20 of 2022 violates many peremptory norms and justifies the silencing of freedom of opinion and expression, and the dozens of cases of arbitrary arrest and torture at the hands of the Syrian regime. As a law that violates human rights, Law No. of 2022 is wholly illegitimate. Furthermore, Law No. 20 of 2022 is another opportunity for the regime’s security apparatus to extort and gain more money at the expense of citizens. This is achieved through submitting malicious security reports, the aim of which is to intimidate and hunt down citizens, and which also gives government officials a pretext to hunt down and prosecute anyone who voices criticism or expresses their opinion and indicates discontent with the policies pursued by the state institutions, describing such criticism as defamation, contempt, slander, etc…

The report calls on the UN Security Council and the UN to find ways and mechanisms to implement Security Council resolutions 2041, 2042 and 2139, and paragraph 12 of resolution 2254 on detainees and forcibly disappeared persons in Syria, and to act under Chapter VII of the Charter of the United Nations to protect detainees from death in detention centers. Additionally, the report calls on the Independent International Commission of Inquiry on the Syrian Arab Republic (COI) to shed light on the unlawfulness of Law No. 20 of 2022, and document the cases of arbitrary arrest and torture, and the silencing of freedom of opinion and expression rationalized by using this law.

Finally, the report calls on the Syrian regime and its allies to abolish all extraordinary courts and all rulings and sentences issued by those courts, abolish Legislative Decree No. 55 of 2022 which authorizes security agencies to arrest and interrogate citizens for over two months, and abolish the Counterterrorism Law (Law No. 19 of 2012), in addition to making other recommendations.

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Press release: (Download the full report below)

The Hague – The Syrian Network for Human Rights (SNHR) revealed in a report released today entitled, ‘The Laws Introduced by the Syrian Regime to Control Real Estate Ownership and Lands Before and Since the Beginning of the Popular Uprising in March 2011’ that the laws in question principally target three groups: 12 million forcibly displaced persons, 115,000 forcibly displaced persons, and half a million victims who have yet to be registered as dead in the civil registry.

The laws through which the Syrian regime seized real estate properties and lands in Syria

The 61-page report provides details on the laws employed by the Syrian regime to control real estate ownership and territory in Syria before and since the start of the popular uprising in March 2011. As the report notes, the Syrian regime took full advantage of its absolute control over the legislative and judicial branches of government. Through the People’s Assembly of Syria, for instance, the regime has been able to pass whatever laws it needs, not to mention imposing control over the constitutional court. Moreover, the head of the Syrian regime has the power to issue any decree he pleases without having to go through the aforementioned People’s Assembly. The report stresses that, while many nominally legitimate ‘decrees and laws’ were introduced prior to the start of the popular uprising in March 2011, those which have the most serious and dangerous effect on the Syrian people’s ownership of real estate were all introduced since the uprising began. The report adds that, while the laws passed by the regime can theoretically affect every single Syrian citizen, these laws in particular were directly and principally aimed at three main groups, namely: first, the forcibly displaced (both internally displaced persons (IDPs) and refugees), estimated today at 12.3 million Syrian citizens according to the UN Office of the High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR); second: the forcibly disappeared, estimated to number at least 112,000 Syrian citizens according to SNHR’s database. It is important to note that the Syrian regime is directly responsible for the disappearance of over 85 percent of this total at least; and third: victims (civilians and fighters alike), who are estimated today to number at least half a million Syrians, the overwhelming majority of whom have not been recorded as dead in the civil registry. Needless to say, the overwhelming majority of the victims were dissidents opposed to the Syrian regime’s autocratic rule, and were killed by the regime which has been continuously committing violation since March 2011. It is clear, therefore, that these laws pose a direct threat to at least half of the Syrian population.

The report, which consists of six chapters, begins by explaining basic concepts about real estate ownership generally and real estate ownership in Syria particularly, touching upon how real estate ownership is documented and protected in the country. Next, the report presents a critical reading of the relevant laws and regulations promulgated by the Syrian regime before March 2011. The third chapter shifts to the laws on real estate development introduced since March 2011 and their implications for real estate ownership in Syria, also touching on the laws related to real estate transactions and the real estate registry. The fifth chapter tackles laws which have indirect implications for housing, land, and property (HLP) rights in Syria since the start of the popular uprising in March 2011. Finally, the sixth chapter analyzes the instruments used by the Syrian regime to control territory and real estate properties.

Introducing or amending real estate laws is an ongoing attempt to perpetuate a chaotic real estate reality in Syria

The report notes that ever since the days of Hafez Assad’s rule, the Syrian regime has attempted to enforce its own reality upon the Syrian people at every stage through continuously devising new real estate development laws and amending existing ones. In this, the Syrian regime constantly made sure to preserve the chaotic situation of real estate ownership in the country, always looking for more loopholes which the regime and its elite could exploit to seize control of public and private properties alike. This is why the Syrian regime has, since long before the start of the popular uprising in March 2011, passed various different laws ostensibly intended to regulate the field of real estate and property ownership but in reality created to take over ownership of real estate properties across Syria. In this context, the report touches upon the legal foundation created by the Syrian regime before March 2011 and how this was employed by the regime to take over whatever properties or territory it wished to, with the report outlining the most notable laws related to property ownership and real estate-related issues.

Most notable real estate laws promulgated by the Syrian regime after March 2011

As the report further reveals, the Syrian regime has taken advantage of the consequences of the popular uprising, which eventually devolved into an internal armed conflict that displaced millions of Syrians due to the violations committed first and foremost by the Syrian regime itself, and secondly by the other parties to the conflict, to exploit the situation in its own favor in regard to the real estate ownership issue. To that end, the regime used the reality and aftermath of the armed conflict to attain as many long-term gains as possible, which explains the regime’s passing a slew of new real estate ownership laws. In this context, the report outlines the most notable real estate development laws passed by the Syrian regime since 2011 and the purpose of each of these. The report notes, for instance, that the ‘Law on Real Estate Development and Investment’ promulgated in 2008 and the subsequent related legal texts: Law No. 25 of 2011, the ‘Law on Planning’ (Law No. 23 of 2015), and Law No. 10 of 2018, all formulate an integrated framework that creates a favorable legal environment for the regime and its allies, as they continue to seize the properties of their opponents. In fact, the report stresses, the issuing of many real estate laws was closely connected to the developments in the armed conflict on the ground in Syria, wherein the Syrian regime would regularly issue legislative decrees related to real estate regulation after taking control of a certain area for the purpose of seizing the vacant properties in that area to the benefit of its allies and supporters.

The report tracks the steps taken by the Syrian regime to take over real estate properties through the legislative decrees it’s issued, whether these are related to the structure of real estate registries or to real estate transactions as a whole. To this end, the report outlines the most notable related decrees and laws introduced during this period, noting that through building this cod-legal arsenal, the Syrian regime seeks to deny the fundamental rights that returnees, both IDPs and refugees alike, may demand at a certain point in time. Through these actions, the regime is creating a new reality in which most areas are under its direct authority through administrative units, and indirectly through real estate developers who win patronage through their blind, unquestioning loyalty to the regime.

Furthermore, the report notes that many laws promulgated by the Syrian regime since March 2011 have had major implications for the real estate sphere in Syria. In this, the regime has indirectly linked real estate records and documents with those laws in order to deter any political dissident from attempting to seek their HLP rights afforded by the constitution for fear of risking arrest in light of these laws, which the report outlines.

The Syrian regime used multiple instruments besides the laws and legislations promulgated in order to take control of lands and real estate properties

As the report reveals, the Syrian regime has used several instruments, aside from the laws and legislative articles it passed, in order to take over lands and real estate properties. Some of the most notable instruments are based on taking advantage of the widespread destruction. To that end, the report notes, it was discovered in dozens of areas attacked by the Syrian regime that the destruction inflicted was not incidental but was a goal in and of itself, to drive people out of those areas and inflict as much destruction as possible so as to enable the regime to easily pillage and loot the destroyed areas and steal the properties of the displaced residents, relying on the laws it had passed to confer a spurious legitimacy on these activities. The report also touches upon the impact of the incomplete civilian documents on the real estate ownership issue, noting that the Syrian regime has denied hundreds of thousands of dissidents their most basic rights afforded by domestic and international laws, including acquiring identification documents. One demonstration of this criminality is the regime’s demand that individuals who have been internally displaced or sought refuge abroad, who justifiably fear that they may be arrested and tortured if they return to their home country, should be physically present before being able to claim ownership. This effectively creates two major problems: firstly, denying the fundamental rights of a whole generation of dissidents displaced, killed, or forcibly disappeared by the regime, and secondly denying the rights of a second generation born during the period of the armed conflict in areas under the control of the opposition, with the overwhelming majority of these children’s births not registered, depriving them of official identification documents.

Kurds denied a Syrian citizenship is one of the instruments used by the Syrian regime to establish control over lands and real estate properties

Another instrument used by the regime to justify seizure of lands and other properties, according to the report, is the regime’s denial of Syrian citizenship and nationality to Syria’s Kurdish population, which directly affects their right to real estate ownership. The report also sheds light on the regime’s cynical exploitation of the particular difficulties faced by Syrian women. Lastly, the report touches upon the manufactured security clearance issue that the Syrian regime’s government introduced through a circular issued in 2015, which states that all real estate transactions require that those involved receive clearance from regime security authorities beforehand. Effectively, the report stresses, the regime used this security clearance requirement as a weapon of warfare against political dissidents.

All the laws and legislations promogulated by the Syrian regime since March 2011 serve one goal, that is to take advantage of the climate of an internal armed conflict to accelerate the process of seizing the properties of Syrian dissidents

The report concludes that the Syrian regime’s hegemony over the legislative process through controlling the three branches of power (legislative, judicial, and executive) has created a reality in which the laws issued in relation to real estate properties, both before and since March 2011, have been created simply and completely to serve the regime’s vision and enable it to take over Syrian citizens’ real estate properties, particularly those of the three aforementioned groups, i.e. forcibly displaced persons, forcibly disappeared persons, and the families of those victims whose deaths have not been registered in the civil registry.

The report adds that most of the laws and legislative articles promulgated by the Syrian regime since March 2011 all originated from the same malign motivation, namely of taking advantage of the chaos caused by the internal armed conflict to accelerate the process of seizing and stealing the properties of Syrian dissidents, especially those from the three groups identified above. Moreover, not only did the regime construct a legal arsenal to justify the theft of dissidents’ properties, but it also took advantage through the creation of indirectly related legislation such as the ‘Counterterrorism Law’, in order to prevent dissidents and the three aforementioned groups from exercising their rights over their properties in Syria, through the creation of an endless bureaucratic maze that effectively renders exercising those rights impossible.

The report also concludes that most of the real estate laws regarding property ownership are interconnected and deliberately vague and confused due to the duality found in them, the conflicting authorities involved in administering them, and the lack of any clear hierarchy of authority among the executive apparatuses responsible for implementing said laws, which include: the Ministry of Housing, the Ministry of Local Administration and its affiliated municipal and governorate councils, the Real Estate Administration, the Ministry of Defense, and the committees formed in accordance with the various real estate laws. The report adds that most of the laws passed by the regime on real estate regulation and redevelopment areas, especially Law No. 66 of 2012 and Law No. 10 of 2018, were passed for one purpose only, namely to accelerate the process of the transfer of real estate ownership from dissidents to pro-regime entities, which of course ensures the latter’s economic and political interests in the current situation.

The report stresses that in order to ensure its future control over the properties and land belonging to members of the three aforementioned groups, the regime has placed many administrative obstacles in the way of the representatives and relatives of those three groups, including unnecessarily complicating the administrative procedures, such as acquiring death certificates for the dead and making it impossible for family members to prove the legal status of those who have been killed, who are not registered in the civil registry, in addition to introducing security clearance requirements for the refugees and IDPs.

Furthermore, the report concludes that most of the real estate laws adopted by the Styrian regime violate many fundamental human rights, through confiscating properties, raising taxes and fees, and requiring security clearance for many real estate transactions.

The report calls on the international community and the UN to condemn the Syrian regime’s hegemony over the three branches of government, to expose its practices in passing laws which are simply quasi-legal tools used to pillage the properties of IDPs, refugees, forcibly disappeared persons, and unregistered victims. The report also calls on the international community and the UN to coordinate with human rights group to support the process of documenting the legislations and laws promulgated by the Syrian regime and expose the extent to which these blatantly violate international human rights laws, as well as to condemn these unjust laws’ terrible consequences. The report stresses that it is impossible to address the roots of the real estate issue in Syria so long as the Syrian regime remains in power since it is the main reason behind those complications. Indeed, a political transition will be the first step towards resolving the real estate issue in Syria.

Additionally, the report calls on the donor states, investors, and humanitarian agencies operating in Syria to cease their direction of funds to the Syrian regime through reconstruction programs, and to introduce new mechanisms, so as to avoid those funds potentially being misused to violate HLP rights of residents or the displaced, or so that these funds do not go to bodies that violate human rights and international humanitarian law.

The report also makes a number of other recommendations.

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Press release: (Download the full report below)

The Hague – The Syrian Network for Human Rights today released a report entitled, ‘The Syrian Regime Has Bombed the Areas Affected by the February 6 Earthquake 132 Times, including 29 Attacks that Targeted Areas Far from the Dividing Lines’, in which it noted that five civilians were killed, 42 others injured, and seven vital facilities damaged in attacks launched by the Syrian regime in the aftermath of the earthquake.

The 8-page report notes that northwestern Syria was one of the regions worst affected by the earthquake on February 6, 2023. This region houses the overwhelming majority of internally displaced persons (IDPs) in Syria, estimated at 3.2 million in total, 75 percent of them women and children, who fled there from across Syria, in the hopes of escaping the brutal onslaught by the Syrian regime and its allies, Iran and Russia. It is estimated that the proportion of IDPs who have returned to their original areas to date amounts to less than two percent of the total, even though some of these IDPs live only a few kilometers from their homes, all due to their fear of further violations by the Syrian regime. In fact, this has been the longest internal displacement in modern history, worsened by the violations against IDPs in areas where they sought shelter, and by the declining levels of international support. The report adds that SNHR has documented hundreds of deliberate attacks against civilians and vital infrastructure in the areas to which the IDPs fled seeking safety. Furthermore, the Syrian regime deliberately severed IDPs’ access to all basic services, including water and electricity, even while insisting that the same regime should be the sole recipient and distributor of all UN humanitarian assistance due to its control of the Syrian state, despite its shameful history of murderous violence and its deliberate obstruction of the delivery of aid supplied, as well as its blatant theft of the overwhelming majority of this aid. All of the aforementioned factors, the report stresses, have only led to an increase in the death toll caused by the February 6 earthquake in northwestern Syria, with the final figure for the total number of deaths caused directly as a result of the catastrophic natural disaster in the region of northwestern Syria rising to 4,191 Syrians.
The report adds that the earthquake also resulted in the further displacement of 160,000 Syrians, most of whom had already been displaced on at least one occasion previously and who were already grappling with horrendous living conditions. The multilayered suffering and trauma of Syrians in northwest Syria has been further intensified by the aftershocks still taking place as of this writing. Roughly 80 percent of residents in the region have had to leave their homes and spend nights in the open air in freezing conditions, for fear of further destruction to buildings from any potential aftershocks, which protracted their suffering amid already dire living conditions and psychological trauma.
Moreover, the report notes that ground-based attacks by Syrian regime forces and their allies against the region of northwestern Syria continued throughout the nine weeks following the earthquake, February 6 until April 10, 2023, with some of these carried out against camps housing earthquake victims who were displaced once again as a result. The report documents no fewer than 132 ground-based attacks by Syrian regime forces in this period, including 29 attacks targeting areas far from the dividing lines. The attacks resulted in the deaths of five civilians, including one child, and injured 42 others, in addition to seven attacks on vital civilian facilities, including one school, one medical dispensary, one mosque, and two popular markets, with the report providing details of the most notable attacks.
The report concludes that the Syrian regime has unequivocally violated Security Council resolutions 2139 and 2254, which call for ending indiscriminate attacks, as well as violating the rules of international humanitarian law on the distinction between civilians and combatants. Furthermore, the report adds, the regime has demonstrated an unfathomable and unparalleled level of inhumanity by bombing areas already devastated by the earthquake, even while the entire world, both governments and states, showed sympathy for the victims.
The report calls on the Security Council to refer the situation in Syria to the International Criminal Court (ICC), adding that all those involved must be held accountable, and that the use of veto powers should be blocked in cases of crimes against humanity and war crimes. The report also calls for Imposing UN military and economic sanctions on the Syrian regime, especially on the heads of the regime who are involved in crimes against humanity and war crimes.
Additionally, the report calls on the UN and donor states to establish an international support platform to effectively and professionally coordinate humanitarian assistance in northwestern Syria. Such a body would act as an alternative option in addition to the UN, instead of relying fully and solely on the UN, with this reliance proven to be a failure in light of Russia’s extortion of the UN over the past 12 years.

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