Press release: (Download the full statement below)

The Hague – The Syrian Network for Human Rights (SNHR) today released a statement to mark the International Day of Innocent Children Victims of Aggression, which is observed annually on June 4. In the statement, SNHR noted that it has documented the killing of 30,228 children in Syria since March 2011, including 199 children who died due to torture, while 5,263 children are still under arbitrary arrest and/or forcibly disappeared.

The statement stresses that the Syrian regime has perpetrated the worst forms of aggression against children in Syria as part of the armed conflict, despite having ratified the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child (UNCRC). While the other parties to the conflict have also been responsible for such acts of aggression against children, the statement notes, the Syrian regime bears by far the greatest responsibility in terms of the number and comprehensiveness of these crimes which are perpetrated in a manner that exhibits a clear pattern and demonstrates the deliberate and systematic character of the regime’s violations of children’s rights, amounting to crimes against humanity.

As the statement reveals, children have been subjected to almost every atrocity perpetrated against the Syrian people. The terrible effects this had on children have been consistently compounded by the massive scale of the aggression directed against children for over 13 years to date. To make sense of this, this statement provides an update of the toll of most notable serious violations perpetrated against children in Syria between March 2011 and June 2024. The statement notes that 30,228 children have been documented as being killed at the hands of the parties to the conflict and controlling forces in Syria since March 2011. Of these, 23,045 children, divided between 12,976 males and 10,078 females, were killed by Syrian regime forces; while 2,055 children, divided between 1,429 males and 626 females, were killed by Russian forces. Additionally, 959 children, divided between 565 males and 394 females, were killed at the hands of ISIS; while Hay’at Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) has killed 76 children divided between 69 males and seven females. As for the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), the group has killed 269 children to date, divided between 165 males and 104 females; while all armed opposition factions are responsible for the deaths of 1,009 children, divided between 571 males and 438 females. Meanwhile, the US-led International Coalition forces killed 926 children, divided between 623 males and 303 females. Lastly, a total of 1,889 children, divided between 1,308 males and 581 females, were killed by other parties.

In regard to arbitrary arrest/detention and enforced disappearance, the statement notes that at least 5,263 children arrested by the parties to the conflict and controlling forces since March 2011 are still under arrest and/or forcibly disappeared, with the majority of these – 3,698 children – detained by Syrian regime forces. The remaining children arrested/forcibly disappeared are distributed by the arresting party as follows: 319 children by ISIS, 47 by HTS, 834 by the SDF, and 365 by all armed opposition factions.

The statement also stresses that at least 199 children died due to torture at the hands of the parties to the conflict and controlling forces in Syria since March 2011. The Syrian regime is responsible for the deaths of 190 of these children due to torture, while ISIS was responsible for the death of one child due to torture. Additionally, the SDF was responsible for three children’s deaths due to torture, the HTS was responsible for two, all armed opposition factions were responsible for one, and lastly other parties were responsible for the deaths of two children due to torture.

The statement adds that children in Syria have also been subjected to other types of violations. For one, violations by the Syrian regime have led to the widespread displacement of millions of Syrians. Today, northwestern Syria houses the largest number of internally displaced people (IDPs) living in camps, with children accounting for 46 percent or nearly half of the entire population of IDPs. Moreover, children live in extremely dangerous, life-threatening environments, with these dangers caused, for one instance, by the fact that the parties to the conflict have planted hundreds of thousands of anti-personnel landmines (APLs) in Syria, including cluster munitions remnants. These APLs are densely scattered over large swathes of land in multiple areas of many Syrian governorates, posing an ongoing, lethal threat to the lives of civilians, including children, that will last for years to come; these munitions’ bright primary colors attract the attention and curiosity of younger children who are unaware of their lethal nature, and thus face the greatest danger from them.

The statement calls on the international community and the UN Security Council to take every possible legal, political, and financial measure against the Syrian regime and its allies, as well as all other perpetrators of violations in the Syrian conflict, to compel them to respect child rights. It must be reiterated that Syria is the world’s worst country in terms of many types of violations against children, and therefore the situation in Syria requires more humanitarian assistance compared to other states and regions, especially considering that those violations are ongoing to this day.

Press release: (Download the full report below)

The Hague – The Syrian Network for Human Rights (SNHR) today released its 12^th annual report on violations against children in Syria, marking World Children’s Day. In the report, the group reveals that no fewer than 30,127 children have been killed in Syria since March 2011, including 198 who died due to torture, while 5,229 children are still detained and/or forcibly disappeared.

The 68-page report notes that Syria ratified the Convention on the Rights of the Child (UNCRC) in 1993, as well as ratifying its two optional protocols. However, while it’s true that all parties to the conflict in Syria have been guilty of violating children’s rights to some degree, the Syrian regime bears by far the greatest responsibility in terms of the number of crimes perpetrated, in a manner which exhibits a clear pattern and demonstrates a deliberate and systematic aspect in the regime’s violations of children’s rights. In this context, the report stresses that the Committee on the Rights of the Child bears legal and moral responsibility for monitoring the state of rights of the child in Syria, and for putting an end to the violations being committed by the Syrian regime.

Fadel Abdul Ghany, SNHR Executive Director says:

“Having worked on compiling SNHR’s database for the past 13 years, it has become clear to us that the Syrian regime’s violations against children are, in large part, deliberate and calculated. They aim to inflict as much pain as possible on the families, neighborhoods, and areas that opposed the Assads’ rule and called for long overdue political change. Not only has the regime bombed and arrested men and women, but it also targeted the dearest things to their hearts, namely their children, in order to subjugate and terrorize them, and to send a threatening message to the other neighborhoods and areas of the dreadful cost of joining the calls for political change, which explains the regime’s repeated bombardment of schools and kindergartens.”

The report sheds light on the catastrophic state of affairs for children in Syria. To this end, the report provides a summary of the most notable violations committed by the various parties to the conflict and controlling forces in Syria between March 2011 and November 20, 2023, with particular focus on the violations taking place between November 20, 2022, and November 20, 2023, as documented on SNHR’s database. The report contains 10 first-hand accounts, all of which have been collected directly from eyewitnesses, rather than from any second-hand sources, in addition to drawing upon monitoring and authentication of incidents and on news items, data collected, and the analysis of footage available on open sources such as the internet.

The report also alludes to SNHR’s close collaboration with the UNICEF’s Monitoring and Reporting on Grave Violations (MRM). As the report further reveals, whenever the opportunity presents itself to do so, SNHR nominates a girl or a boy from an area of Syria for the annual International Children’s Peace Prize in acknowledgment of their exceptional efforts in supporting their peers and highlighting their suffering resulting from the violations they’ve experienced due to the armed conflict in the country.

The report focuses particularly on the gross human rights violations committed against children. Those seven primary violations are: Extrajudicial killing; unlawful detention, arbitrary arrest, abduction, and enforced disappearance; torture; sexual violence; child recruitment; attacks on vital facilities, such as schools, and medical facilities, such as hospitals, and the blockage or denial of humanitarian assistance. Moreover, the report categorizes violations against children according to gender (male/female), by the parties to the conflict committing the violation, or by the year in which the violations took place, in addition to providing an analysis based on each category. The report also compares the differences between the overall toll of violations taking place since March 2011 up until November 2023, and between March 2011 and November 2022, since the release of our last report on violations against children, focusing on whether the rate of violations has increased, decreased, or remained at the same level in every chart.

The report documents the killing of 30,127 children at the hands of the parties to the conflict and the controlling forces in Syria since March 2011; 23,022 of these child victims were killed at the hands of Syrian regime forces, while 2,049 were killed by Russian forces. In addition, a total of 958 children were killed by ISIS, and 74 were killed by Hay’at Tahrir al-Sham (HTS). Furthermore, the report adds, Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) was responsible for the killing of 260 children, while all armed opposition factions/Syrian National Army (SNA) killed 1,009 children. Lastly, 926 children were killed in attacks by international coalition forces, while 1,829 children were killed by other parties. Analysis of those figures shows that the Syrian regime has been responsible for 77% of all extrajudicial killings of children. As the report notes, 2013 saw the highest documented death toll among children, followed by 2012, then 2014, and then 2016.

With regard to arrest/detention, enforced disappearance, and torture, the report notes that no fewer than 5,229 children are still detained and/or forcibly disappeared by the parties to the conflict and the controlling forces, divided as follows: 3,696 children are still detained and/or forcibly disappeared by Syrian regime forces, 47 by HTS, 803 by SDF, and 364 by all armed opposition factions (SNA). The report adds that 319 of the children who are still forcibly disappeared were arrested by ISIS before the group became defunct for the most part in Syria. The report further notes that 2014 was the worst to date in terms of the number of arrests/detentions and enforced disappearances involving children, with 71 percent of all arrests in that year made by Syrian regime forces.

The report notes that the Syrian regime has referred children to exceptional courts such as the Military Field Court and the Counterterrorism Court without assigning a special juvenile judge, as required, except in a handful of cases. Many of these children received exceptionally harsh sentences, including both long prison sentences and even death sentences. The report adds that many cases were recorded where children were arrested before they were even 10 years old and were not released until they were adults. Many children also told us they were taken to trial sessions in handcuffs and wearing ragged clothing that didn’t hide the signs of torture and malnutrition. They were also left alone with no family or a family member. The judges trying their cases did not listen to their statements or take their age into consideration. This is despite the fact that the juvenile judiciary is, under Syrian law, the sole apparatus authorized to try juvenile offenders in terms of its individual, quantitive and spatial jurisdiction. The juvenile judiciary is an independent apparatus, with no other court qualified to try juvenile offenders even in the case of an exceptional court with a special mandate established by a special law.

As the report further reveals, children are usually subjected to torture from the very first moment of their arrests. Torture may or may not lead to the death of the detained children. In this context, the report records that 198 children have died due to torture in Syria since March 2011, including 190 children who died in regime detention centers, while two died in HTS detention centers, one at the hands of ISIS, two at the hands of SDF, and one at the hands of the armed opposition/SNA. Lastly, two children have died due to torture at the hands of other parties.

Additionally, the report documents that no fewer than 1,681 of the schools and kindergartens in Syria have been targeted by attacks carried out by the various parties to the conflict and controlling forces in Syria since March 2011 up until November 2023. The report also documents no fewer than 889 attacks on medical facilities.

The report stresses that remnants of the weapons used by the Syrian regime and its allies in widespread and indiscriminate attacks against areas that broke free of its control continue to pose a serious threat to the safety and lives of civilians, especially children. At the top of this list are cluster munitions which have an indiscriminate nature. As the report further reveals, no fewer than 889 children have died in the explosions of hundreds of anti-personnel landmines across Syria,

The report also records that no fewer than 24 of the children forcibly disappeared in regime detention centers have been registered as dead in the civil registry between 2018 and November 20, 2023. The cause of death has not been revealed in any of these cases, while the victims’ bodies have not been returned to the families, and their deaths were not publicly registered at the time they took place.

Furthermore, the report records no fewer than 1,493 cases of child recruitment by Syrian regime forces, divided between 1,167 male children and 326 female children. Of these children, 67 died in battle, while 109 have been released, with 1,317 others still actively serving, divided between 1,083 boys and 234 females. These 1,493 cases include all the cases documented in the previous years in which children (i.e. juveniles aged under 18) have been recruited. Given the high number of children recruited and the low number of children discharged, the number of children who are militarily active has not changed greatly during this period. The report further notes that Syrian regime forces, through their affiliated local and foreign militias, are responsible for approximately 65 percent of all child recruitment cases, followed by the SDF, with children making up a significant proportion of their forces.

The report further reveals that Syrian regime forces have routinely used sexual violence against children, which has been manifested in various forms, highlighting the long-term physical and psychological effects of such traumatic abuse on child victims. In the period covered, the report notes, SNHR documented no fewer than 539 incidents of sexual violence against children.

The report adds that use of cluster munitions by Russian forces has killed 67 children since the launch of Russia’s military intervention in Syria on September 30, 2015. Furthermore, Russian attacks have damaged no fewer than 221 schools and 209 medical facilities in the same period.

The report also provides details of the violations against children by HTS. In addition to killing and imprisoning children, HTS has established dozens of training centers for children who are enrolled simultaneously in religious and military training courses to mold their beliefs and values and indoctrinate them into taking up arms and joining the group’s ranks. In fact, HTS uses many of the methods previously employed by ISIS in relation to recruiting and indoctrinating children at an early age to ensure their enduring loyalty. Meanwhile, the report documents three attacks on schools and two on medical facilities by the HTS as of November 20, 2023.

In relation to the SDF and child recruitment, the report notes that the SDF have recruited children in a widespread manner. This is despite the fact that the Kurdish Self-Administration signed a joint action plan with the UN in to put an end to child recruitment, and release children who have already been recruited. Additionally, the People’s Protection Units (YPG) and Women’s Protection Units signed a deed of commitment with the Geneva Call organization in June 2014 banning the use of children in wars. Despite these actions, however, the group’s recruitment of children has not stopped. Relatedly, the report documented that no fewer than 296 children are still actively serving with the SDF, whose personnel have been responsible for killing of 260 children since the group’s initial emergence. The group is also responsible for attacks on fewer than 37 schools and 12 medical facilities as of November 20, 2023.

The report also summarizes the most notable violations committed by all armed opposition factions/SNA. In addition to killing and imprisoning children, armed opposition factions have recruited children, taking advantage of their poor living conditions to induce them to enlist. According to the report, 12 children have been killed in action with armed opposition factions, while no fewer than 37 schools and 15 medical facilities have been attacked by all armed opposition factions/SNA as of November 20, 2023.

The report further stresses the ramifications of the gross violations against children in relation to their economic, social, and cultural rights, focusing specifically on education, child labor, children’s involvement in the drug trade, and children’s poor living conditions in camps. In this context, the report notes that children under the age of 18 are routinely and widely used in the drug trade, especially in relation to Captagon, which has spread throughout Syria, particularly in regime-held areas. The Syrian regime maintains a monopoly over Captagon production, trafficking and export networks.

The report stresses that despite the abundance of international instruments establishing and protecting children’s rights at all times, violations against children in Syria have not stopped for 12 years. All parties to the conflict have failed to respect those rules. The Syrian regime has not been deterred by those conventions, despite having ratified the Convention on the Rights of the Child, from committing violations against children, some of which qualify as crimes against humanity through the acts of extrajudicial killing, enforced disappearance, torture, while others qualify as war crimes through the acts of forced conscription Furthermore, many of the violations committed by the other parties to the conflict against children could amount to war crimes if they were committed in the context of the conflict, and also as widespread violations of international human rights law if they were committed against children affiliated with those forces.

The report calls on the international community to ensure the protection of and aid for forcibly displaced children, both IDPs and refugees, especially girls and ensure their needs are met, particularly as regards protection.

The report stresses that all possible legal, political, and financial measures must be taken against the Syrian regime and its allies, as well as against other perpetrators of violations in the Syrian conflict, in order to put pressure on them to compel them to respect children’s rights. It also stresses the need for states to meet their financial pledges, to help the countries neighboring Syria and to provide every possible bit of support to improve the level of education and healthcare in those countries that are housing the largest proportion of child refugees. The report also calls for devising mechanisms to stop the bombing of schools and kindergartens, to protect those facilities, and to work on creating a safe educational environment.

The report additionally calls for coordinating humanitarian relief operations by focusing on the worst affected areas, and underlines the need to avoid falling prey to the pressure and exploitation by the Syrian regime that attempts to solicit aid in its own favor, as well as to secure the necessary resources to rehabilitate children, while placing special emphasis on the special needs of girls who have been directly affected by violations, as well as making a number of other recommendations.

Download the full report

The UN Secretary-General recently submitted his annual report on ‘Children and Armed Conflict’ for the year 2022. The report sheds light on the prevalent trends in relation to the impact of armed conflicts on children. To that end, it summarizes the violations committed against children by parties to conflicts in various states, including Syria, in 2022, whether by government forces, pro-government groups, or anti-government groups. The report also assigns culpability for these violations, which include child recruitment and use of children, killing and maiming, rape and other forms of sexual violence, attacks on schools and hospitals, and child abductions.

The UN Secretary-General’s annual report on children and armed conflict uses SNHR as a primary source for its data on violations against children in Syria, thanks to SNHR’s cooperation and partnership in the Monitoring and Reporting Mechanism (MRM) at the United Nations International Children’s Emergency Fund (UNICEF).

On Syria, the report says that in 2022, “the United Nations verified 2,438 grave violations against 2,407 children […] that had occurred in previous years”, with these violations including killing and maiming, recruitment, detention and abduction, sexual violence, attacks on schools and hospitals, using schools and hospitals for military purposes, and denial of humanitarian access. Given these numbers, Syria ranks fourth in terms of violations against children during this period, only being surpassed by the Congo, Israel and the State of Palestine, and Somalia, and second in terms of the number of children affected by those violations. The report also notes that monitoring of these violations has generally faced many obstacles due to restrictions limiting access.

Download the full statement

Press Release:

The Hague: The Syrian Network for Human Rights today released a statement entitled, ‘On the International Day of Innocent Children Victims of Aggression: 30,034 Children Have Been Documented as Killed in Syria Since March 2011, Including 198 Who Died Due to Torture’, emphasizing that any restoration of relations with the Syrian regime only protracts the conflict without providing a political solution, leading to more child victims facing more aggression.
The statement stresses that even though Syria ratified the Convention on the Rights of the Child in 1993, the Syrian regime has committed the most atrocious forms of aggression against children in Syria in the context of the internal armed conflict. To that end, the statement notes that while all other parties to the conflict are responsible for forms of aggression against children, the Syrian regime has surpassed all other parties to the conflict by far, both in terms of the quantity of crimes committed by the regime and in terms of their systematic and habitual character, which has risen to a level at which the regime’s atrocities amount to crimes against humanity.
As the statement further notes, almost every violation directed against the Syrian people involves children, as SNHR has exhaustively documented. Violations against children have grown exponentially over the course of the past 12 years. In this context, the statement provides an update of the toll of most notable serious violations against children in Syria between March 2011 and June 2023. The statement notes that 30,004 children were killed at the hands of the parties to the conflict and controlling forces in Syria since March 2011. Of these, 22,982 children, divided between 12,924 males and 10,058 females, were killed by the Syrian regime, while 2,048 children, divided between 1,423 males and 623 females, were killed by Russian forces. Additionally, 958 children, divided between 564 males and 394 females, were killed at the hands of ISIS, while Hay’at Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) has killed 74 children divided between 68 males and six females. As for the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), the group has killed 253 children to date, divided between 151 males and 102 females, while all armed opposition factions are responsible for the deaths of 1,007 children, divided between 569 males and 438 females. Meanwhile, international coalition forces killed 926 children, divided between 623 males and 303 females. Lastly, a total of 1,786 children, divided between 1,221 males and 565 females, were killed by other parties.
In regard to arbitrary arrest/detention and enforced disappearance, the statement says that a total of 5,024 children arrested by the parties to the conflict and controlling forces since March 2011 are still under arrest and/or forcibly disappeared, including 3,693 children detained by Syrian regime forces. The remaining children arrested/forcibly disappeared are distributed by the arresting party as follows: 319 children by ISIS, 46 by HTS, 782 by SDF, and 364 by all armed opposition factions.
As the statement further reveals, no fewer than 198 children have died due to torture at the hands of the parties to the conflict and controlling forces in Syria since March 2011. The Syrian regime is responsible for the deaths of 190 of these children due to torture, while the remaining eight died at the hands of ISIS (one child), HTS, SDF, all armed opposition factions, and other parties, with each party of those responsible for the death of two children each due to torture.
The statement also sheds light on other patterns of violations that children face in Syria. For instance, all parties to the conflict have adopted child conscription practices. Meanwhile, the Russian extortion of the Security Council through the abuse of its veto powers, used by Russia to block the delivery of humanitarian assistance, is another explicit and blatant aggression against thousands of children who were forcibly displaced in the context of the armed conflict in northern Syria, with children making up 46 percent of all internally displaced persons (IDPs). The statement further stresses that children in Syria live in a highly dangerous environment, where all parties to the conflict have been responsible for intensively planting hundreds of thousands anti-personnel landmines (APLs), including remnants of cluster munitions over vast areas of Syrian territory. These landmines pose an ongoing threat to the lives of civilians, including children, which will continue for decades to come. To make matters worse, the shiny nature and primary colors of these submunitions potentially attract children, making them the group most endangered by landmines.
The statement stresses that violations against Syria’s children are among the gravest direct and primary results of the ongoing armed conflict that has continued for 12 years due to the failure of the UN Security Council and the international community to bring about a political change in Syria, which has been the very first and primary root of the conflict and the principal demand of the popular uprising since March 2011. Despite these facts, however, some Arab states have decided to restore relations with the Syrian regime, thereby sending a message to millions of victims that there is no chance for a political resolution in accordance with Security Council resolution 2254, which means that all the forms of aggressions against children, as well as other groups of society, will continue with the usual impunity for the perpetrators.
The statement calls on the international community to invest in civil society organizations in Syria which are working to rehabilitate and provide care for children, particularly the especially vulnerable orphaned and internally displaced children. This should be an urgent policy priority, with attention paid to the social, cultural, and economic facets involved, as part of a long-term relief strategy.

Download the full statement

Press Release:

Paris – The Syrian Network for Human Rights (SNHR) has released its 11th annual report on violations against children in Syria. Published on World Children’s Day, the report reveals that no fewer than 29,894 children have been killed in Syria since March 2011, including 182 children who died due to torture, while 5,162 children are still detained and/or forcibly disappeared. The report comes on the heels of the UN Secretary-General’s annual report for 2021 on ‘Children and Armed Conflicts’ that was submitted to the UN Security council in June 2022, which reveals that Syria is the world’s worst country in terms of conscription and use of children, the world’s second-worst country in terms of killing and maiming children, the third-worst country in terms of attacks on schools and hospitals, and the world’s fourth-worst country in terms of denial of humanitarian access.
The 55-page report notes that although Syria has ratified the 1993 Convention on the Rights of the Child, and its two optional protocols, the Syrian regime bears by far the greatest responsibility in terms of the number of crimes against children which were perpetrated in a manner that exhibits a clear pattern and demonstrates a systematic aspect in its violation of children’s rights, even if all parties to the conflict in Syria have been guilty of violating children’s rights. On that, the report stresses that the Committee on the Rights of the Child has to shoulder its responsibilities in monitoring the state of children’s rights in Syria and put an end to the Syrian regime’s violations.
Fadel Abdul Ghany, executive director of SNHR, says:
“For over 11 years, the armed conflict has had catastrophic effects on the children of Syria. This report reflects only a glimpse of these violations and their ramifications. It must be underlined that we did not expand on many of the rights of the Syrian children in light of the continued harrowing violations. We have monitored economic exploitation, violations of the rights of disabled children, and a drop in the levels of medical and educational care. All of these violations still need to be further highlighted and documented, and, of course, combated.”

The report sheds light on the catastrophic reality for children in Syria. To that end, it outlines the most notable human rights violations against children by the parties to the conflict and the controlling forces between March 2011 and November 20, 2022, mainly focusing on the violations occurring between November 2021 and November 20, 2022, as documented on SNHR’s database. In this context, the report includes 15 first-hand accounts collected directly from eyewitnesses, rather than from any second-hand sources. Furthermore, the report draws upon the SNHR’s daily and ongoing monitoring of incidents and developments, and on on its verification, and collection of evidence and data, as well as its analysis of pictures and videos posted online.

Moreover, the report sheds light on SNHR’s cooperation with the UNICEF Monitoring and Reporting Mechanism, and on our nomination of the Syrian-Kurdish girl Mathloum Na’san for the International Children’s Peace Prize 2022.

The report focuses particularly on gross and life-threatening violations as determined by the UN Security Council. Naturally, killing children is classified as the primary and most dangerous violation taking place in Syria, more especially considering the significantly high numbers of child victims. The second most dangerous violation is arrest/abduction which goes on to become enforced disappearance in the overwhelming majority of cases, and then torture. The report also examines child conscription and attacks on educational facilities, which result in children dropping out of the educational process.

The report documents the killing of 29,894 children at the hands of the parties to the conflict and the controlling forces in Syria since March 2011, with 22,954 of these child victims killed at the hands of Syrian regime forces, while 2,046 children were killed by Russian forces. In addition, a total of 958 children were killed by ISIS, and 74 were killed by Hay’at Tahrir al-Sham. Furthermore, the report adds, the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) was responsible for the killing of 243 children, while all armed opposition factions/Syrian National Army (SNA) killed 1,003 children. Lastly, 925 children were killed in attacks by international coalition forces, while 1,691 children were killed by other parties. Analyzing those figures shows that the Syrian regime has been responsible for 76% of all extrajudicial killings of children. As the report notes, 2013 saw the highest documented death toll among children, followed by 2013, then 2014, and then 2016.

With regard to arrest/detention, enforced disappearance, and torture, the report notes that no fewer than 5,162 children are still under arrest/detention and/or enforced disappearance at the hands of the parties to the conflict and the controlling forces, divided as follows: 3,684 children are still detained and/or forcibly disappeared by Syrian regime forces, 46 children by HTS, 752 children by SDF, and 361 children by all armed opposition factions/SNA. The report adds that 319 of the children who are still forcibly disappeared were arrested by ISIS before the group became defunct for the most part in Syria. The report further notes that 2014 was the worst in terms of arrests/detentions and enforced disappearances involving children, with 61 percent of all arrests in that year made by Syrian regime forces.
As the report further reveals, children are subjected to torture from the very first moment of their arrests. Torture may or may not lead to the death of the detained children. In this context, the report records that 182 children have died due to torture in Syria since March 2011, including 175 children who died in Syrian regime detention centers, while two died in HTS detention centers, one at the hands of ISIS, one at the hands of SDF, and one at the hands of the armed opposition/SNA. Lastly, two children have died due to torture at the hands of other parties.
The report stresses that Syrian regime forces have used sexual violence against children, which has been manifested in various forms, highlighting the long-term physical and psychological effects of such traumatic abuse on child victims. In the period of time covered, the report has documented no fewer than 539 incidents of sexual violence against children.
As the report notes, the continuous bombardment by Syrian regime forces since March 2011 has resulted in the partial or complete destruction of no fewer than 1,119 schools and 30 kindergartens, most of which were put out of commission. Furthermore, the report additionally notes that Syrian regime forces and its allies have turned dozens of schools into military centers. The report also reveals that the worsening reality of education, the forced displacement of hundreds of thousands of children and rampant poverty have all led to a rise in the levels of child labor, which has become one of the most widespread phenomena across all of Syria.
Additionally, Syrian regime forces have resorted to recruiting children since the early stages of the popular uprising, with the Syrian regime also facilitating child recruitment for foreign militias. To that end, the Syrian regime has not carried out any investigations or inquiries about child recruitment by these forces. As the report reveals, no fewer than 67 children have been killed in action as of November 20, 2022. The report also estimates that at least 1,425 child recruits are currently serving with Syrian regime forces. Of those, no fewer than 86 children have been recruited by Iranian militias or pro-Iran militias, including 24 children who were killed in action.
The report stresses that remnants of the weapons used by the Syrian regime and its allies in widespread and indiscriminate attacks against areas that broke free of its control continue to pose a serious threat to the safety and lives of civilians, especially children. At the top of this list are cluster munitions which have an indiscriminate nature. In this context, the report records that no fewer than 442 children have been killed either directly as a result of the attacks themselves in which the Syrian regime used cluster munitions or as a result of old munitions exploding in areas that were previously bombed using cluster munitions. The second most prominent threat of this nature is posed by landmines which have been planted by the various parties to conflict.
The report also stresses that he Syrian regime’s violations have caused a mass displacement affecting millions of Syrians. Northwestern Syria, which broke free of the regime’s control, houses the largest population of internally displaced people (IDPs), with children making up roughly 46 percent of IDPs. A large percentage of the displaced children were in fact born and brought up in camps, which means they lack the most basic life necessities, such as hygiene, privacy, proper bathrooms, and safe housing. Additionally, the dire shortage of health and educational facilities has further eroded the already minimal levels of healthcare available in those camps, with children forced to travel to other areas to receive healthcare, while education has become a very expensive luxury. As a result, diseases and illiteracy have become rampant issues among displaced children.
Moreover, the report notes that Russian attacks in which cluster munitions were used have resulted in the killing of 67 children since the start of Russia’s military intervention in Syria on September 30, 2015. In addition, Russian attacks have caused damages to no fewer than 221 schools in the same time period.
The report also outlines the violations against children by HTS. In addition to killing and imprisoning children, the group has also established dozens of training centers and encouraged children to join its ranks, putting them through religious indoctrination courses to alter their beliefs in a manner that emulates the ISIS model. The group also took over many schools in in areas under its control and turned them into civilian or military centers. As the report further notes, three schools have been attacked by HTS as of November 20, 2022.
Furthermore, the report reveals that the SDF has also conscripted children in a widespread manner despite the fact that the Kurdish Self-Administration signed a joint action plan with the UN agreeing to put an end to child recruitment, and to release children already recruited. Additionally, the People’s Protection Units (YPG) and Women’s Protection Units signed a deed of commitment with the Geneva Call organization in 2014 banning the use of children in wars. Nonetheless, the group’s recruitment of children has not stopped. The report documents that no fewer than 213 children have been recruited by and are still active with the SDF since the group’s foundation. The report also reveals that the SDF has attacked no fewer than 16 schools as of November 20, 2022.
The report also outlines violations against children by all armed opposition factions/SNA. In addition to killing and imprisoning children, armed opposition factions have recruited children, taking advantage of their poor living conditions. According to the report, 12 children have been killed in action with armed opposition factions, while no fewer than 36 schools have been attacked by all armed opposition factions/SNA as of November 20, 2022.
The report stresses that despite the abundance of international instruments establishing and protecting human rights at all times, violations against children in Syria have not stopped for 11 years. All parties to the conflict have failed to respect those rules. The Syrian regime has not been deterred by those conventions, despite having ratified the Convention on the Rights of the Child, from committing violations against children, some of which qualify as crimes against humanity through the acts of extrajudicial killing, enforced disappearance, torture, while others qualify as war crimes through the acts of forced conscription Furthermore, many of the violations committed by the other parties to the conflict against children could amount to war crimes if they were committed in the context of the conflict, and also as widespread violations of international human rights law if they were committed against children affiliated with those forces.
The report calls on the international community to ensure the protection of and aid for forcibly displaced children, both IDPs and refugees, especially girls and ensure their needs are met, particularly as regards protection.
The report stresses that all possible legal, political, and financial measures must be taken against the Syrian regime and its allies, as well as against other perpetrators of violations in the Syrian conflict, in order to put pressure on them to compel them to respect children’s rights. It also stresses the need for states to meet their financial pledges, to help the countries neighboring Syria and to provide every possible bit of support to improve the level of education and healthcare in those countries that are housing the largest proportion of child refugees. The report also calls for devising mechanisms to stop the bombing of schools and kindergartens, to protect those facilities, and to work on creating a safe educational environment.
The report also calls for coordinating humanitarian relief operations by focusing on the worst affected areas, and underlines the need to avoid falling prey to the pressure and exploitation by the Syrian regime that attempts to solicit aid in its own favor, as well as to secure the necessary resources to rehabilitate children, while placing especial emphasis on the special needs of girls who have been directly affected by violations, as well as making a number of other recommendations.

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Paris – The Syrian Network for Human Rights (SNHR)

The United Nations Secretary-General has submitted his annual report on “Children and Armed Conflict” for the year 2021 to the UN Security Council. The report, which highlights trends regarding the impact of armed conflict on children, includes details on violations committed by parties to a number of conflicts from government forces and other armed groups affiliated with or opposing the government against children in several countries, including Syria, in 2021. The report also identifies the perpetrators of violations. The violations included in the report are the recruitment and use of children, the killing and maiming of children, rape and other forms of sexual violence against children, attacks on schools and hospitals, and the abduction of children.

The Syrian Network for Human Rights (SNHR) annually reviews the United Nations Secretary-General’s report on children, given its status as a primary source on violations against children in Syria, through cooperation and partnership with the UNICEF Monitoring and Reporting Mechanism (MRM).

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June 4 marks the International Day of Innocent Children Victims of Aggression, proclaimed by the United Nations General Assembly in its Resolution ES-7/8 of August 19, 1982. In the period of almost 12 years since the start of the popular uprising in March 2011, the children of Syria have been relentlessly subjected to the most heinous forms of aggression, including killings, sexual violence, forced conscription, the targeting of schools and hospitals, and the deliberate curtailment of access to humanitarian aid; while all these forms of aggression have been practiced by the various parties to the armed conflict in Syria, the data conclusively indicates that the Syrian regime and its Russian and Iranian allies bear responsibility for the overwhelming majority of violations against children, some of which amount to crimes against humanity, such as enforced disappearance, torture, and forced displacement.

Hardly any of the violations perpetrated against Syrian society which the Syrian Network for Human Rights (SNHR) has been able to document have not affected children or included children among the victims, with an unimaginably immense amount of aggression inflicted on children over the past 11 years.

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Press release (Link below to download full report):
 
Paris – The Syrian Network for Human Rights (SNHR) reveals in its report released today that at least 156 children are still conscripted by Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) from the 537 cases of conscription carried out by the SDF since its establishment, further noting that 19 children have been kidnapped and conscripted since November, in the worst conscription campaign targeting children since the beginning of 2021.
 
The 15-page report notes that since the first months of the Syrian Democratic Forces’ establishment, the SDF has forcibly conscripted children; this child conscription has gradually expanded in parallel with the SDF strengthening its security and military grip over the areas under its control in northeastern Syria, with the group routinely either voluntarily or forcibly conscripting children, as part of its efforts to recruit or coerce children into joining its armed forces, which involve attempts to persuade and encourage children and offering them inducements, with schools controlled by the Self-Management Authority often participating in and actively supporting child conscription. In parallel with these various efforts, conscription is also carried out by kidnapping children, from schools, streets or neighborhoods.
As the report notes, Syrian Democratic Forces have established training camps for the children it’s conscripted in areas far from their areas of origin, generally preventing children from communicating with their families. Many families of these kidnapped and conscripted children have been subjected to threats and intimidation to prevent them from reporting their children’s conscription to international bodies or human rights organizations. The children’s families are also prevented from visiting their children in the SDF’s training camps, and subjected to verbal humiliation and removal if they attempt to visit them. The report adds that all this aims to isolate the children from their families and the outside world until the end of their training to ensure the children are fully indoctrinated into unquestioning acceptance of the hardline communist philosophy and ideological views of the PKK, the group of which the PYD is an affiliate.
 
The report documents a marked increase in child conscription levels in the past month of November 2021, and records the largest child conscription campaign by the SDF since the beginning of 2021, noting that the SDF is among the worst parties to the conflict in terms of child conscription, according to the UN Secretary-General’s reports on Children and Armed Conflict.
 
The report documents at least 537 cases of child recruitment carried out by the Syrian Democratic Forces in Syria since the SDF’s establishment – since the establishment of the Kurdish Democratic Union Party’s Self-Management forces – in January 2014 up to December 15, 2021; to date, at least 156 children are still conscripted by the SDF, divided between 102 males and 54 females. Among the child conscription cases, the report documents the deaths of at least 29 of the children conscripted by the SDF in combat operations.
The report provides a map showing the distribution of the 537 cases of child conscription according to the governorate in which the conscription incident took place, which shows that Aleppo governorate saw the highest number of incidents. The report also provides a chart for the distribution of this record by years.
 
Since the beginning of November 2021 up until December 15, 2021, the report records the kidnapping for conscription of at least 19 children, distributed between nine male and 10 female children; 11 of these kidnappings took place in Hasaka governorate and eight in Aleppo governorate. As the report documents, only three of these conscripted children were demobilized, while 16 are still conscripted.
The report adds that Syrian Democratic Forces have not yet taken any genuine concrete measures to demobilize and compensate child conscripts, to return them to their families, or to hold the perpetrators of kidnappings and conscription accountable and launch investigations into them.
The report notes that many families of children conscripted in Syrian Democratic Forces camps have protested, holding demonstrations and anti-Syrian Democratic Forces sit-ins, calling for their children to be returned from the SDF’s military centers. The report documents that a number of the families of conscripted children who participated in the demonstrations received threats and were attacked by groups affiliated with Syrian Democratic Forces, which also warned them not to participate in such demonstrations again.
 
The report stresses that Syrian Democratic Forces have violated all international laws related to the issue of child recruitment, with this report and others proving that the Syrian Democratic Forces’ gangs of kidnappers have gained extensive experience in this field, and that these kidnappings are carried out in a planned and deliberate manner, and are based on intelligence information, because the kidnappers are part of the controlling force, and have background data and information about the victims, their habits, and their families, which facilitates the victims’ entrapment by the kidnapping gangs.
 
The report recommends that the states supporting Syrian Democratic Forces should put pressure on SDF to stop forced conscriptions, and to respect the rules of international humanitarian law and principles of international human rights law in the areas they control, should support the process of establishing a genuine local administration in the northeastern region of Syria, in which all the inhabitants of the region may participate without discrimination on the basis of race and nationality and without the intervention of the de facto authorities in order to achieve stability and justice, and should support the building and establishment of an independent judiciary that prohibits military parties from carrying out forced conscriptions.
The report demands that Syrian Democratic Forces stop all forms of child conscriptions, disclose the fate of all forcibly disappeared children, and allow their families to visit and communicate with them, in preparation for releasing them.
The report additionally provides a number of other recommendations.
 

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Press release (Link below to download full report):

The Syrian Network for Human Rights (SNHR) has today issued its tenth annual report on violations against children in Syria. The report, issued to mark the annual World Children’s Day, reveals that at least 29,661 children have been killed in Syria since March 2011, including 181 due to torture, in addition to 5,036 arrested/forcibly disappeared children. The report stated that hundreds of children participated, along with their parents and other family members, in the peaceful protests across the country, representing symbols of the early hope and innocence of the uprising. And due to the Syrian regime’s relentless, brutal and indiscriminate mass arrests and targeting, shooting and killing of unarmed protesters, these violations were committed against children as well. This deliberate and calculated targeting of civilians and residential neighborhoods, which has been and remains a constant Syrian regime policy and a measure of the regime’s character, explains the terrible high numbers of child victims in the Syrian conflict.

The 55-page report mentioned that Syria’s leadership has ratified the Convention on the Rights of the Child in 1993, as well as ratifying the two Optional Protocols to the Convention on the Rights of the Child. Yet, all the parties to the conflict have violated the rights of the child, and the Syrian regime has far exceeded all other parties in terms of the amount of crimes the regime perpetrated in a regular and systematic manner.
The report stated that the United Nations’ Committee on the Rights of the Child, established by the Treaty Body for the Convention on the Rights of the Child, bears legal and ethical responsibilities to follow up on the situation of children’s rights in Syria and to help in bringing an end the violations perpetrated by the Syrian regime.

Fadel Abdul Ghany, executive director of the Syrian Network for Human Rights, said:
“This report reminds us that many violations against children are still being perpetrated by the Syrian regime at such a level that they amount to crimes against humanity, including enforced disappearance, torture, and forced displacement. As the report confirms, hundreds of thousands of children have suffered and are still enduring the most intolerable humanitarian conditions, as they have done for years. This situation and these atrocious conditions can only continue because the reason for this continuing conflict – the existence of the ruling dictatorship, and the international community’s failure to find a political solution since 2012 – has not changed, indicating that new generations of Syrian children are facing a similar dark fate”

The report shed the light on the catastrophic state of children in Syria, and outlines the record of violations against children by the parties to the conflict and the controlling forces in Syria between March 2011 and November 20, 2021, according to SNHR database. The report provided 10 accounts that SNHR collected through speaking directly with eyewitnesses, which are not cited from any open sources. The report is also based on the daily ongoing monitoring and verification of incidents and news and the collection of evidence and data, as well as analysis of videos and photos posted online.

The report refers to the cooperation between SNHR and the UNICEF Monitoring and Reporting Mechanism (MRM), and SNHR’s nomination of the Syrian child Muhammad Nour Al Asmar for the International Children’s Peace Prize for the year 2021.

The report documents the deaths of 29,661 children at the hands of the parties to the conflict and the controlling forces in Syria between March 2011 and November 20, 2021, including 22,930 children killed at the hands of Syrian Regime forces, 2,032 at the hand of Russian forces, 958 at the hands of ISIS, and 71 at the hands of Hay’at Tahrir al Sham (HTS). The report adds that the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) have killed 237 children, while the Armed Opposition/ the Syrian National Army killed 996 children. A further 925 children were killed as a result of attacks by the US-led coalition forces, and 1,512 children were killed at the hands of other parties. The Syrian regime is responsible for nearly 78% of extrajudicial killings, and accumulative index shows that 2013 was the worst year in terms of targeting children with killings following by 2012, 2014, 2016.

In terms of arrest/ detention, enforced disappearance, and torture, the report reveals that at least 5,036 children are still arrested/ detained or forcibly disappeared by the parties to the conflict and the controlling forces in Syria, including 3,649 at the hands of Syrian Regime forces, 42 at the hands of Hay’at Tahrir al Sham, 667 at the hands of Syrian Democratic Forces, and 359 at the hands of the Armed Opposition/ the Syrian National Army. The report adds that 319 of these children were arrested by ISIS before its retreat and are still forcibly disappeared, as of November 20, 2020. The report included an accumulative index graph for the arrests of children since March 2011, that showed 2014 was the worst year in terms of targeting children with arrests, and about 61% of the arrests recorded were at the hands of the Syrian regime forces.

As the report reveals, 181 children have been killed under torture in Syria since March 2011, including 174 in the Syrian regime’s detention centers, while two children in Hay’at Tahrir al Sham detention centers, and one child died under torture in the detention centers of each of ISIS, Syrian Democratic Forces and the Armed Opposition/ the Syrian National Army, and two children died due to torture at the hands of other parties.

The report revealed that Syrian regime forces have committed several types of sexual violence against children, pointing out the lasting physical and psychological ramifications on the victims. The report recorded at least 539 incidents of sexual violence against children.

According to the report, continued bombardment by the Syrian regime forces since March 2011, causing the total or partial destruction of at least 1,197 schools and 29 kindergartens, putting the majority of them out of service. The report also recorded the use of schools as military bases by the Syrian regime and its allies. The report added that repeated forced displacement due to attacks and violations committed by the Syrian regime and its allies, as well as the deterioration of the education system, which led to the exclusion of tens of thousands of children from the educational process, and widespread poverty, have contributed to the spread of child labor. The report mentioned that the phenomenon of the worst forms of child labor is considered one of the most widespread phenomena in all regions of Syria.

Syrian regime forces regularly conscript children, a practice which they began from the earliest days of the popular movement, and facilitated children’s recruitment in foreign and local militias. There have been no investigations or accountability for any instances of child recruitment. Children conscription by the regime forces having resulted in the deaths of at least 62 children on Syria’s battlefields since March 2011 up until November 20, 2021. The report estimates that there are no less than 1,374 child soldiers in the Syrian regime forces ranks. In addition, at least 78 children being recruited into Iranian militias or militias supported by Iran, 23 of them killed while participating in hostilities.

The report considered the remnants of the weapons used by the Syrian regime and its allies to bombard the areas not under its control in a massive and indiscriminate manner among the most prominent dangers that threaten the lives of civilians, especially children, at the forefront of these are the remnants of cluster munitions used in a large-scale and indiscriminate manner. The report recorded the death of at least 436 children, either in attacks where the Syrian regime used cluster munitions, or as a result of the explosion of old remnants of cluster munitions in areas previously bombed by the Regime using these weapons. While landmines planted by other parties to the conflict are the second threat after cluster munitions.

The report mentioned that according to the UNHCR, there are currently at least 2.5 million displaced children in Syria, most of whom live in camps or settlements of tents which cover large areas in most areas outside the control of the Syrian regime forces. The displaced suffer from the worst living conditions, as the lack of healthcare facilities and educational centers in the camps has led to low levels of health, causing the children especially a lot of suffering, meaning that residents must travel for long distances or move simply to receive basic healthcare if any is available, and depriving them of access to education; all these factors have in turn caused steep increases in disease and illiteracy among the displaced children.

The report added that cluster munition attacks launched by the Russian forces since their military intervention on September 30, 2015, killed 67 children. And their military operations damaged no less than 220 schools.

The report also outlines the violations by Hay’at Tahrir al Sham, which, in addition to carrying out killings and detentions, has established training camps for children, enrolling them in sharia courses in an effort to influence their beliefs and to direct them to take up arms and fight similar to the tactics used by ISIS. HTS has also taken control over many schools in areas under its control, and converted them to affiliated civilian and military headquarters. The report documents, as of November 20, 2021, that HTS had attacked three schools.

The report also sheds light on Syrian Democratic Forces’ widespread forced conscription of children. Although the Kurdish Self-Management authority signed a joint action plan with the United Nations to end the recruitment of children into its ranks and to demobilize those already recruited, while the People’s Protection Units and the Women’s Protection Units signed a commitment with Geneva Call in June 2014 to prohibit the use of children in fighting, their recruitment of children did not end as a result. The report documents at least 136 children are still conscripted by the SDF since its establishment, and approximately 29 conscripted children subsequently killed on the battlefields. The report also documents that at least 11 schools were attacked by Syrian Democratic Forces as of November 20, 2021.

The report also includes the most notable violations committed by the Armed Opposition/ the Syrian National Army, noting that in addition to the killings and arbitrary detentions, the Armed Opposition Factions have exploited the poor living conditions children live under to conscript children into their forces. As the report reveals, nine children have been killed while participating with Armed Opposition factions in fighting on the battlefield. The report also documents that at least 35 schools were attacked by the Armed Opposition/ the Syrian National Army, as of November 20, 2021.

The report mentioned that the UN Secretary-General reports on children and armed conflict shows that Syria is the worst and one of the worst countries in the world with regard to several violations, and in this context the report included an analysis of the two reports issued in April 2021, and June 2021.

The report stresses that despite the vast arsenal of international laws on the rights of the child which aim to ensure they are protected at all times, violations of the right of children in Syria have not stopped for nearly nine years, and none of the parties to the conflict have respected these laws, including the Syrian regime which has ratified the Convention on the Rights of the Child; this ratification, however, failed to deter the regime from committing violations against children that amount to crimes against humanity through extrajudicial killings, enforced disappearances, and torture, as well as war crimes through forced conscription. The report adds that many of the violations committed by the other parties to the conflict against children may also constitute war crimes in the context of being committed against the background of the conflict, and widespread violations of international human rights law if they are committed against children in areas controlled by these forces.

The report recommends that the international community should protect and assist forcibly displaced children, including IDPs and refugees, especially girls, should take into account their specific needs, primarily for protection.

The report stresses the need to take all possible legal, political and financial measures against the Syrian regime and its allies, as well as against all perpetrators of violations in the Syrian conflict to pressure them to commit to respect the rights of children, to fulfill the commitment of pledged financial contributions, and to assist neighboring countries and provide all possible support to increase the level of education and healthcare in these countries which host the largest number of refugee children. The report also calls on the international community to establish mechanisms to end the bombing of schools and protect it, and work to create a safe learning environment.

The report further recommends that humanitarian aid operations should be coordinated according to the areas worst affected, and should avoid bowing to pressure and blackmail by the Syrian regime which is working to harness aid to its advantage, and take into account the special needs of girls who have been directly affected by violations.

The reports added several additional recommendations.

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Paris – Statement by the Syrian Network for Human Rights:
 
June 4 marks the International Day of Innocent Children Victims of Aggression, with children in Syria having been subjected to the most horrific forms of aggression since the beginning of the internal armed conflict. By far the largest number of these crimes and the cruelest and most systematic of them have been and remain those carried out by Syrian regime forces; despite being the very people who are supposed to protect Syrian children, they have failed shamefully to do so, instead being the main perpetrators of various types of violations. Indeed, hardly any violation has been perpetrated against the members of Syrian society regarding which the SNHR has not documented children among the victims, including killings due to indiscriminate bombardment, torture in detention centers, forced conscription, forcible displacement and the bombardment of schools and kindergartens. An enormous amount of aggression has been inflicted on children over the past ten years, creating a traumatized generation suffering in various ways and in desperate need of educational, health and psychological care, as well as being at high risk of illiteracy, which is spreading in a manner unprecedented in Syria’s history.
 
In addition, nearly a quarter million children live in the camps scattered across Syria, where they suffer from unimaginably dire living conditions, including a lack of basic hygiene facilities, privacy, housing, medical and health care, and a complete absence of safety measures. The forced displacement of nearly six million Syrian citizens due to the attacks and violations committed by the parties to the conflict, primarily the Syrian regime and its allies, has also led to widespread poverty, since the IDPs are the most vulnerable groups in society, with many children having lost their family breadwinners due to the spread of extrajudicial killings, arbitrary arrest and enforced disappearance; as a result, many children have become breadwinners for their families, going straight to the workplace and missing out on their childhoods and education. As a result of all these factors, hundreds of thousands of Syrian children are illiterate. In addition, most children born in areas outside the control of Syrian regime forces have been denied access to official documents that prove their identity which are essential for all official transactions, with children born in refugee camps having the same issue.
 

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Press release:

(Link below to download full report)

The Syrian Network for Human Rights (SNHR) has today issued its ninth annual report on violations against children in Syria. The report, issued to mark the UN’s annual World Children’s Day, reveals that at least 29,375 children have been killed in Syria since March 2011, including 179 due to torture, in addition to 4,261 forcibly disappeared children, hundreds of recruits, and hundreds of thousands of forcibly displaced.

Syria’s leadership has ratified the Convention on the Rights of the Child in 1993, as well as ratifying the two Optional Protocols to the Convention on the Rights of the Child, the report notes, adding that while all the parties to the conflict have violated the rights of the child, the Syrian regime has far exceeded all other parties, individually or collectively, in terms of the amount of crimes the regime perpetrated in a regular and systematic manner. The report stresses that the United Nations’ Committee on the Rights of the Child, established by the Treaty Body for the Convention on the Rights of the Child, bears legal and ethical responsibilities to follow up on the situation of children’s rights in Syria and to help in bringing an end the violations perpetrated by the Syrian regime.

The report states that over the past nine years, children in Syria have been subjected to the same wide variety of horrendous violations as adults, without any concern or consideration for their vulnerability, despite the vast range of provisions in international law which insist on the need to respect the rights of the child. The report notes that the report of the United Nations Secretary-General to the UN Security Council on ‘Children and Armed Conflict’ for the year 2019 has classified Syria, according to various types of violations, as either the worst or among the worst countries worldwide.

Fadel Abdul Ghany, Chairman of the Syrian Network for Human Rights, says:
“Violations against the children of Syria continue up to the current date, with some of these amounting to crimes against humanity. This is particularly devastating for coming generations and for the future of the Syrian people for decades to come. These violations are a branch of a continuation of the ongoing armed conflict that has extended for nine years, with the Security Council and the international community failing to find any political solution for it yet. The dictatorial Syrian regime will not transfer power peacefully, no matter how many Syrian children are killed or displaced, since the regime itself is the main culprit and the most prolific perpetrator of violations.”

The report outlines the record of violations against children by the parties to the conflict and the controlling forces in Syria between March 2011 and November 20, 2020, providing 10 accounts that SNHR collected through speaking directly with eyewitnesses, which are not cited from any open sources. The report is also based on the daily ongoing monitoring and verification of incidents and news and the collection of evidence and data, as well as analysis of videos and photos posted online.

The report refers to the cooperation between SNHR and the UNICEF Monitoring and Reporting Mechanism (MRM), through a constant monthly sharing of the SNHR’s data, which SNHR has been able to document showing multiple types of violations against children, stressing the vital importance and the essential nature of the work of MRM in Syria

The report touches upon SNHR’s nomination of the Syrian child Enar al Hamrawi for the International Children’s Peace Prize for the year 2020, in appreciation of her exceptional efforts in conveying the suffering of the Syrian community, especially its children, to the wider world, showing the terrible violations children have been exposed to by the Syrian regime and its Iranian and Russian allies. The report notes that although Enar was shortlisted for the prize along with 142 other children from around the world, she did not reach the final stage, adding that despite this Enar’s nomination is an important achievement in itself in representing Syria’s children internationally, with Enar being an inspirational figure and a living symbol of the awesome capabilities of the heroic children of Syria who are its future, showing vast courage and resilience even in the face of unimaginable adversity and injustice and despite all the violations and brutal conditions which they have endured and are still being subjected to.

The report summarizes the record of the most notable violations against children documented on SNHR’s database, focusing particularly on categories of serious and grave life-threatening violations that have been identified by the United Nations Security Council, with the killing of children beings at the forefront of these violations and being the most severe atrocity in Syria, particularly given the high proportion of child victims; secondly comes arrest/ kidnapping, which in the vast majority of cases turn into enforced disappearance, while thirdly comes torture.

The report documents the deaths of 29,375 children at the hands of the parties to the conflict and the controlling forces in Syria between March 2011 and November 20, 2020, including 22,864 children killed at the hands of Syrian Regime forces, 2,005 at the hand of Russian forces, 958 at the hands of ISIS, and 66 at the hands of Hay’at Tahrir al Sham (HTS). The report adds that the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) have killed 225 children, while the Armed Opposition/ the Syrian National Army killed 992 children. A further 925 children were killed as a result of attacks by the US-led coalition forces, and 1,340 children were killed at the hands of other parties.

In terms of arrest/ detention, enforced disappearance, and torture, the report reveals that at least 4,956 children are still arrested/ detained or forcibly disappeared by the parties to the conflict and the controlling forces in Syria, including 3,609 at the hands of Syrian Regime forces, 37 at the hands of Hay’at Tahrir al Sham, 652 at the hands of Syrian Democratic Forces, and 339 at the hands of the Armed Opposition/ the Syrian National Army. The report adds that 319 of these children were arrested by ISIS before its retreat and are still forcibly disappeared, as of November 20, 2020.

As the report reveals, 179 children have been killed under torture in Syria since March 2011, including 173 in the Syrian regime’s detention centers, while one child died under torture in each of the detention centers of ISIS, Hay’at Tahrir al Sham, Syrian Democratic Forces and the Armed Opposition/ the Syrian National Army, and two children died due to torture at the hands of other parties.

The report also covers child conscription, attacks on educational facilities and the consequent abandonment and failure in the educational process, noting that the Syrian regime is the most prolific offender in this category, as in all the other categories of violations, compared to the other parties to the conflict, with the bombardment that has continued since March 2011 up until November 20, 2020, causing the total or partial destruction of at least 1,189 schools and 29 kindergartens, putting the majority of them out of service.

The forced displacement of nearly five million Syrian citizens due to attacks and violations committed by the Syrian regime and its allies has also led to widespread poverty, while many children have become breadwinners for their families, with these children moving to the workplace instead of studying.
The report adds that Syrian Regime forces have also routinely used sexual violence as a weapon of war and a tool of revenge against all groups within Syrian society, including children, with sexual violence having caused long-term physical and psychological repercussions among the child victims; the report documents at least 539 incidents of sexual violence against children, as of November 20, 2020.

As the report further notes, Syrian Regime forces have routinely conscripted children, establishing special training camps for them, with the conscription of children by the regime forces having resulted in the deaths of at least 57 children on Syria’s battlefields since March 2011 up until November 20, 2020.
The report also reveals that nearly a million children living in camps spread across Syria suffer from dreadful living conditions, lacking the most basic elements of hygiene, privacy, housing, medical and health care, along with a total absence of safety measures. The report notes that the remnants of weapons, particularly cluster munitions which have been used exclusively by the Syrian regime and its Russian ally, being deployed indiscriminately and on a large scale, are among the greatest dangers facing IDP children, as cluster munitions spread over large areas after their initial deployment and explosion, with their remnants remaining as life-threatening landmines, which are especially dangerous to children. The report documents the deaths of at least 427 children in attacks in which the Syrian regime used cluster munitions or in incidents involving the explosion of old remnants of cluster munitions.

As the report reveals, since their initial military intervention in Syria in September 2015, Russian forces have used more lethal weapons than those used by the Syrian regime, with the aim of controlling areas outside the control of the regime through indiscriminate bombardment and targeting civilians and vital facilities, with their attacks specifically using cluster munitions killing 67 children as of November 20, 2020. The Russian military forces’ attacks have also caused damage to at least 220 schools.

The report also outlines the violations by Hay’at Tahrir al Sham, which, in addition to carrying out killings and detentions, has established training camps for children, enrolling them in sharia courses in an effort to influence their beliefs and to direct them to take up arms and fight. HTS has also taken control over many schools in areas under its control, and converted them to affiliated civilian and military headquarters. The report documents, as of November 20, 2020, that HTS had attacked three schools.

The report also sheds light on Syrian Democratic Forces’ widespread forced conscription of children. Although the Kurdish Self-Management authority signed a joint action plan with the United Nations to end the recruitment of children into its ranks and to demobilize those already recruited, while the People’s Protection Units and the Women’s Protection Units signed a commitment with Geneva Call in June 2014 to prohibit the use of children in fighting, their recruitment of children did not end as a result. The report documents at least 113 cases of child conscription carried out by the SDF since its establishment, with approximately 29 of these conscripted children subsequently killed on the battlefields. The report also documents that at least 10 schools were attacked by Syrian Democratic Forces as of November 20, 2020.

The report also includes the most notable violations committed by the Armed Opposition/ the Syrian National Army, noting that in addition to the killings and arbitrary detentions, the Armed Opposition Factions have exploited the poor living conditions children live under to conscript children into their forces. As the report reveals, five children have been killed while participating with Armed Opposition factions in fighting on the battlefield. The report also documents that at least 35 schools were attacked by the Armed Opposition/ the Syrian National Army, as of November 20, 2020.

The report stresses that despite the vast arsenal of international laws on the rights of the child which aim to ensure they are protected at all times, violations of the right of children in Syria have not stopped for nearly nine years, and none of the parties to the conflict have respected these laws, including the Syrian regime which has ratified the Convention on the Rights of the Child; this ratification, however, failed to deter the regime from committing violations against children that amount to crimes against humanity through extrajudicial killings, enforced disappearances, and torture, as well as war crimes through forced conscription. The report adds that many of the violations committed by the other parties to the conflict against children may also constitute war crimes in the context of being committed against the background of the conflict, and widespread violations of international human rights law if they are committed against children in areas controlled by these forces; arbitrary detention and torture are at the forefront of these violations, followed by forced conscription.

The report recommends that the international community should protect and assist forcibly displaced children, including IDPs and refugees, especially girls, should take into account their specific needs, primarily for protection, should fulfill their obligations under the Convention on the Rights of the Child, should expose the Syrian regime’s criminal practices against Syria’s children, and should make every possible effort to mitigate and stop them.
The report stresses the need to take all possible legal, political and financial measures against the Syrian regime and its allies, as well as against all perpetrators of violations in the Syrian conflict to pressure them to commit to respect the rights of children, to fulfill the commitment of pledged financial contributions, and to assist neighboring countries and provide all possible support to increase the level of education and healthcare in these countries which host the largest number of refugee children.

The report also calls on the international community to establish mechanisms to end the bombing of schools and kindergartens, to protect these facilities, and work to create a safe learning environment, which is the least possible level of protection that could be offered for civilians. The report underlines that the issue of Syrian children is a global one, which means that all countries must do their utmost to alleviate its repercussions by supporting schools and the educational and medical systems inside Syria, as well as by caring for refugee children.

The report further recommends that humanitarian aid operations should be coordinated according to the areas worst affected, and should avoid bowing to pressure and blackmail by the Syrian regime which is working to harness aid to its advantage, adding that donors should also provide adequate resources for the rehabilitation of children, taking into account the special needs of girls who have been directly affected by violations and who have been sexually exploited, giving priority to the worst affected areas.

The report stresses the need to ensure that refugees fleeing Syria are able to seek asylum and to respect their rights, including the prohibition of refoulement, adding that EU states and other countries should alleviate the burden on neighboring countries and receive more Syrian refugees, while donor countries should increase their assistance to the UNHCR and civil societies organizations in countries of asylum.

The report calls on the UNHCR to create a stable and safe environment for Syrian refugee children, to intensify work for their reintegration into society through the provision of long-term psychological treatment, and to promote investment in education and health. The report also recommends that the supporting States and the European Union should allocate greater resources to UNICEF in general and to the Monitoring and Reporting Mechanism in particular.

In conclusion, the report stresses that the Syrian regime must fulfill its obligations based on its ratification of the Convention on the Rights of the Child, the two International Covenants and the Geneva Conventions, emphasizing that all the parties to the conflict must stop deliberately shelling schools, kindergartens, and residential areas inhabited by children and their families, in addition to immediately releasing detained children, particularly those detained in the context of armed conflict, and that they must abide by international laws on the detention of children, especially girls, end the torture of detained children, and ensure separation of children from adults, permanently end the recruitment of children, and ensure the release of all children under the age of 15 from all military formations and duties.

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Press release:
The Syrian Network for Human Rights (SNHR) reveals in its report released today that the Secretary-General’s report on Children and Armed Conflict shows that Syria is either the worst or amongst the worst countries worldwide in several types of violations.
 
The six-page report notes that the Secretary-General’s report has classified Syria according to a number of patterns of violations as the worst country globally in terms of killings and attacks on schools, the second worst country worldwide in terms of the recruitment of children and attacks on hospitals, and the fourth worst country globally in terms of detentions and denial of humanitarian access.
 
The report refers to the statistics included in the Secretary-General’s report, with which the SNHR report conducts a brief comparison with the figures documented on the SNHR database for 2019, noting that the statistics are largely comparable.
 
The Secretary-General’s report recorded the killing of 897 children in Syria in 2019, making it the worst country worldwide in terms of killings of children, and the third worst country globally in terms of both killings and maiming of children after Afghanistan, while the documented death toll among children, according to the SNHR database, was close to 900 children.
In regard to attack on schools, the report documents 494 attacks on schools, 157 of which occurred in Syria, making it the worst in the world, followed by Afghanistan and Somalia. The report further confirmed Syria’s status as the third worst country globally in terms of using schools for military purposes, with Syrian Regime forces being the worst offender amongst all the parties to the conflict in terms of attacks on schools, while Syrian Democratic Forces (People’s Protection Units / Women’s Protection Units) were the worst offenders amongst all the parties to the conflict in terms of using schools and hospitals for military purposes, doing so, as the report records, 18 out of 32 times, followed by Syrian Regime forces who did so 13 times, and Hay’at Tahrir al Sham who did so once.
Meanwhile, the SNHR database indicates that 219 incidents of attack on schools were documented in 2019, whether by bombardment or by their being repurposed as military headquarters.
The report also indicates that 433 attacks on hospitals were recorded, with 105 of these occurring in Syria, making it the second worst country in the world for such crimes after Palestine.
 
In regard to the recruitment of children for military service, Syria came second after Somalia, with 820 children being recruited in Syria in 2019, with Syrian Democratic Forces (People’s Protection Units / Women’s Protection Units) being the worst offenders amongst all the parties to the conflict in terms of child recruitment with 306 cases, followed by Hay’at Tahrir al Sham with 245 cases.
 
In regard to the detention of children, the report indicates that 218 children were detained or deprived of their liberty in Syria in 2019 out of 2,500 worldwide, with Syria being the fourth worst country in the world in this context after Iraq, Palestine, and Somalia. According to the report, Syrian Democratic Forces (People’s Protection Units / Women’s Protection Units) were the worst offender amongst all the parties to the conflict in terms of detentions, being responsible for 194 cases.
 
Finally, in regard to humanitarian access, Syria was classified as the fourth worst country in the world in this aspect with 84 incidents verified by the report, with Syrian Regime forces being the worst offenders amongst all the parties to the conflict, being responsible for 59 incidents.
 
The report refers to the SNHR’s close cooperation with the Monitoring and Reporting Mechanism in Syria through a constant monthly sharing of the data which the SNHR’s team has been able to document showing multiple types of violations against children, such as killing and maiming of children, military recruitment, abduction, arrest/ detention, attacks on schools, hospitals, health or educational personnel, sexual violence, and denial of humanitarian access.
 
The report stresses the importance and vitality of the work of the Monitoring and Reporting Mechanism in Syria, and adds that the SNHR will continue to cooperate and share data with this body, as we do with a number of other United Nations bodies operating in Syria, which the report considers to be an essential component in the course of attaining justice by exposing the perpetrators of violations and putting pressure on them and on their backers, as a basis for holding them accountable; this will pave the way for progress in leading the way to a transitional justice process moving towards long-awaited stability, democracy and human rights, and thus ensuring that these horrific violations against Syria’s children are not repeated in the future.
 
As the report reveals, the catastrophic situation facing the children of Syria, which was detailed in the Secretary-General’s report, intersects with the findings catalogued on the SNHR’s database, with the report emphasizing that these violations are still ongoing in 2020, many of which constitute crimes against humanity and war crimes, with the Syrian regime along with its allies, the Russian and Iranian regimes, having been the main perpetrators in terms of the magnitude and intensity of violations in all these types of crimes in general, except for the recruitment of children, where Syrian Democratic Forces / Kurdish People’s Protection Units have been the worst perpetrator of this violation, followed by Hay’at Tahrir al Sham / Jabhat al Nusra, followed by Armed Opposition factions.
 
The report calls on the supporting states and the European Union to allocate more resources to UNICEF in general and to the Monitoring and Reporting Mechanism in particular, and to rely on this database to begin rehabilitating child survivors.
 
The report confirms that Syria is one of the worst countries in the world in terms of committing several types of violations against children, and therefore it needs a greater amount of assistance compared to other countries and regions, especially considering that the violations are still ongoing to date.
 
The report also calls on the UN Security Council to issue a resolution based on the data included in the report of the Secretary-General, which stipulates the condemnation of violations, in particular those that constitute crimes against humanity and war crimes, to threaten immediate intervention to protect children from these crimes if they are repeated, in accordance with Chapter VII of the Charter of the United Nations, and to put real pressure on all parties to the conflict to stop all violations against children.
 
The report recommends that a group of civilized countries of the world that respect international law and human rights should intervene in every possible way to protect children in Syria from crimes against humanity and war crimes, and that they should work seriously to achieve a political transition towards democracy and human rights that guarantees stability and allows the return of displaced children and families to their homes and schools in dignity and safety.
 

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