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The Hague – The Syrian Network for Human Rights (SNHR) revealed in its latest monthly report released today that no fewer than 206 cases of arbitrary arrests were documented in September 2024, with those detained including nine children and 17 women. The group also noted that the Syrian regime has arrested nine refugees who returned from Lebanon amid the Israeli offensive.

The 21-page report notes that, given the staggering rates of continuing arbitrary arrests, the number of Syrian citizens classified as missing has skyrocketed, so much so that this can be called a phenomenon in itself. Indeed, Syria is now one of the worst countries worldwide in terms of the numbers of ‘disappeared’ citizens. The report adds that the Syrian regime surpasses many of the world’s other authoritarian regimes by virtue of having absolute hegemony over the legislative and judicial branches of government. The regime has wielded this hegemony to promulgate a multitude of laws and decrees that violate international human rights law, as well as the principles pf law and the parameters of arrests and interrogation established in domestic legislation and the current Constitution of 2012. A part of this process, the report stresses, is legitimizing the crime of torture. Syrian law contains several texts that outlaw torture, including Article 53 of the current Syrian constitution which bans arbitrary arrest and torture and Article 391 of the Public Penal Code, which provides that anyone who uses coercion during interrogation shall receive a timed prison sentence ranging from three months to three years, as well as wholly prohibiting torture. Despite these texts, however, other legal texts, including Law No. 16 of 2022 on Criminalizing Torture, explicitly contradict the aforementioned legal articles, and legitimize impunity for torturers.

The report summarizes the arbitrary arrests/detentions and the releases of detainees from various detention centers documented as having been perpetrated by the parties to the conflict and controlling forces in September 2024. The report does not, however, include abductions carried out by unidentified parties. Another exception made by SNHR is of individuals detained for committing criminal offenses, such as murder, theft, narcotics-related crimes, and other crimes that have no political nature or are unrelated to the armed conflict, dissident activism, or freedom of opinion and expression. The report also touches upon the laws and decrees promulgated by the parties to the conflict in relation to issues of arrest and enforced disappearance in the period covered. In much of its reportage, the report incorporates a descriptive and analytical methodology.

The report documents no fewer than 206 cases of arbitrary arrest/detention in September 2024, with those detained including nine children and 17 women (adult females). Of these, 158 have subsequently been classified as enforced disappearances. Syrian regime forces were responsible for 128 of the 206 cases, including of four children and 16 women, while all armed opposition factions/Syrian National Army (SNA) were responsible for 38 cases, with those arrested including two children one woman. Additionally, Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) were responsible for 21 cases, including of three children, while Hay’at Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) were responsible for 19 cases.

The report also shows the distribution of September’s cases across Syria’s governorates. Analysis of the data shows that Aleppo governorate saw the highest number of arbitrary arrests/detentions, followed by Damascus governorate, then in descending order, Rural Damascus, Hama and Idlib, Homs, Daraa, and Deir Ez-Zour. The report additionally compares the number of arbitrary arrests/detentions carried out by the parties to the conflict and controlling forces in Syria with the numbers of releases of detainees from the various forces’ detention centers documented in September 2024. In this regard, the report stresses that the number of arbitrary arrests far surpasses the number of releases from detention centers, with the number of releases equaling approximately 30 percent of all the detentions documented; this confirms again that at least two or three times as many people are detained as are released, primarily by the Syrian regime, which indicates that these arrest and detention practices are standard policy in comparison to the extremely limited numbers of people released by all parties to the conflict, but mainly from regime detention centers.

The report further notes that Syrian regime forces carried out more arrests/detentions of refugees returning from Lebanon, as they fled the escalating Israeli offensive that has been going on since September 23. These arrests took place at the formal and informal border crossings separating Lebanon and Syria. Most of those arrested were taken to the regime’s security and military detention centers in the governorates of Homs and Damascus. SNHR documented the arrest of at least nine refugees returning from Lebanon, most of them originally from Rural Damascus governorate, on the pretext of having failed to join the army or reserve forces as required by the regime’s conscription policies.

Moreover, the report notes that regime forces arrested/detained a number of activists in Latakia city, over their voicing criticism of the regime’s security and economic policies. These activists were taken to regime detention centers in Latakia city. The report also recorded arrests/detentions targeting civilians, including women and children, trying to return from areas under the control of armed opposition factions and HTS to their original residences in regime-held areas. These arrests were concentrated at checkpoints erected at the entrances to Damascus city. Most of those arrested were released a few days later from security branches in Damascus city.

The report also documents widespread arrests/detentions of civilians by regime personnel in the governorates of Rural Damascus, Damascus, Hama, and Aleppo on the pretext of their having failed to join the regime’s military or reserve forces as part of its mandatory military service policy. These arrests were carried out during raids or mass arrests at checkpoints, and even targeted individuals who had previously agreed to settle their security status with the regime in the areas that saw settlement agreements. Most of these arrests were carried out by the security branches for the purpose of extorting ransom money from the detainees’ families.

On a related note, the report stresses that, through the arbitrary detentions and enforced disappearances carried out in September, the Syrian regime continues to violate the orders of the Hague-based International Court of Justice (ICJ) issued in November 2023 on requesting provisional measures in the case brought by Canada and the Netherlands against the Syrian regime on the application of the Convention Against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment.

Meanwhile, the report notes, the SDF also continued enforcing the group’s policies of arbitrary detention and enforced disappearance in September 2024. In pursuit of these policies, SDF personnel continued carrying out campaigns of mass raids and detentions, targeting civilians on the pretext of fighting ISIS, with some of these arrest campaigns backed by US-led Coalition helicopters. The report also documented arrests/detentions of civilians over accusations of working with the SNA. Moreover, we documented more arrests/detention of civilians for forced conscription, with these detainees taken to SDF military training and recruitment camps, which are concentrated in SDF-controlled areas of Aleppo governorate. The SDF also continued abducting children with the objective of conscripting them for military training, with these children being sent to military training camps. The parents and families of these conscripted children are not allowed to contact them, while the SDF refuses to disclose their fate.

As the report further reveals, HTS detained more civilians in September 2024. These arrests, which were concentrated in Idlib governorate and some areas of rural Aleppo governorate under the group’s control, targeted media activists, political activists, and local dignitaries. Most of these arrests were carried out in connection with the detainees expressing opinions critical of HTS’s management of areas under its control. These detentions are routinely and arbitrarily carried out in the form of raids in which HTS members storm their victims’ homes, often breaking down the doors, or abducting their victims in the street or while they’re passing through temporary checkpoints. We also documented arrests/detentions mostly carried out as part of raids and mass arrests, or at checkpoints in Idlib governorate that targeted individuals over their participation in the recent anti-HTS protests in the governorate. Most of these arrests were concentrated in Idlib city. We also recorded arrests/detentions of a number of individuals over their alleged affiliation with the anti-HTS Tahrir Party. These arrests were concentrated in Idlib governorate.

Furthermore, the report goes on, armed opposition factions/SNA continued carrying out arbitrary arrests/detentions and kidnappings in September 2024, including of women. Most of these detentions were conducted on a mass scale, targeting individuals coming from areas controlled by the Syrian regime or the SDF. In addition, the report documents detentions during this period that exhibited an ethnic character, with these incidents concentrated in areas under the control of the armed opposition factions/SNA in Aleppo governorate. Most of these arrests occurred without judicial authorization and without the participation of the police force, which is the sole legitimate administrative body with the authority to carry out arrests and detentions through the judiciary, as well as being carried out without any clear charges being presented against those being detained. The report also documented raids and arrests by SNA personnel targeting civilians who were accused of working with the SDF, with these arrests being concentrated in some of the villages which are administratively part of Afrin city in Aleppo governorate. We also recorded arrests/detentions by SNA personnel of civilians returning to their houses in SNA-held areas, with these arrests being concentrated in Afrin city. Furthermore, the report recorded arrests carried out by the SNA’s al-Sultan Suleiman Shah Division targeting a number of civilians for refusing to pay charges imposed by al-Sultan Suleiman Shah group for the olive trees owned by those individuals. These arrests were concentrated in Kakhra village, administratively a part of Afrin city, in northern Aleppo governorate.

On the subject of releases, the report documents the release of 23 individuals by Syrian regime forces, including four children and 14 women. One of the releases was in connection with the amnesty decree promulgated by the Syrian regime on April 30, 2022 (Decree No. 7 of 2022). In Damascus governorate, the report reveals, the regime released three individuals. The detainees in question were released after serving the full term of their arbitrary sentence. As such, these releases were not related to any of the amnesty decrees that have been promulgated to date, with each of the released detainees having been imprisoned for about two years in regime detention centers. The report also documents the release of 19 individuals, including four children and 14 women, all of whom had been held for a few days without trial and without appearing before a court. Most of these detainees came from the governorates of Rural Damascus, Aleppo, and Daraa, with the majority having spent the duration of their detention in regime security branches.

As the report further reveals, 29 individuals were released from SDF detention centers. Twenty-six of these were released in connection with Amnesty Act No. 10 of 2024, promulgated by the group on July 17, 2024, which pardons crimes committed by Syrian nationals prior to that date. Those released had been detained for periods ranging from three months to one year, with most of them hailing originally from the governorates of Deir Ez-Zour and Hasaka.

The report also documents HTS’ release of seven individuals from its detention centers in Idlib governorate, with the released detainees having been detained for periods ranging from a few days to three months, without any clear charges being brought against them.

Elsewhere, all armed opposition factions/SNA released 24 individuals, including one child, after detaining them for periods ranging from a few days to a few months without bringing any clear charges against them or putting them on trial. Most were released only after their families had been extorted into paying sums of money to secure their release.

As the report further notes, SNHR’s data is now viewed as a reputable principal source of information by many UN bodies, being used in numerous statements and resolutions. The most recent of these was a draft resolution on the human rights situation in Syria (A/C.3/78/L.43), passed by a vote on Wednesday, November 15, 2023, which condemned the Syrian regime’s continuation of gross, systematic, and widespread violations of international humanitarian law and international human rights law. This latest resolution also acknowledged that the number of detainees in Syria continues to rise steadily, already exceeding 135,000. Relatedly, the resolution holds the regime responsible for the systematic use of enforced disappearance, which, it notes, constitutes a crime against humanity.

The report notes that the issue of detainees and forcibly disappeared persons is one of the most crucial human rights issues in Syria which there has been no progress in resolving despite its inclusion in several UN Security Council resolutions, as well as in UN General Assembly resolutions, in Kofi Annan’s plan, in Security Council resolution 2254 of December 2015, and finally in the statement on cessation of hostilities issued in February 2016.

The report stresses that the Syrian regime has not fulfilled any of its obligations in any of the international treaties and conventions it has ratified, most particularly the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights. It has also violated several articles of the Syrian Constitution itself, with thousands of detainees imprisoned without any arrest warrant for many years, without charges, and prevented from appointing a lawyer and from receiving family visits. Approximate 68 percent of all detentions documented have subsequently been categorized as enforced disappearance cases.

The report further notes that, in light of the continuing high rates of arbitrary arrests, torture, and enforced disappearance at the hands of Syrian regime forces, we have seen no indicator of any willingness on the Syrian regime’s part to end torture or comply with the ICJ’s order for provisional measures since it was issued on November 16, 2023. Even worse, the regime continues to imprison at least 136,614 arbitrarily arrested detainees/forcibly disappeared persons in its detention centers, all of whom are still being subjected to torture, which further confirms that the Syrian regime explicitly continues to contravene the Convention against Torture, which the regime ratified in 2004, and continues to fail to comply with the Convention.

The report additionally notes that the other parties (Syrian Democratic Forces, Hay’at Tahrir al Sham, and all Armed Opposition factions/Syrian National Army) are also all obliged to implement the provisions of international human rights law, and that they too have committed widespread violations through arrests and enforced disappearances.

In the report, SNHR again calls on the UN Security Council to follow through with the implementation of UN Security Resolution 2042, Resolution 2043, and Resolution 2139.

The report stresses that the UN must form an impartial special committee to monitor cases of arbitrary arrest and reveal the fate of the 112,000 missing persons in Syria, 85 percent of whom are detained by the Syrian regime. The report adds that pressure should be applied on all parties to immediately reveal their detention records in accordance with a set timetable, and to immediately make detainees’ whereabouts public, and allow humanitarian organizations and the International Committee of Red Cross to have direct access to them.

Lastly, the report emphasizes that children and women should immediately be released from captivity, and that families and friends of detainees or wanted individuals should not be detained as prisoners of war, as well as providing a number of additional recommendations.

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The Hague – The Syrian Network for Human Rights (SNHR) revealed in its latest report, released today, that 50 civilians were killed in Syria in September 2024, including 13 children and six women, with another 10 individuals, one of them a child, dying due to torture. The group also documented the killing of 96 Syrian refugees in the Israeli offensive on Lebanon, including 36 children and 19 women.

The 23-page report provides a summary of the civilian deaths that occurred in September 2024, shedding light particularly on victims who died due to torture, as well as documenting the massacres perpetrated by the parties to the conflict and controlling forces in Syria which the SNHR team was able to document during this period. The report also outlines the most notable incidents that took place during the month, in addition to summarizing the action taken by SNHR in regard to the issue of extrajudicial killings in Syria, as well as providing details of the attacks carried out against vital facilities during this month.

This report draws upon the constant daily monitoring of news and developments by SNHR’s team, and on information supplied by our extensive network of dozens of varied sources, as well as on the analysis of a large quantity of pictures and videos.

The report emphasizes the Syrian regime’s continuing absolute failure to register the deaths of any of the hundreds of thousands of citizens it has killed since March 2011 in the civil registry’s official death records. It explains that the regime exerts absolute control over the issuance of death certificates, which are not made available to any of its victims’ families, including those of the missing and forcibly disappeared, whether these victims were killed by the Syrian regime or by other affiliated parties. The regime only allows death certificates to be issued for those who meet the narrow criteria set by itself and its security services. The report further reveals that the vast majority of victims’ families are unable to obtain death certificates from the Syrian regime, for fear of linking their name with that of a person who was detained by the regime and killed under torture, meaning that he or she was a dissident who opposed the regime, or that their loved one might be registered as a ‘terrorist’ if they are wanted by the security services; additionally, many victims’ families have been forcibly displaced outside the areas controlled by the regime.

The report further reveals that on August 10, 2022, the regime government’s Minister of Justice issued Circular No. 22 specifying the procedures for the conduct of proceedings related to registering deaths within Sharia courts. The circular included new conditions stipulating that five items of evidence must be submitted to and approved by the relevant judges in proceedings related to registration of deaths. It also requires that all relevant courts involved in death registration cases comply with the circular’s content. The circular also imposed security clearance conditions on judicial authorities to register death cases, increasing the security services’ intrusion into these legal procedures.

The report documents the killing of 50 civilians, including 13 children and six women (adult female), in September 2024 at the hands of the parties to the conflict and controlling forces in Syria. Of the 50 civilians killed during this month, 18 civilians, including three children and two women, were killed by Syrian regime forces, while all armed opposition factions/Syrian National Army (SNA) killed two civilians, in addition to one civilian killed by Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF). Finally, 29 civilians, including 10 children and four women, were killed by other parties.

As the report further reveals, the two governorates of Idlib and Aleppo accounted for 24 percent of all civilian deaths in September, with regime forces killing 11 victims in the two governorates in total. Aleppo and Idlib were followed by Daraa, which accounted for about 22 percent of the total, with nine civilian victims there being killed by other parties.

On the subject of deaths due to torture, the report reveals that 10 people were documented as dying due to torture in Syria in September 2024, including nine who were killed at the hands of regime forces, with one of those nine victims being a child, while the tenth victim died due to torture at the hands of other parties. Moreover, the report notes that one medical worker was killed by regime forces in September.

The report stresses that the airstrikes carried out by fixed-wing Israeli warplanes across extensive civilian areas of Lebanon have killed hundreds of civilians, including 96 Syrian refuges, among them 36 children and 19 women, in the week between September 23 and September 30.

The report further reveals that SNHR documented 10 attacks on vital civilian facilities in September 2024 by the parties to the conflict and controlling forces in Syria, nine of them by regime forces, and the other one by all armed opposition factions/SNA.

The report additionally notes that the evidence collected by SNHR indicates that some of the attacks documented in the report were deliberately directed against civilians and civilian objects. These attacks, along with instances of indiscriminate bombardment, also resulted in the destruction of more vital facilities and other buildings. Moreover, the report notes, there are reasonable grounds to believe that the war crime of attacking civilians has been committed in many cases.

As the report also notes, the use of remote bombardment to target densely populated areas reflects a criminal mindset on the regime’s part, showing that it is intent on deliberately inflicting the greatest possible number of deaths, in clear contravention of international human rights law and flagrant violation of the Geneva IV Convention, Articles 27, 31, and 32.

The report further notes that no warnings have been given by Syrian regime forces, Russian forces, or US-led International Coalition forces before carrying out any of their attacks, as required by international humanitarian law. This has been the case since the beginning of the popular uprising in Syria, which shows an utter disregard for the lives of civilians in Syria.

Moreover, the report explains, it is clear from the volume of violations, their repeated nature, and the excessive level of force used, as well as the indiscriminate manner of the bombardment and the coordinated nature of the regime’s attacks, that they must be the result of orders from the higher echelons of power, carried out in accordance with state policy.

All armed opposition factions/SNA forces, meanwhile, have violated Security Council resolution 2139 through carrying out attacks that constitute violations of customary international humanitarian law, resulting in collateral civilian deaths and injuries.

The report calls on the UN Security Council to take additional steps following its adoption of Resolution 2254 and stresses the importance of referring the Syrian dossier to the International Criminal Court, adding that all those involved in perpetrating crimes against humanity and war crimes should be held accountable.

The report also urges all relevant United Nations agencies to make far greater efforts to provide food, medical, and humanitarian assistance in areas where fighting has ceased, and in internally displaced persons’ camps, and to follow up on payment with those states that have pledged voluntary contributions.

The report additionally calls for the implementation of the ‘Responsibility to Protect’ doctrine (R2P) after all political channels have proved fruitless throughout all the agreements reached, as well as the Cessation of Hostilities statements, and Astana agreements that followed, stressing the need to resort to Chapter VII, and to implement the norm of the ‘Responsibility to Protect’ doctrine, which was established by the United Nations General Assembly.

The report further recommends that the international community should work to launch projects to create maps revealing the locations of landmines and cluster munitions in all Syrian governorates. This, it notes, would facilitate the process of clearing these lethal munitions, as well as educating the population about their locations.

The report additionally calls on the Independent International Commission of Inquiry (COI) to launch investigations into the cases included in this report and previous reports and confirms the SNHR’s willingness to cooperate and to provide further evidence and data in any such investigations, as well as calling on the commission to focus on the issue of landmines and cluster munitions in its next report.

The report also stresses that the Syrian regime must stop the indiscriminate shelling and targeting of residential areas, hospitals, schools, and markets, as well as ending its acts of torture that have caused the deaths of thousands of Syrian citizens in detention centers and complying with UN Security Council resolutions and customary humanitarian law.

Lastly, the report reiterates SNHR’s appeal to all the parties to the conflict to provide detailed maps of the locations where they have planted landmines, especially those present in civilian locations or areas near residential communities, in addition to making several other recommendations.

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The Hague – The Syrian Network for Human Rights (SNHR) revealed in its latest monthly report released today that no fewer than 214 cases of arbitrary arrests were documented in August 2024, with those detained including 13 children and seven women. The group also noted that the Syrian regime has arrested 19 refugees who were forcibly deported from Lebanon.

The 21-page report notes that, given the staggering rates of continuing arbitrary arrests, the number of Syrian citizens classified as missing has skyrocketed, so much so that this can be called a phenomenon in itself. Indeed, Syria is now one of the worst countries worldwide in terms of the numbers of ‘disappeared’ citizens. The report adds that the Syrian regime surpasses many of the world’s other authoritarian regimes by virtue of having absolute hegemony over the legislative and judicial branches of government. The regime has wielded this hegemony to promulgate a multitude of laws and decrees that violate international human rights law, as well as the principles pf law and the parameters of arrests and interrogation established in domestic legislation and the current Constitution of 2012. A part of this process, the report stresses, is legitimizing the crime of torture. Syrian law contains several texts that outlaw torture, including Article 53 of the current Syrian constitution which bans arbitrary arrest and torture and Article 391 of the Public Penal Code, which provides that anyone who uses coercion during interrogation shall receive a timed prison sentence ranging from three months to three years, as well as wholly prohibiting torture. Despite these texts, however, other legal texts, including Law No. 16 of 2022 on Criminalizing Torture, explicitly contradict the aforementioned legal articles, and legitimize impunity for torturers.

The report summarizes the arbitrary arrests/detentions and the releases of detainees from various detention centers documented as having been carried out by the parties to the conflict and controlling forces in August 2024. The report does not, however, include abductions carried out by unidentified parties. Another exception made by SNHR is of individuals detained for committing criminal offenses, such as murder, theft, narcotics-related crimes, and other crimes that have no political nature or are unrelated to the armed conflict, dissident activism, or freedom of opinion and expression. The report also touches upon the laws and decrees promulgated by the parties to the conflict in relation to issues of arrest and enforced disappearance in the period covered. In much of its reportage, the report incorporates a descriptive and analytical methodology.

The report documents no fewer than 214 cases of arbitrary arrest/detention in August 2024, with those detained including 13 children and seven women (adult females). Of these, 173 have subsequently been classified as enforced disappearances. Syrian regime forces were responsible for 113 of the 214 cases, including of three children and one woman, while all armed opposition factions/Syrian National Army (SNA) were responsible for 46 cases, with those arrested including six children and five women. Additionally, Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) were responsible for 37 cases, including of four children and one woman, while Hay’at Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) were responsible for 18 cases.

The report also shows the distribution of August’s cases across Syria’s governorates. Analysis of the data shows that Aleppo governorate saw the highest number of arbitrary arrests/detentions, followed by Rural Damascus governorate, then in descending order, Deir Ez-Zour, Damascus, Homs, Hama and Idlib, and Daraa. The report additionally compares the number of arbitrary arrests/detentions carried out by the parties to the conflict and controlling forces in Syria with the numbers of releases of detainees from the various forces’ detention centers documented in August 2024. In this regard, the report stresses that the number of arbitrary arrests far surpasses the number of releases from detention centers, with the number of releases equaling approximately 30 percent of all the detentions documented; this confirms again that at least two or three times as many people are detained as are released, primarily by the Syrian regime, which indicates that these arrest and detention practices are standard policy in comparison to the extremely limited numbers of people released by all parties to the conflict, but mainly from regime detention centers.

The report further notes that Syrian regime forces carried out more arrests/detentions of refugees who had been forcibly repatriated from Lebanon. These arrests, which took place at the al-Masna Border Crossing on the Syrian-Lebanese border, were carried out after the Lebanese army had carried out raid and arrest campaigns targeting Syrian refugees in Lebanon who were then transferred to the border for deportation. Most of those arrested at the border by Syrian regime forces were taken to security and military detention centers in the governorates of Homs and Damascus. Moreover, the report notes that regime forces carried out widespread arrests/detentions of civilians in the governorates of Rural Damascus, Damascus, Hama, and Aleppo on the pretext of the detainees failing to join the regime’s military or reserve forces as part of its mandatory military service policy. These arrests were carried out during raids or mass arrests at checkpoints, and even targeted individuals who had previously agreed to settle their security status with the regime in the areas that saw settlement agreements. Most of these arrests were carried out by the security branches for the purpose of extorting ransom money from the family. There were also a number of arrests/detentions by regime forces targeting civilians trying to return from areas under the control of armed opposition factions and the HTS to their original residences in regime-held areas, as well as several arrests/detentions by regime forces targeting citizens, including children, in the governorates of Daraa, Deir Ez-Zour, and Aleppo. Most of these arrests were carried out as part of raids and mass arrests, as well as at checkpoints.

On a related note, the report stresses that, through these arbitrary detention and enforced disappearances carried out in August, the Syrian regime continues to violate the orders of the Hague-based International Court of Justice (ICJ) issued on November 16, 2023, on requesting provisional measures in the case brought by Canada and the Netherlands against the Syrian regime on the application of the Convention Against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment.

Meanwhile, the report notes, the SDF also continued enforcing the group’s policies of arbitrary detention and enforced disappearance in August 2024. In pursuit of these policies, SDF personnel continued carrying out campaigns of mass raids and detentions, targeting civilians on the pretext of fighting ISIS, with some of these arrest campaigns backed by US-led Coalition helicopters. We also documented arrests/detentions of civilians over accusations of working with the SNA. Moreover, we documented more arrests/detention of civilians for forced conscription, with these detainees taken to SDF military training and recruitment camps, which are concentrated in SDF-controlled areas of Aleppo governorate. Additionally, the report documented a number of arrests targeting individuals accused of being affiliated with the Arab tribes’ forces. Those arrests were concentrated in Deir Ez-Zour governorate. The SDF also continued abducting children with the objective of conscripting them for military training, with these children being sent to military training camps. The parents and families of these conscripted children are not allowed to contact them, while the SDF refuses to disclose their fate.

As the report further reveals, HTS detained more civilians in August 2024. These arrests, which were concentrated in Idlib governorate and some areas of rural Aleppo governorate under the group’s control, targeted media activists, political activists, and local dignitaries. Most of these arrests were carried out in connection with the detainees expressing opinions critical of HTS’s management of areas under its control. These detentions are routinely and arbitrarily carried out in the form of raids in which HTS members storm their victims’ homes, often breaking down the doors, or abducting their victims in the street or while they’re passing through temporary checkpoints. We also documented arrests/detentions mostly carried out as part of raids and mass arrests, or at checkpoints in Idlib governorate that targeted individuals over their participation in the recent anti-HTS protests in the governorate. Most of these arrests were concentrated in Ariha city.

Furthermore, the report states, armed opposition factions/SNA continued carrying out arbitrary arrests/detentions and kidnappings in August 2024, including of women. Most of these detentions were conducted on a mass scale, targeting individuals coming from areas controlled by the Syrian regime or the SDF. In addition, we documented detentions that exhibited an ethnic character, with these incidents concentrated in areas under the control of the armed opposition factions/SNA in Aleppo governorate. Most of these arrests occurred without judicial authorization and without the participation of the police force, which is the sole legitimate administrative authority responsible for arrests and detentions through the judiciary, as well as being carried out without any clear charges being presented against those being detained. Furthermore, we documented raids and arrests by SNA personnel targeting civilians accused of working with the SDF, with these arrests being concentrated in some of the villages which are administratively part of Afrin city in Aleppo governorate. We also recorded arrests/detentions by SNA personnel of civilians returning to their houses in SNA-held areas, with these arrests being concentrated in Afrin city. In addition, the report recorded arrests targeting media workers who have been arrested without any clear charges being brought against them. Most of these arrests were concentrated in eastern rural Aleppo governorate. Furthermore, we documented arrests targeting a number of individuals who were travelling from regime-held areas to the Syrian-Turkish borders to cross irregularly into Türkiye. These arrests were concentrated in Afrin city.

On the subject of releases, the report documents the release of 19 individuals by Syrian regime forces, including three children and one woman. One of the releases was in connection with the amnesty decree promulgated by the Syrian regime on April 30, 2022 (Decree No. 7 of 2022). The detainee in question was released from the government complex in Daraa city. In Damascus governorate, we documented the regime’s release of one individual originally from Daraa governorate. The detainee in question was released after serving the full term of their arbitrary sentence. As such, that release was not related to any of the amnesty decrees that have been promulgated to date, with the detainee having been imprisoned for about three years in regime detention centers. The report also documented the release of 17 individuals, including three children and one woman, all of whom had been held for periods ranging from a few days to a few months without trial and without appearing before a court. Most of these detainees came from the governorates of Rural Damascus, Aleppo, and Daraa, with the majority having spent the duration of their detention in regime security branches.

As the report further reveals, 24 individuals, including one child, were released from SDF detention centers. Fourteen of these, including one child, were released after being detained for periods ranging from a few days to four months. Most of those released came originally from the governorates of Deir Ez-Zour, Hasaka, and Aleppo. Meanwhile, the SDF released 10 individuals in connection with Amnesty Act No. 10 of 2024, promulgated by the group on July 17, 2024, which pardons crimes committed by Syrian nationals prior to that date. Those released had been detained for periods ranging from three months to one year, with most of them hailing originally from the governorates of Deir Ez-Zour and Hasaka.

The report also documents HTS’ release of 11 individuals from its detention centers in Idlib governorate, with the released detainees having been detained for periods ranging from a few days to one year, without any clear charges being brought against them. Elsewhere, all armed opposition factions/SNA released 13 individuals, including two children and three women, after detaining them for periods ranging from a few days to a few months without bringing any clear charges against them or putting them on trial. Most were released only after their families had been extorted into paying sums of money to secure their release.

As the report further notes, SNHR’s data is classified as a reputable principal source of information by many UN bodies, being used in numerous statements and resolutions. The most recent of these was a draft resolution on the human rights situation in Syria (A/C.3/78/L.43), passed by a vote on Wednesday, November 15, 2023, which condemned the Syrian regime’s continuation of gross, systematic, and widespread violations of international humanitarian law and international human rights law. This latest resolution also acknowledged that the number of detainees in Syria continues to rise steadily, already exceeding 135,000. Relatedly, the resolution holds the regime responsible for the systematic use of enforced disappearance, which, it notes, constitutes a crime against humanity.

The report notes that the issue of detainees and forcibly disappeared persons is one of the most crucial human rights issues in Syria which there has been no progress in resolving despite its inclusion in several UN Security Council resolutions, as well as in UN General Assembly resolutions, in Kofi Annan’s plan, in Security Council resolution 2254 of December 2015, and finally in the statement on cessation of hostilities issued in February 2016.

The report stresses that the Syrian regime has not fulfilled any of its obligations in any of the international treaties and conventions it has ratified, most particularly the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights. It has also violated several articles of the Syrian Constitution itself, with thousands of detainees imprisoned without any arrest warrant for many years, without charges, and prevented from appointing a lawyer and from receiving family visits. Approximate 68 percent of all detentions documented have subsequently been categorized as enforced disappearance cases.

The report further notes that, in light of the continuing high rates of arbitrary arrests, torture, and enforced disappearance at the hands of Syrian regime forces, we see no indicator of any willingness on the Syrian regime’s part to end torture or comply with the ICJ’s order for provisional measures since its issuance on November 16, 2023. Even worse, the regime continues to imprison 136,528 arbitrarily arrested detainees/forcibly disappeared persons in its detention centers, all of whom are still being subjected to torture, which further confirms that the Syrian regime explicitly continues to contravene the Convention against Torture, which the regime ratified in 2004, and continues to fail to comply with the Convention.

The report additionally notes that the other parties (Syrian Democratic Forces, Hay’at Tahrir al Sham, and all Armed Opposition factions/Syrian National Army are also all obliged to implement the provisions of international human rights law, and that they too have committed widespread violations through arrests and enforced disappearances.

In the report, SNHR again calls on the UN Security Council to follow through with the implementation of UN Security Resolution 2042, Resolution 2043, and Resolution 2139.

The report stresses that the UN must form an impartial special committee to monitor cases of arbitrary arrest and reveal the fate of the 112,000 missing persons in Syria, 85 percent of whom are detained by the Syrian regime. The report adds that pressure should be applied on all parties to immediately reveal their detention records in accordance with a timetable, and to immediately make detainees’ whereabouts public, and allow humanitarian organizations and the International Committee of Red Cross to have direct access to them.

Lastly, the report emphasizes that children and women should immediately be released from captivity, and that families and friends of detainees or wanted individuals should not be detained as prisoners of war, as well as providing a number of additional recommendations.

Press release: (Download the full report below)

The Hague – The Syrian Network for Human Rights (SNHR) revealed in its latest report, released today, that 57 civilians were killed in Syria in August 2024, including 13 children and six women, as well as six individuals who died due to torture.

The 23-page report provides a summary of the civilian deaths that occurred in August 2024, shedding light particularly on victims who died due to torture, as well as documenting the massacres perpetrated by the parties to the conflict and controlling forces in Syria which the SNHR team was able to document during this period. The report also outlines the most notable incidents that took place during the month, in addition to summarizing the action taken by SNHR in regard to the issue of extrajudicial killings in Syria, as well as providing details of the attacks carried out against vital facilities during this month.

This report draws upon the constant daily monitoring of news and developments by SNHR’s team, and on information supplied by our extensive network of dozens of varied sources, as well as on the analysis of a large quantity of pictures and videos.

The report emphasizes the Syrian regime’s continuing absolute failure to register the deaths of any of the hundreds of thousands of citizens it has killed since March 2011 in the civil registry’s official death records. It explains that the regime exerts absolute control over the issuance of death certificates, which are not made available to any of its victims’ families, including those of the missing and forcibly disappeared, whether these victims were killed by the Syrian regime or by other affiliated parties. The regime only allows death certificates to be issued for those who meet the narrow criteria set by itself and its security services. The report further reveals that the vast majority of victims’ families are unable to obtain death certificates from the Syrian regime, for fear of linking their name with that of a person who was detained by the regime and killed under torture, meaning that he or she was a dissident who opposed the regime, or that their loved one might be registered as a ‘terrorist’ if they are wanted by the security services; additionally, many victims’ families have been forcibly displaced outside the areas controlled by the regime.

The report further reveals that on August 10, 2022, the regime government’s Minister of Justice issued Circular No. 22 specifying the procedures for the conduct of proceedings related to registering deaths within Sharia courts. The circular included new conditions stipulating that five items of evidence must be submitted to and approved by the relevant judges in proceedings related to registration of deaths. It also requires that all relevant courts involved in death registration cases comply with the circular’s content. The circular also imposed security clearance conditions on judicial authorities to register death cases, increasing the security services’ intrusion into these legal procedures.

The report documents the killing of 57 civilians, including 13 children and six women (adult female), in August 2024 at the hands of the parties to the conflict and controlling forces in Syria. Of the 57 civilians killed during this month, 21 civilians, including six children and five women, were killed by Syrian regime forces, while Hay’at Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) killed one civilian. The report adds that the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) killed four civilians, including two children and one woman. Finally, 31 civilians, including five children, were killed by other parties.

As the report further reveals, Deir Ez-Zour governorate saw the highest number of civilian deaths in August, accounting for about 39 percent of the total. Of all the victims killed in Deir Ez-Zour this month, 13 were killed by regime forces. Deir Ez-Zour was followed by Daraa, which accounted for about 35 percent with 17 civilian deaths.

On the subject of deaths due to torture, the report reveals that six people were documented as dying due to torture in Syria in August 2024 at the hands of regime forces.

Moreover, the report notes that SNHR documented two massacres that were committed by regime forces in the month of August. This brings the total number of massacres documented since the start of 2024 to 11.

The report further reveals that SNHR documented at least seven attacks on vital civilian facilities in July 2024 by the parties to the conflict and controlling forces in Syria, including five attacks by regime forces, while the remaining two were carried out by all armed opposition factions/SNA.

The report additionally notes that the evidence collected by SNHR indicates that some of the attacks documented in the report were deliberately directed against civilians and civilian objects. These attacks, along with instances of indiscriminate bombardment, also resulted in the destruction of more vital facilities and other buildings. Moreover, the report notes, there are reasonable grounds to believe that the war crime of attacking civilians has been committed in many cases.

As the report also notes, the use of remote bombardment to target densely populated areas reflects a criminal mindset on the regime’s part, showing that it is intent on deliberately inflicting the greatest possible number of deaths, in clear contravention of international human rights law and flagrant violation of the Geneva IV Convention, Articles 27, 31, and 32.

The report further notes that no warnings have been given by Syrian regime forces, Russian forces, or US-led International Coalition forces before carrying out any of their attacks, as required by international humanitarian law. This has been the case since the beginning of the popular uprising in Syria, which shows an utter disregard for the lives of civilians in Syria.

Moreover, it is clear from the volume of violations, their repeated nature, and the excessive level of force used, as well as the indiscriminate manner of the bombardment and the coordinated nature of the regime’s attacks, that they must be the result of orders from the higher echelons of power in accordance with a state policy.

All armed opposition factions/SNA forces, meanwhile, have violated Security Council resolution 2139 through attacks that constitute violations of customary international humanitarian law, resulting in collateral civilian deaths and injuries.

The report calls on the UN Security Council to take additional steps following its adoption of Resolution 2254 and stresses the importance of referring the Syrian dossier to the International Criminal Court, adding that all those involved in perpetrating crimes against humanity and war crimes should be held accountable.

The report also urges all relevant United Nations agencies to make far greater efforts to provide food, medical, and humanitarian assistance in areas where fighting has ceased, and in internally displaced persons’ camps, and to follow up on payment with those states that have pledged voluntary contributions.

The report additionally calls for the implementation of the ‘Responsibility to Protect’ doctrine (R2P) after all political channels have proved fruitless throughout all the agreements reached, as well as the Cessation of Hostilities statements, and Astana agreements that followed, stressing the need to resort to Chapter VII, and to implement the norm of the ‘Responsibility to Protect’ doctrine, which was established by the United Nations General Assembly.

The report further recommends that the international community should work to launch projects to create maps revealing the locations of landmines and cluster munitions in all Syrian governorates. This, it notes, would facilitate the process of clearing these lethal munitions, as well as educating the population about their locations.

The report additionally calls on the Independent International Commission of Inquiry (COI) to launch investigations into the cases included in this report and previous reports and confirms the SNHR’s willingness to cooperate and to provide further evidence and data in any such investigations, as well as calling on the commission to focus on the issue of landmines and cluster munitions in its next report.

The report also stresses that the Syrian regime must stop the indiscriminate shelling and targeting of residential areas, hospitals, schools, and markets, as well as ending its acts of torture that have caused the deaths of thousands of Syrian citizens in detention centers and complying with UN Security Council resolutions and customary humanitarian law.

Lastly, the report reiterates SNHR’s appeal to all the parties to the conflict to provide detailed maps of the locations where they have planted landmines, especially those present in civilian locations or areas near residential communities, in addition to making several other recommendations.

Press release: (Download the full report below)

The Hague – The Syrian Network for Human Rights (SNHR) revealed in its latest monthly report released today that no fewer than 209 cases of arbitrary arrests were documented in July 2024, with those detained including 14 children and three women. The group also noted that the Syrian regime has arrested 17 refugees who were forcibly deported from Lebanon.

The 21-page report notes that, given the staggering rates of continuing arbitrary arrests, the number of Syrian citizens classified as missing has skyrocketed, so much so that this can be called a phenomenon in itself. Indeed, Syria is now one of the worst countries worldwide in terms of the numbers of ‘disappeared’ citizens. The report adds that the Syrian regime surpasses many of the world’s other authoritarian regimes by virtue of having absolute hegemony over the legislative and judicial branches of government. The regime has wielded this hegemony to promulgate a multitude of laws and decrees that violate international human rights law, as well as the principles pf law and the parameters of arrests and interrogation established in domestic legislation and the current Constitution of 2012. A part of this process, the report stresses, is legitimizing the crime of torture. Syrian law contains several texts that outlaw torture, including Article 53 of the current Syrian constitution which bans arbitrary arrest and torture and Article 391 of the Public Penal Code, which provides that anyone who uses coercion during interrogation shall receive a timed prison sentence ranging from three months to three years, while torture is wholly prohibited. Despite these texts, however, other legal texts, including Law No. 16 of 2022 on Criminalizing Torture, explicitly contradict the aforementioned legal articles, and legitimize impunity for torturers.

The report summarizes the arbitrary arrests/detentions and the releases of detainees from various detention centers documented as having been carried out by the parties to the conflict and controlling forces in July 2024. The report does not, however, include abductions carried out by unidentified parties. Another exception made by SNHR is of individuals detained for committing criminal offenses, such as murder, theft, narcotics-related crimes, and other crimes that have no political nature or are unrelated to the armed conflict, dissident activism, or freedom of opinion and expression. The report also touches upon the laws and decrees promulgated by the parties to the conflict in relation to issues of arrest and enforced disappearance in the period covered. In much of its reportage, the report incorporates a descriptive and analytic methodology.

The report documents no fewer than 209 cases of arbitrary arrest/detention in July 2024, with those detained including 14 children and three women (adult females). Of these, 157 have subsequently been classified as enforced disappearances. Syrian regime forces were responsible for 106 of the 209 cases, including of one child and two women, while Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) were responsible for 43 cases, including of 13 children. Additionally, the report records 32 arbitrary arrests/detentions at the hands of Hay’at Tahrir al-Sham (HTS), while all armed opposition factions/Syrian National Army (SNA) were responsible for 28 arbitrary arrests/detentions.

The report also shows the distribution of July’s cases across Syria’s governorates. Analysis of the data shows that Aleppo governorate saw the highest number of arbitrary arrests/detentions, followed by Rural Damascus governorate, then in descending order, Idlib, Homs, Deir Ez-Zour and Damascus, and then Hasaka. The report also compares the number of arbitrary arrests/detentions carried out by the parties to the conflict and controlling forces in Syria with the numbers of releases of detainees from the various forces’ detention centers documented in July 2024. In this regard, the report stresses that the number of arbitrary arrests far surpasses the number of releases from detention centers, with the number of releases equaling approximately 30 percent of all the detentions documented; this confirms again that at least two or three times as many people are detained as are released, primarily by the Syrian regime, which indicates that these arrest and detention practices are standard policy in comparison to the extremely limited numbers of people released by all parties to the conflict, but mainly from regime detention centers.

The report further notes that Syrian regime forces carried out more arrests/detentions of refugees who had been forcibly repatriated from Lebanon. These arrests, which took place at the al-Masna Border Crossing on the Syrian-Lebanese border, were carried out after the Lebanese army had carried out raid and arrest campaigns targeting Syrian refugees in Lebanon who were then transferred to the border for deportation. Most of those arrested at the border by Syrian regime forces were taken to security and military detention centers in the governorates of Homs and Damascus.

Additionally, regime forces carried out widespread arrests/detentions of civilians by regime personnel in the governorates of Rural Damascus and Hama on the pretext of the detainees failing to join the regime’s military or reserve forces as part of its mandatory military service policy. These arrests were carried out during raids or mass arrests at checkpoints, and even targeted individuals who had previously agreed to settle their security situation with the regime in the areas that saw settlement agreements. Furthermore, the report documents arrests/detentions by regime forces of a number of individuals in Syria who were heading towards the Syrian-Lebanese borders to cross irregularly into Lebanon. These arrests were concentrated in Homs governorate. In addition, the report recorded arrests/detentions carried out by the Syrian regime’s Fourth Division targeting citizens at checkpoints who were trying to enter al-Hajar al-Aswad subdistrict to check on their homes, from which they had been displaced at an earlier date. There were also arrests/detentions carried out by security forces at the regime’s various Immigration and Passport Departments, as well as centers that issue non-conviction documents (background screening certification documents confirming individuals have no criminal convictions), in regime-held governorates. These arrests targeted civilians who were trying to obtain travel documents to leave the country.

On a related note, the report stresses that, through these arbitrary detention and enforced disappearances carried out in July, the Syrian regime continues to violate the orders of the Hague-based International Court of Justice (ICJ) issued on November 16, 2023, on requesting provisional measures in the case brought by Canada and the Netherlands against the Syrian regime on the application of the Convention Against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment.

Meanwhile, the report notes, the SDF also continued enforcing the group’s policies of arbitrary detention and enforced disappearance in July 2024. In pursuit of these policies, SDF personnel continued carrying out campaigns of mass raids and detentions, targeting civilians on the pretext of fighting ISIS, with some of these arrest campaigns backed by US-led Coalition helicopters. We also documented arrests/detentions of civilians over accusations of working with the SNA. Moreover, we documented more arrests/detention of civilians for forced conscription, with these detainees taken to SDF military training and recruitment camps, which are concentrated in SDF-controlled areas of Aleppo governorate. Additionally, we documented a number of arrests targeting individuals accused of being affiliated with the Arab tribes’ forces. Those arrests were concentrated in Deir Ez-Zour governorate.

The SDF also continued abducting children with the objective of conscripting them for military training, with these children being sent to military training camps; the parents and families of these conscripted children are not allowed to contact them, while the SDF refuses to disclose their fate.

As the report further reveals, HTS detained more civilians in July 2024. These arrests, which were concentrated in Idlib governorate and some areas of rural Aleppo governorate under the group’s control, targeted media activists, political activists, and local dignitaries. Most of these arrests were carried out in connection with the detainees expressing opinions critical of HTS’s management of areas under its control. These detentions are routinely and arbitrarily carried out in the form of raids in which HTS members storm their victims’ homes, often breaking down the doors, or abducting their victims in the street or while they’re passing through temporary checkpoints. The report also documents arrests/detentions mostly carried out as part of raids and mass arrests, or at checkpoints in Idlib governorate that targeted individuals over their participation in the recent anti-HTS protests in the governorate. Most of these arrests were concentrated in Binnesh city in Idlib governorate.

Furthermore, the report continues, all armed opposition factions/SNA continued carrying out arbitrary arrests/detentions and kidnappings in July 2024, including of women. Most of these detentions were conducted on a mass scale, targeting individuals coming from areas controlled by the Syrian regime or the SDF. In addition, the report documented detentions that exhibited an ethnic character, with these incidents concentrated in areas under the control of the armed opposition factions/SNA in Aleppo governorate. Most of these arrests occurred without judicial authorization and without the participation of the police force, which is the sole legitimate administrative authority responsible for arrests and detentions through the judiciary, as well as being carried out without any clear charges being presented against those being detained. Furthermore, the report documented raids and arrests by SNA personnel targeting civilians who were accused of working with the SDF, with these arrests being concentrated in some of the villages which are administratively part of Afrin city in Aleppo governorate. The report also recorded arrests/detentions of civilians by the SNA’s ‘al-Sultan Squad’ in retaliation for those people demanding the return of their homes which had been seized by al-Sultan Squad at an earlier date. Those arrests were concentrated in Afrin city. Additionally, the report documented arrests of IDPs returning to their houses in SNA-controlled areas. Those arrests were also concentrated in Afrin city. There were also arrests involving a number of individuals who were travelling from regime-held areas to the Syrian-Turkish borders to cross irregularly into Türkiye. These arrests were concentrated in Afrin city.

On the subject of releases, the report documents the release of 23 detainees by Syrian regime forces, including the release of two detainees in connection with the amnesty decree promulgated by the Syrian regime on April 30, 2022 (Decree No. 7 of 2022). Also, in Damascus governorate, the report documents the regime’s release of two individuals originally from Daraa governorate. These detainees were released after serving the full term of their arbitrary sentences of about five years. Additionally, the report documents the release of 19 individuals who had been held without trial for a few days. Most of these detainees came from the governorates of Rural Damascus, Aleppo, and Daraa, and most had spent the duration of their detention in regime security branches.

As the report further reveals, 257 people, including two children, were released in July from SDF detention centers. The SDF released 14 individuals, including two children, from its detention centers after holding them for periods ranging from a few days to three months. Most of those released came originally from the governorates of Deir Ez-Zour, Hasaka, and Aleppo. The majority of these releases, however, came in in connection with Amnesty Act No. 10 of 2024, promulgated by the group on July 17, 2024, which pardons crimes committed by Syrian nationals prior to July 17, 2024. The SDF released 243 individuals who had been detained for periods ranging from three months to seven years, with most of them hailing originally from the governorates of Deir Ez-Zour, Hasaka, Raqqa, and Aleppo.

The report also documents HTS’ release of 26 individuals from its detention centers in Idlib governorate, with the released detainees having been detained for periods ranging from a few days to three years, without any clear charges being brought against them. Elsewhere, all armed opposition factions/SNA released 12 individuals, including one woman, after detaining them for periods ranging from a few days to a few months without bringing any clear charges against them or putting them on trial. Most were released only after their families had been extorted into paying sums of money to secure their release.

As the report further notes, SNHR’s data is classified as a reputable principal source of information by many UN bodies, being used in numerous statements and resolutions. The most recent of these was a draft resolution on the human rights situation in Syria (A/C.3/78/L.43), passed by a vote on Wednesday, November 15, 2023, which condemned the Syrian regime’s continuation of gross, systematic, and widespread violations of international humanitarian law and international human rights law. This latest resolution also acknowledged that the number of detainees in Syria continues to rise steadily, already exceeding 135,000. Relatedly, the resolution holds the regime responsible for the systematic use of enforced disappearance, which, it notes, constitutes a crime against humanity.

The report notes that the issue of detainees and forcibly disappeared persons is one of the most crucial human rights issues in Syria which there has been no progress in resolving despite its inclusion in several UN Security Council resolutions, as well as in UN General Assembly resolutions, in Kofi Annan’s plan, in Security Council resolution 2254 of December 2015, and finally in the statement on cessation of hostilities issued in February 2016.

The report stresses that the Syrian regime has not fulfilled any of its obligations in any of the international treaties and conventions it has ratified, most particularly the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights. It has also violated several articles of the Syrian Constitution itself, with thousands of detainees imprisoned without any arrest warrant for many years, without charges, and prevented from appointing a lawyer and from receiving family visits. Approximate 68 percent of all detentions documented have subsequently been categorized as enforced disappearance cases.

The report further notes that, in light of the continuing high rates of arbitrary arrests, torture, and enforced disappearance at the hands of Syrian regime forces, we see no indicator of any willingness on the Syrian regime’s part to end torture or comply with the ICJ’s order for provisional measures since its issuance on November 16, 2023. Even worse, the regime continues to imprison 136,528 arbitrarily arrested detainees/forcibly disappeared persons in its detention centers, all of whom are still being subjected to torture, which further confirms that the Syrian regime explicitly continues to contravene the Convention against Torture, which the regime ratified in 2004, and continues to fail to comply with the Convention.

The report additionally notes that the other parties (Syrian Democratic Forces, Hay’at Tahrir al Sham, and all Armed Opposition factions/Syrian National Army are also all obliged to implement the provisions of international human rights law, and that they have committed widespread violations through arrests and enforced disappearances.

In the report, SNHR again calls on the UN Security Council to follow through with the implementation of UN Security Resolution 2042, Resolution 2043, and Resolution 2139.

The report stresses that the UN must form an impartial special committee to monitor cases of arbitrary arrest and reveal the fate of the 112,000 missing persons in Syria, 85 percent of whom are detained by the Syrian regime. The report adds that pressure should be applied on all parties to immediately reveal their detention records in accordance with a timetable, and to immediately make detainees’ whereabouts public, and allow humanitarian organizations and the International Committee of Red Cross to have direct access to them.

Lastly, the report emphasizes that children and women should immediately be released from captivity, and that families and friends of detainees or wanted individuals should not be detained as prisoners of war, as well as providing a number of additional recommendations.

Press release: (Download the full report below)

The Hague – The Syrian Network for Human Rights (SNHR) revealed in its latest report, released today, that 65 civilians were killed in Syria in July 2024, including 23 children and three women, as well as six individuals who died due to torture.

The 24-page report provides a summary of the civilian deaths that occurred in July 2024, shedding light particularly on victims who died due to torture, as well as documenting the massacres perpetrated by the parties to the conflict and controlling forces in Syria which the SNHR team was able to document during this period. The report also outlines the most notable incidents that took place during the month, in addition to summarizing the action taken by SNHR in regard to the issue of extrajudicial killings in Syria, as well as providing details of the attacks carried out against vital facilities during this month.

This report draws upon the constant daily monitoring of news and developments by SNHR’s team, and on information supplied by our extensive network of dozens of various sources, as well as on the analysis of a large quantity of pictures and videos.

The report emphasizes the Syrian regime’s continuing absolute failure to register the deaths of any of the hundreds of thousands of citizens it has killed since March 2011 in the official death records of the civil registry. It explains that the regime exerts absolute control over the issuance of death certificates, which are not made available to any of its victims’ families, including those of the missing and forcibly disappeared, whether these victims were killed by the Syrian regime or by other affiliated parties. The regime only allows death certificates to be issued for those who meet the narrow criteria set by itself and its security services. The report further reveals that the vast majority of victims’ families are unable to obtain death certificates from the Syrian regime, for fear of linking their name with that of a person who was detained by the regime and killed under torture, meaning that he or she was a dissident who opposed the regime, or of their loved one being registered as a ‘terrorist’ if they are wanted by the security services; additionally, many victims’ families have been forcibly displaced outside the areas controlled by the regime.

The report further reveals that on August 10, 2022, the regime government’s Minister of Justice issued Circular No. 22 specifying the procedures for the conduct of proceedings related to registering deaths within Sharia courts. The circular included new conditions stipulating that five items of evidence must be submitted to and approved by the relevant judges in proceedings related to registration of deaths. It also requires that all relevant courts involved in death registration cases comply with the circular’s content. The circular also imposed security clearance conditions on judicial authorities to register death cases, increasing the security services’ intrusion into these legal procedures.

The report documents the killing of 65 civilians, including 23 children and three women (adult female), in July 2024 at the hands of the parties to the conflict and controlling forces. Of the 65 civilians killed during this month, eight civilians, including two children, were killed by Syrian regime forces, while Hay’at Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) killed two civilians. The report adds that the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) killed four civilians, including two children and one woman, while the US-led International Coalition forces killed one child. Finally, 50 civilians, including 18 children and two women, were killed by other parties, including 12 children who were killed by the Lebanese group Hezbollah.

As the report further reveals, Daraa governorate saw the highest number of civilian deaths in July, accounting for about 31 percent of the total. Of all the victims killed in Daraa this month, 18 were killed by other parties. Daraa was followed by the Occupied Golan Heights, which accounted for about 18 percent of the total, and then by Aleppo governorate with 15 percent.

On the subject of deaths due to torture, the report reveals that six people were documented as dying due to torture in Syria, in July 2024. Of these victims, four died due to torture at the hands of by Syrian regime forces, while two died due to torture at the hands of HTS. Meanwhile, one medical worker was killed in the month of July at the hands of other parties.

Moreover, the report notes that SNHR documented one massacre committed by other parties in the month of July, bringing the total number of massacres documented since the start of 2024 to 10.

The report further reveals that SNHR documented eight attacks on vital civilian facilities in July 2024 by the parties to the conflict and controlling forces in Syria, including five attacks by regime forces, while one attack was carried out by all armed opposition factions/SNA, and two by other parties.

The report additionally notes that the evidence collected by SNHR indicates that some of the attacks documented in the report were deliberately directed against civilians and civilian objects. These attacks, along with instances of indiscriminate bombardment, also resulted in the destruction of more vital facilities and other buildings. Moreover, the report notes, there are reasonable grounds to believe that the war crime of attacking civilians has been committed in many cases.

As the report also notes, the use of remote bombardment to target densely populated areas reflects a criminal mindset on the regime’s part, showing that it is intent on deliberately inflicting the greatest possible number of deaths, in clear contravention of international human rights law and flagrant violation of the Geneva IV Convention, Articles 27, 31, and 32.

The report further notes that no warnings have been given by Syrian regime forces, Russian forces, or US-led International Coalition forces before carrying out any of their attacks, as required by international humanitarian law. This has been the case since the beginning of the popular uprising in Syria, which shows an utter disregard for the lives of civilians in Syria.

Moreover, it is clear from the volume of violations, their repeated nature, and the excessive level of force used, as well as the indiscriminate manner of the bombardment and the coordinated nature of the regime’s attacks, that they must be the result of orders from the higher echelons of power in accordance with a state policy.

All armed opposition factions/SNA forces, meanwhile, have violated Security Council resolution 2139 through attacks that constitute violations of customary international humanitarian law, resulting in collateral civilian deaths and injuries.

The report calls on the UN Security Council to take additional steps following its adoption of Resolution 2254 and stresses the importance of referring the Syrian dossier to the International Criminal Court, adding that all those involved in perpetrating crimes against humanity and war crimes should be held accountable.

The report also urges all relevant United Nations agencies to make far greater efforts to provide food, medical, and humanitarian assistance in areas where fighting has ceased, and in internally displaced persons’ camps, and to follow up on payment with those states that have pledged voluntary contributions.

The report additionally calls for the implementation of the ‘Responsibility to Protect’ doctrine (R2P) after all political channels have proved fruitless throughout all the agreements reached, as well as the Cessation of Hostilities statements, and Astana agreements that followed, stressing the need to resort to Chapter VII, and to implement the norm of the ‘Responsibility to Protect’ doctrine, which was established by the United Nations General Assembly.

The report further recommends that the international community should work to launch projects to create maps revealing the locations of landmines and cluster munitions in all Syrian governorates. This, it notes, would facilitate the process of clearing these lethal munitions, as well as educating the population about their locations.

The report additionally calls on the Independent International Commission of Inquiry (COI) to launch investigations into the cases included in this report and previous reports and confirms the SNHR’s willingness to cooperate and to provide further evidence and data in any such investigations, as well as calling on the commission to focus on the issue of landmines and cluster munitions in its next report.

The report also stresses that the Syrian regime must stop the indiscriminate shelling and targeting of residential areas, hospitals, schools, and markets, as well as ending its acts of torture that have caused the deaths of thousands of Syrian citizens in detention centers and complying with UN Security Council resolutions and customary humanitarian law.

Lastly, the report reiterates SNHR’s appeal to all the parties to the conflict to provide detailed maps of the locations where they have planted landmines, especially those present in civilian locations or areas near residential communities, in addition to making several other recommendations.

Press release: (Download the full report below)

The Hague – The Syrian Network for Human Rights (SNHR) revealed in its latest monthly report released today that no fewer than 1,236 cases of arbitrary arrests were documented in the first half of 2024, with those detained including 56 children and 30 women. Meanwhile, 217 of the 1,236 cases documented in the first half of 2024, were documented in June. The report also notes that at least 126 forcibly deported refugees have been arrested since the start of 2024.

The 27-page report reveals that, as SNHR’s database confirms, about 73 percent of all arbitrary detentions carried out in Syria subsequently turn into enforced disappearances, with the Syrian regime being responsible for about 88 percent of all the arbitrary arrests documented. Naturally, given these staggering rates of arbitrary arrest, the number of Syrian citizens classified as missing has skyrocketed, so much so that this can be called a phenomenon in itself. Indeed, Syria is one of the worst countries worldwide in terms of the numbers of ‘disappeared’ citizens.

The report also stresses that the Syrian regime surpasses many of the world’s other authoritarian regimes by virtue of having absolute hegemony over the legislative and judicial branches of government. The regime has wielded this hegemony to pass a multitude of laws and decrees that violate international human rights law, as well as the principles of law and the parameters of arrests and interrogation established in domestic legislation and by Syria’s current Constitution, most recently amended in 2012. Moreover, the Syrian regime has legitimized the crime of torture, disregarding the existence of several texts in Syrian law that explicitly outlaw torture, including Article 53 of the current Syrian constitution which bans arbitrary arrest and torture and Article 391 of the Public Penal Code, which provides that anyone who uses coercion during interrogation shall receive a timed prison sentence ranging from three months to three years, while torture is wholly prohibited. Despite these proscriptions, however, other quasi-legal texts have been introduced, including Law No. 16 of 2022 on Criminalizing Torture, which explicitly contradict the aforementioned legal articles, and legitimize impunity.

The report summarizes the arbitrary arrests/detentions and the releases of detainees from various detention centers documented as having been carried out by the parties to the conflict and controlling forces in the first half of 2024 up to, and including June. The report does not, however, include abductions carried out by unidentified parties. Another exception made by SNHR is of individuals detained for committing criminal offenses, such as murder, theft, narcotics-related crimes, and other crimes that have no political nature or are unrelated to the armed conflict, dissident activism, or freedom of opinion and expression. The report also touches upon the laws and decrees promulgated by the parties to the conflict in relation to issues of arrest and enforced disappearance in the period covered. In much of its reportage, the report incorporates a descriptive and analytic methodology.

The report documents no fewer than 1,236 cases of arbitrary arrest/detention in the first half of 2024, with those detained including 56 children and 30 women (adult females). Of these, 1,007 have subsequently been classified as enforced disappearances. Syrian regime forces were responsible for 549 of the 1,236 arrests, including of eight children and 14 women, while Hay’at Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) were responsible for 121. Additionally, all armed opposition factions/Syrian National Army (SNA) were responsible for 219 arrests, including of two children and nine women, while Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) were responsible for 347, including of 46 children and seven women.

The report also shows the distribution of these cases across Syria’s governorates. Analysis of the data shows that Aleppo governorate saw the highest number of arrests in the first half of 2024, followed, in descending order, by Deir Ez-Zour governorate, then Rural Damascus governorate, then Idlib, Damascus, Homs, and finally Hasaka. The report also compares the number of arbitrary arrests/detentions carried out by the parties to the conflict and controlling forces in Syria with the numbers of releases of detainees from the various forces’ detention centers documented in the first half of 2024. In this regard, the report stresses that the number of arbitrary arrests far surpasses the number of releases from detention centers, with the number of releases equaling approximately 30 percent of all the detentions documented; this confirms again that at least two or three times as many people are detained as are released, primarily by the Syrian regime, which indicates that these arrest and detention practices are standard policy in comparison to the extremely limited numbers of people released by all parties to the conflict, but mainly by regime forces. On the subject of releases, the report records at least 398 releases from the various detention centers in Syria in the first half of 2024, including of 13 children and 11 women.

The report documents no fewer than 217 cases of arbitrary arrest/detention in June 2024, with those detained including eight children and five women (adult female). Of these, 177 have subsequently been classified as enforced disappearances. Syrian regime forces were responsible for 93 of the 217 arrests, including of two children and three women, while HTS was responsible for 38. Additionally, all armed opposition factions/SNA were responsible for 34 arrests, while the SDF was responsible for 52, including of six children and two women. Meanwhile, the report recorded 81 releases from the various detention centers in Syria in June 2024, including of three children and three women.

The report stresses that the Syrian regime intensified its arrest operations in the first half of 2024, with these arrests taking place in various contexts, ahead of the promulgation of an anticipated amnesty decree. Another indicator is the noticeable increase in arrest rates which coincided with a noticeable drop in prisoner releases or transfers. Meanwhile, regime courts and detention centers are compiling lists of sentenced detainees, detainees on trial, and detainees who have yet to appear before a court. Usually, the regime follows these intensified arrests with releases in order to create a false perception among the public and the international community that it is enacting positive change through the promulgation of the amnesty decree.

The report also documents more arrests/detentions of refugees who had been forcibly repatriated from Lebanon. These arrests, which took place at the al-Masna Border Crossing on the Syrian-Lebanese border, were carried out after the Lebanese army had carried out raid and arrest campaigns targeting Syrian refugees in Lebanon who were then deported to the border. Most of those arrested at the border by Syrian regime forces were taken to regime security and military detention centers in the governorates of Homs and Damascus. Since the start of 2024, SNHR has documented that at least 126 of the refugees forcibly deported from Lebanon, including four children and three women, have been arrested by regime forces. Furthermore, the report documents arrests/detentions targeting returning “refugees and internally displaced persons (IDPs)” as they were trying to go back to their original areas which are now under the control of regime forces. Those arrests targeted refugees returning from Lebanon, and from Jordan via the Nasib Border Crossing in southern Daraa, as well as via the Damascus International Airport in Damascus city.

There were also arrests/detentions targeting a number of civilians simply for voicing their demands, criticizing the worsening living situation in regime areas, or supporting the popular movement in Suwayda governorate, on social media. Those arrested included university students, and pro-regime media figures. These individuals face a variety of charges on the grounds of the Counter-Cybercrime Law. These arrests were concentrated in the governorates of Latakia and Tartus.

Additionally, the report documents widespread arrests/detentions of civilians by regime personnel in the governorates of Rural Damascus, Hama, Homs, and Daraa on the pretext of the detainees failing to join the regime’s military or reserve forces as part of the regime’s mandatory military service policy. These arrests were carried out during raids or mass arrests at checkpoints, and even targeted individuals who had previously agreed to settle their security situation with the regime in the areas that saw settlement agreements.

The report also records arrests/detentions carried out for the purpose of extorting money targeting civilians who had received external money transfers on the pretext of their supposedly dealing in a foreign currency. While these arrests took place in various Syrian governorates, they were particularly concentrated in Rural Damascus, Damascus, Hama and Aleppo.

In addition, the report documents arrests by regime security authorities targeting civilians visiting immigration and passports departments to obtain travel documents. These arrests were concentrated in the governorates of Damascus, Hama, and Homs. Another pattern documented by the report was seen in arrests/detentions carried out by members of pro-regime militias/informal regime forces targeting passengers and staff on the public buses that transport passengers between regime-held areas and SDF-controlled areas in Aleppo city, as well as widespread, random arrests/detentions targeting citizens, including university students, in the governorates of Damascus, Rural Damascus, and Daraa, which the report believes were the result of ill-intentioned and malicious security reports.

On a related note, the report stresses that, through these arbitrary detention and enforced disappearances carried, the Syrian regime continues to violate the orders of the Hague-based International Court of Justice (ICJ) issued in November 2023, on requesting provisional measures in the case brought by Canada and the Netherlands against the Syrian regime on the application of the Convention Against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment.

Meanwhile, the report notes, the SDF also continued to enforce the group’s policies of arbitrary detention and enforced disappearance throughout the first half of 2024. In pursuit of these policies, SDF personnel have continued carrying out campaigns of mass raids and detentions, targeting civilians on the pretext of fighting ISIS, with some of these arrest campaigns backed by US-led Coalition helicopters. Additionally, the report documents arrests/detentions of civilians over accusations of working with the SNA. Some of the arrests/detentions carried out were accompanied or followed by severe beatings of the civilians detained. Moreover, the report documents more arrests/detention of civilians for forced conscription, with these detainees taken to SDF military training and recruitment camps, which are concentrated in SDF-controlled areas of Aleppo governorate. Furthermore, the report documents arrests/detentions, primarily in Hasaka governorate, targeting members of Kurdish parties over voicing views critical of the corruption and poor living conditions in SDF-controlled areas.

Meanwhile, the report documented arrests of individuals over their alleged affiliation with Arab tribes involved in clashes with the SDF, with these arrests being concentrated in Deir Ez-Zour governorate.

Meanwhile, the SDF also continued abducting children with the objective of conscripting them for military training, with these children being sent to military training camps; the parents and families of these conscripted children are not allowed to contact them, while the SDF refuses to disclose their fate.

As the report further reveals, HTS detained more civilians in the first half of 2024. These arrests, which were concentrated in Idlib governorate and some areas of rural Aleppo governorate under the group’s control, targeted media activists, political activists, and local dignitaries. Most of these arrests were carried out in connection with the detainees expressing opinions critical of HTS’s management of areas under its control. These detentions are routinely arbitrarily carried out in the form of raids in which HTS members storm their victims’ homes, often breaking down the doors, or abducting their victims in the street or while they’re passing through temporary checkpoints. The group also arrested a number of individuals over their alleged affiliation with the extremist Tahrir Party. Most of these arrests took place in the form of raids and mass arrest, as well as at checkpoints in Idlib governorate. Moreover, the HTS’ judiciary summoned a number of media activists and workers with humanitarian groups for interrogation and to warn them against violating the policies enforced by HTS in the course of their work.

Furthermore, armed opposition factions/SNA continued carrying out arbitrary arrests/detentions and kidnappings in the first half of 2024, including of women. Most of these detentions were conducted on a mass scale, targeting individuals coming from areas controlled by the Syrian regime or the SDF. In addition, the report documents detentions that exhibited an ethnic character, with these incidents concentrated in areas under the control of the armed opposition factions/SNA in Aleppo governorate. Most of these arrests occurred without any judicial authorization and without the participation of the police force, which is the sole legitimate administrative authority responsible for arrests and detentions through the judiciary, as well as being carried out without any clear charges being presented against those being detained. Furthermore, we documented raids and arrests by SNA personnel targeting civilians who were accused of working with the SDF, with these arrests being concentrated in some of the villages which are administratively part of Afrin city in Aleppo governorate.

Additionally, the report documents arrests/detentions by the SNA’s Military Police that targeted refugees and IDPs returning to their homes after being displaced when the SNA took over Afrin in 2018. These arrests/detentions were concentrated in a number of villages that are administratively a part of Afrin city.

The report also documents arrests/detentions of civilians by the SNA’s ‘al-Hamza Squad’ in retaliation for the detainees holding Nowruz celebrations. These arrests were concentrated in Atman village, administratively a part of Afrin city. A number of individuals were also arrested for trying to travel from regime-held areas to the Syrian-Turkish border in attempts to irregularly cross into Türkiye. These arrests were concentrated in Afrin city.

Moreover, the report documented arrests/detentions targeting civilians in response to their demanding the return of their homes which had been seized earlier by the SNA. Those arrests were concentrated in Afrin city.

On the subject of releases, the report documents the release of 107 detainees, including three children and five women, by Syrian regime forces in the first half of 2024. The report also documents the release of seven detainees in connection with the amnesty decree promulgated by the Syrian regime on April 30, 2022 (Decree No. 7 of 2022). The detainees in question were released from the government complex in Daraa city and Adra Central Prison in Rural Damascus governorate. It is worth noting that the application of Amnesty Decree 7/2022 is, to this day, evidently conditional on the end of the prison sentences of those detainees who were partially included in this amnesty. In Damascus governorate, the report documents the regime’s release of 24 individuals originally from the governorates of Aleppo, Hama, Daraa and Damascus. These detainees were released after serving the full term of their arbitrary sentences. As such, these releases were not related to any of the amnesty decrees that have been promulgated to date, with these detainees having been imprisoned for periods ranging from one to seven years. The report also documents the release of 76 individuals, including three children and five women, who were held for a few days without appearing before a court. Most of these detainees came from the governorates of Rural Damascus, Aleppo, and Daraa, and most had spent the duration of their detention in regime security branches.

As the report further reveals, 113 people, including eight children, were released in the first half of 2024 from SDF detention centers, where they had been held for various periods ranging from a few days to six years, with most of these detainees originating from the governorates of Deir Ez-Zour, Aleppo, Hasaka, and Raqqa. Most of these releases were the result of meditation by tribal intermediaries or came after the detainees had completed their sentences.

Meanwhile, the report documents HTS’ release of 84 individuals from its detention centers in Idlib governorate in the first half of 2024, with the released detainees having been detained for periods ranging from a few days to three years, without any clear charges being brought against them. On the other hand, all armed opposition factions/SNA released 94 individuals, including two children and six women, after detaining them for periods ranging from a few days to one-and-a-half years without bringing any clear charges against them or putting them on trial. Most were released only after their families had been extorted into paying sums of money to secure their release.

As the report further notes, SNHR’s data is classified as a reputable principal source of information by many UN bodies, being used in numerous statements and resolutions. The most recent of these was a draft resolution on the human rights situation in Syria (A/C.3/78/L.43), passed by a vote on Wednesday, November 15, 2023, which condemned the Syrian regime’s continuation of gross, systematic, and widespread violations of international humanitarian law and international human rights law. This latest resolution also acknowledged that the number of detainees in Syria continues to rise steadily, already exceeding 135,000. Relatedly, the resolution holds the regime responsible for the systematic use of enforced disappearance, which, it notes, constitutes a crime against humanity.

The report notes that the issue of detainees and forcibly disappeared persons is one of the most crucial human rights issues in Syria which there has been no progress in resolving despite its inclusion in several UN Security Council resolutions, as well as in UN General Assembly resolutions, in Kofi Annan’s plan, in Security Council resolution 2254 of December 2015, and finally in the statement on cessation of hostilities issued in February 2016.

The report stresses that the Syrian regime has not fulfilled any of its obligations in any of the international treaties and conventions it has ratified, most particularly the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights. It has also violated several articles of the Syrian Constitution itself, with thousands of detainees imprisoned without any arrest warrant for many years, without charges, and prevented from appointing a lawyer and from receiving family visits. Approximate 68 percent of all detentions documented have subsequently been categorized as enforced disappearance cases.

The report further notes that, in light of the continuing high rates of arbitrary arrests, torture, and enforced disappearance at the hands of Syrian regime forces, we see no indicator of any willingness on the Syrian regime’s part to end torture or comply with the ICJ’s order for provisional measures since its issuance on November 16, 2023. Even worse, the regime continues to imprison 135,638 arbitrarily arrested detainees/forcibly disappeared persons in its detention centers, all of whom are still being subjected to torture, which further confirms that the Syrian regime explicitly continues to contravene the Convention against Torture, which the regime ratified in 2004, and continues to fail to comply with the Convention.

The report additionally notes that the other parties (Syrian Democratic Forces, Hay’at Tahrir al Sham, and all Armed Opposition factions/Syrian National Army are also all obliged to implement the provisions of international human rights law, and that they have committed widespread violations through arrests and enforced disappearances.

In the report, SNHR again calls on the UN Security Council to follow through with the implementation of Resolution 2042, Resolution 2043, and Resolution 2139.

The report also stresses that the UN must form an impartial special committee to monitor cases of arbitrary arrest and reveal the fate of the 102,000 missing persons in Syria, 85 percent of whom are detained by the Syrian regime. The report adds that pressure should be applied on all parties to immediately reveal their detention records in accordance with a timetable, and to immediately make detainees’ whereabouts public, and allow humanitarian organizations and the International Committee of Red Cross to have direct access to them.

Lastly, the report emphasizes that children and women should immediately be released from captivity, and that the families and friends of detainees or wanted individuals should not be detained as prisoners of war, as well as providing a number of additional recommendations.

Press release: (Download the full report below)

The Hague – The Syrian Network for Human Rights (SNHR) revealed in its latest report, released today, that 429 civilians were killed in Syria in the first half of 2024; including 65 children and 38 women, as well as 53 others who died due to torture. Of these, the group documented the killing of 62 civilians in June 2024, including eight children and four women, as well as 10 individuals who died due to torture.

The 30-page report provides a summary of the civilian deaths that occurred in in the first half of 2024 up to and including June 2024, shedding light particularly on victims who died due to torture, as well as documenting the massacres perpetrated by the parties to the conflict and controlling forces in Syria which the SNHR team was able to document during this period. The report also outlines the most notable incidents and attacks on vital civilian facilities that took place during this period, in addition to summarizing the action taken by SNHR in regard to the issue of extrajudicial killings in Syria.

This report draws upon the constant daily monitoring of news and developments by SNHR’s team, and on information supplied by our extensive network of dozens of various sources, as well as on the analysis of a large quantity of pictures and videos.

The report emphasizes the Syrian regime’s continuing absolute failure to register the deaths of any of the hundreds of thousands of citizens it has killed since March 2011 in the official death records of the civil registry. It explains that the regime exerts absolute control over the issuance of death certificates, which are not made available to any of the families of its victims, including the missing and forcibly disappeared, whether these victims were killed by the Syrian regime or by other affiliated parties. The regime only allows death certificates to be issued for those who meet the narrow criteria set by itself and its security services. The report further reveals that the vast majority of victims’ families are unable to obtain death certificates from the Syrian regime, for fear of linking their name with that of a person who was detained by the regime and killed under torture, meaning that he or she was a dissident who opposed the regime, or of their loved one being registered as a ‘terrorist’ if they are wanted by the security services; additionally, many victims’ families have been forcibly displaced outside the areas controlled by the regime.

The report further reveals that on August 10, 2022, the regime government’s Minister of Justice issued Circular No. 22 specifying the procedures for the conduct of proceedings related to registering deaths within Sharia courts. The circular included new conditions stipulating that five items of evidence must be submitted to and approved by the relevant judges in proceedings related to registration of deaths. It also requires that all relevant courts involved in death registration cases comply with the circular’s content. The circular also imposed security clearance conditions on judicial authorities to register death cases, increasing the security services’ intrusion into these legal procedures.

The report documents the killing of 429 civilians, including 65 children and 38 women (adult female) at the hands of the parties to the conflict and controlling forces in Syria in the first half of 2024. Of these, the Syrian regime killed 62 civilians, including eight children and four women (adult female), while Russian forces killed five civilians, including three children and one woman. In addition, ISIS killed four civilians, including one child, in the first half of 2024, while Hay’at Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) killed 18 civilians, including one child and one woman. Furthermore, all armed opposition factions/Syrian National Army (SNA) killed 12 civilians, including one child, while 35 civilians, including nine children, were killed by Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF). Lastly, 293 civilians, including 42 children and 32 women, were killed by other parties. Additionally, four medical personnel were killed in the first half of the same period, which also saw no fewer than nine massacres by the various parties to the conflict and controlling forces in Syria.

As the report further reveals, Daraa governorate saw the highest number of deaths in the first half of 2024, accounting for about 27 percent of the total, followed by Deir Ez-Zour governorate with 18 percent, and then the governorates of Raqqa and Aleppo with 14 percent each. Most of the victims in those governorates were killed at the hands of other parties.

Moreover, the report documents that 53 civilians, including one child, died due to torture in the first half of 2024, with regime forces being responsible for 26 of these deaths. Meanwhile, HTS was responsible for 15 deaths due to torture in the same period, while the SDF was responsible for seven deaths due to torture, including of one child, and all armed opposition factions/SNA were responsible for five deaths due to torture.

The report further notes that SNHR documented no fewer than 57 attacks on vital civilian facilities at the hands of the parties to the conflict and controlling forces in Syria, including 39 attacks by regime forces, most of which were carried out in Idlib governorate. Among the 57 attacks, 17 were on educational facilities (schools), two on medical facilities, and seven on places of worship.

Moreover, the report notes that more victims were killed by the explosion of landmines planted by unidentified parties throughout 2024. A total of 68 civilians, including 10 children and 14 women, have been killed by landmines since the beginning of this year.

The report documents the killing of 62 civilians, including eight children and four women, in June 2024 at the hands of the parties to the conflict and controlling forces in Syria. Of the 62 civilians killed during this month, nine were killed by Syrian regime forces, while two were killed by HTS. The report adds that all armed opposition factions/SNA killed two civilians. Meanwhile, the SDF killed seven, including two children. Finally, 42 civilians, including six children and four women, were killed by other parties.

The report further reveals that 10 individuals were documented as dying due to torture in Syria, in June 2024. Of these victims, four died due to torture at the hands of Syrian regime forces, while two died due to torture at the hands of HTS, three at the hands of SDF, and one by all armed opposition factions/SNA.

Moreover, the report documented one massacre by other parties and one attack on a vital civilian facility by the SDF in the month of June 2024.

The report additionally notes that the evidence collected by SNHR indicates that some of the attacks documented in the report were deliberately directed against civilians and civilian objects. These attacks, along with indiscriminate bombardment, also resulted in the destruction of more vital facilities and other buildings. Moreover, the report notes, there are reasonable grounds to believe that the war crime of attacking civilians has been committed in many cases.

As the report also notes, the use of remote bombardment to target densely populated areas reflects a criminal mindset on the regime’s part, showing that it is intent on deliberately inflicting the greatest possible number of deaths, in clear contravention of international human rights law and flagrant violation of the Geneva IV Convention, Articles 27, 31, and 32.

The report further notes that no warnings have been given by Syrian regime forces, Russian forces, or US-led International Coalition forces before carrying out any of their attacks, as required by international humanitarian law. This has been the case since the beginning of the popular uprising in Syria, showing these parties’ utter disregard for the lives of civilians in Syria.

Moreover, it is clear from the volume of violations, their repeated nature, and the excessive level of force used, as well as the indiscriminate manner of the bombardment and the coordinated nature of the regime’s attacks, that they must be the result of orders from the higher echelons of power in accordance with a state policy.

All armed opposition factions/SNA forces, meanwhile, have violated Security Council resolution 2139 through carrying out attacks that constitute violations of customary international humanitarian law, resulting in collateral civilian deaths and injuries.

The report calls on the UN Security Council to take additional steps following its adoption of Resolution 2254 and stresses the importance of referring the Syrian dossier to the International Criminal Court, adding that all those involved in perpetrating crimes against humanity and war crimes should be held accountable.

The report also urges all relevant United Nations agencies to make far greater efforts to provide food, medical, and humanitarian assistance to areas where fighting has ceased, and to internally displaced persons’ camps, and to follow up on payment with those states that have pledged voluntary contributions.

The report additionally calls for the implementation of the ‘Responsibility to Protect’ doctrine (R2P) after all political channels have proved fruitless throughout all the agreements reached, as well as the Cessation of Hostilities statements, and Astana agreements that followed, stressing the need to resort to Chapter VII, and to implement the norm of the ‘Responsibility to Protect’ doctrine, which was established by the United Nations General Assembly.

The report further recommends that the international community should work to launch projects to create maps revealing the locations of landmines and cluster munitions in all Syrian governorates. This, it notes, would facilitate the process of clearing these lethal munitions, as well as educating the population about their locations.

The report additionally calls on the Independent International Commission of Inquiry (COI) to launch investigations into the cases included in this report and previous reports and confirms the SNHR’s willingness to cooperate and to provide further evidence and data in any such investigations, as well as calling on the commission to focus on the issue of landmines and cluster munitions in its next report.

The report also stresses that the Syrian regime must stop the indiscriminate shelling and targeting of residential areas, hospitals, schools, and markets, as well as ending its acts of torture that have caused the deaths of thousands of Syrian citizens in detention centers and complying with UN Security Council resolutions and customary humanitarian law.

Lastly, the report reiterates SNHR’s appeal to all the parties to the conflict to provide detailed maps of the locations where they have planted landmines, especially those present in civilian locations or areas near residential communities, in addition to making several other recommendations.

Press release: (Download the full report below)

The Hague – The Syrian Network for Human Rights (SNHR) revealed in its latest monthly report released today that no fewer than 228 cases of arbitrary arrests were documented in May 2024, with those detained including 13 children and four women. The group also noted that the Syrian regime has arrested 23 refugees returning from Lebanon and Jordan.

The 21-page report notes that, given the staggering rates of continuing arbitrary arrests, the number of Syrian citizens classified as missing has skyrocketed, so much so that this can be called a phenomenon in itself. Indeed, Syria is now one of the worst countries worldwide in terms of the numbers of ‘disappeared’ citizens. The report adds that the Syrian regime surpasses many of the world’s other authoritarian regimes by virtue of having absolute hegemony over the legislative and judicial branches of government. The regime has wielded this hegemony to promulgate a multitude of laws and decrees that violate international human rights law, as well as the principles pf law and the parameters of arrests and interrogation established in domestic legislation and the current Constitution of 2012. A part of this process, the report stresses, is legitimizing the crime of torture. Syrian law contains several texts that outlaw torture, including Article 53 of the current Syrian constitution which bans arbitrary arrest and torture and Article 391 of the Public Penal Code, which provides that anyone who uses coercion during interrogation shall receive a timed prison sentence ranging from three months to three years, while torture is wholly prohibited. Despite these texts, however, other legal texts, including Law No. 16 of 2022 on Criminalizing Torture, explicitly contradict the aforementioned legal articles, and legitimize impunity for torturers.

The report summarizes the arbitrary arrests/detentions and the releases of detainees from various detention centers documented as having been carried out by the parties to the conflict and controlling forces in May 2024. The report does not, however, include abductions carried out by unidentified parties. Another exception made by SNHR is of individuals detained for committing criminal offenses, such as murder, theft, narcotics-related crimes, and other crimes that have no political nature or are unrelated to the armed conflict, dissident activism, or freedom of opinion and expression. The report also touches upon the laws and decrees promulgated by the parties to the conflict in relation to issues of arrest and enforced disappearance in the period covered. In much of its reportage, the report incorporates a descriptive and analytic methodology.

The report documents no fewer than 228 cases of arbitrary arrest/detention in May 2024, with those detained including 13 children and four women (adult females). Of these, 189 have subsequently been classified as enforced disappearances. Syrian regime forces were responsible for 102 of the 228 cases, including of two children and three women, while Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) were responsible for 49 cases, including of 11 children. Additionally, the report records 41 arbitrary arrests/detentions at the hands of Hay’at Tahrir al-Sham (HTS), while all armed opposition factions/Syrian National Army (SNA) were responsible for 36 arbitrary arrests/detentions, including of two children and two women.

The report also shows the distribution of May’s cases across Syria’s governorates. Analysis of the data shows that Aleppo governorate saw the highest number of arbitrary arrests/detentions documented in May, followed by the governorate of Idlib, then in descending order Rural Damascus, Deir E-Zour Homs, Damascus and Daraa, and finally Hasaka. The report also compares the number of arbitrary arrests/detentions carried out by the parties to the conflict and controlling forces in Syria with the numbers of releases of detainees from the various forces’ detention centers documented in May 2024. In this regard, the report stresses that the number of arbitrary arrests far surpasses the number of releases from detention centers, with the number of releases equaling approximately 30 percent of all the detentions documented; this confirms again that at least two or three times as many people are detained as are released, primarily by the Syrian regime, which indicates that these arrest and detention practices are standard policy in comparison to the extremely limited numbers of people released by all parties to the conflict, but mainly from regime detention centers.

The report further notes that Syrian regime forces carried out arrests/detentions of refugees who had been forcibly repatriated from Lebanon. This took place after the Lebanese army had carried out raid and arrest campaigns targeting Syrian refugees in Lebanon who were then deported to the border. Most of those arrested at the border by Syrian regime forces were taken to security and military detention centers in the two governorates of Homs and Damascus.

Moreover, the report records widespread arrests/detentions of civilians by regime personnel in the governorates of Rural Damascus, Aleppo, and Daraa on the pretext of the detainees failing to join the regime’s military or reserve forces as part of the regime’s mandatory military service policy. These arrests were carried out during raids or mass arrests at checkpoints, and even targeted individuals who had previously agreed to settle their security situation with the regime in the areas that saw settlement agreements. Also, the report recorded arrests/detentions targeting returning refugees and internally displaced persons (IDPs) as they attempted to go back to their original areas which are currently under the control of regime forces. Those arrests targeted refugees returning from Lebanon, and from Jordan via the Nasib Border Crossing in southern Daraa. Furthermore, the report recorded arrests/detentions at regime checkpoints in Aleppo governorate, targeting citizens travelling from their places of residence in SDF-held areas to regime areas in Aleppo city. There were also widespread, random arrests/detentions targeting citizens, including university students, in the governorates of Damascus, Rural Damascus, and Daraa. Most of these arrests were carried out as part of mass raid and arrest campaigns, as well as at checkpoints. We believe these arrests were the result of ill-intentioned and malicious security reports.

On a related note, the report stresses that, through these arbitrary detention and enforced disappearances carried out in May, the Syrian regime continues to violate the orders of the Hague-based International Court of Justice (ICJ) issued on November 16, 2023, on requesting provisional measures in the case brought by Canada and the Netherlands against the Syrian regime on the application of the Convention Against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment.

Meanwhile, the report notes, the SDF also continued enforcing the group’s policies of arbitrary detention and enforced disappearance in May 2024. In pursuit of these policies, SDF personnel continued carrying out campaigns of mass raids and detentions, targeting civilians on the pretext of fighting ISIS, with some of these arrest campaigns backed by US-led Coalition helicopters. We also documented arrests/detentions of civilians over accusations of working with the SNA. Moreover, we documented arrests/detentions of members of the Khnaf Folklore Troupe, including children, as well as members of the Yekiti Party of Kurdistan – Syria (PYKS), primarily in Hasaka governorate. The report also recorded more arrests/detention of civilians for forced conscription, with these detainees taken to SDF military training and recruitment camps, which are concentrated in SDF-controlled areas of Aleppo governorate. Moreover, the report documented a number of arrests targeting individuals accused of being affiliated with the Arab tribes’ forces. Those arrests were concentrated in Deir Ez-Zour governorate. Additionally, the SDF also continued abducting children with the objective of conscripting them for military training, sending them to military training camps; the parents and families of these conscripted children are not allowed to contact them, while the SDF refuses to disclose their fate.

As the report further reveals, HTS detained more civilians in May 2024. These arrests, which were concentrated in Idlib governorate and some areas of rural Aleppo governorate under the group’s control, targeted media activists, political activists, and local dignitaries. Most of these arrests were carried out in connection with the detainees expressing opinions critical of HTS’s management of areas under its control. These detentions are routinely and arbitrarily carried out in the form of raids in which HTS members storm their victims’ homes, often breaking down the doors, or abducting their victims in the street or while they’re passing through temporary checkpoints. The report also documented arrests/detentions mostly carried out as part of raids and mass arrests, or at checkpoints in Idlib governorate that targeted individuals over their participation in the recent anti-HTS protests in the governorate.

Furthermore, armed opposition factions/SNA continued carrying out arbitrary arrests/detentions and kidnappings in May 2024, including of women. Most of these detentions were conducted on a mass scale, targeting individuals coming from areas controlled by the Syrian regime or the SDF. In addition, we documented detentions that exhibited an ethnic character, with these incidents concentrated in areas under the control of the armed opposition factions/SNA in Aleppo governorate. Most of these arrests occurred without judicial authorization and without the participation of the police force, which is the sole legitimate administrative authority responsible for arrests and detentions through the judiciary, as well as being carried out without any clear charges being presented against those being detained. Also, the report documented raids and arrests by SNA personnel targeting civilians who were accused of working with the SDF, with these arrests being concentrated in some of the villages which are administratively part of Afrin city in Aleppo governorate. Moreover, the report recorded arrests/detentions of civilians by the SNA’s ‘al-Sultan Squad’ in retaliation for those people demanding the return of their homes which had been seized by al-Sultan Squad at an earlier date. Those arrests were concentrated in Afrin city. Additionally, we documented the arrests of a number of refugees and IDPs returning to their houses in SNA-controlled areas. Those arrests were also concentrated in Afrin city.

On the subject of releases, the report documents the release of 17 detainees by Syrian regime forces, including the release of one detainee in connection with the amnesty decree promulgated by the Syrian regime on April 30, 2022 (Decree No. 7 of 2022). Also, in Damascus governorate, the report documented the regime’s release of three individuals originally from the governorates of Aleppo and Damascus. These detainees were released after serving the full term of their arbitrary sentences, which ranged from one year to four years. Additionally, the report documented the release of 13 individuals who had been held without trial for a few days. Most of these detainees came from the governorates of Rural Damascus, Aleppo, and Daraa, and most had spent the duration of their detention in regime security branches.

As the report further reveals, 19 people, including three children, were released in May from SDF detention centers, where they had been held for various periods ranging from a few days to few months, with most of these detainees originating from the governorates of Deir Ez-Zour and Aleppo. Most of these releases were the result of meditation by tribal intermediaries or came after the detainees had completed their sentences. Meanwhile, the report documents the HTS’ release of 12 individuals from its detention centers in Idlib governorate, with the released detainees having been detained for periods ranging from a few days to few months, without any clear charges being brought against them. Meanwhile, all armed opposition factions/SNA released nine individuals, including one child, after detaining them for periods ranging from a few days to four months without bringing any clear charges against them or putting them on trial. Most were released only after their families had been extorted into paying sums of money to secure their release.

As the report further notes, SNHR’s data is classified as a reputable principal source of information by many UN bodies, being used in numerous statements and resolutions. The most recent of these was a draft resolution on the human rights situation in Syria (A/C.3/78/L.43), passed by a vote on Wednesday, November 15, 2023, which condemned the Syrian regime’s continuation of gross, systematic, and widespread violations of international humanitarian law and international human rights law. This latest resolution also acknowledged that the number of detainees in Syria continues to rise steadily, already exceeding 135,000. Relatedly, the resolution holds the regime responsible for the systematic use of enforced disappearance, which, it notes, constitutes a crime against humanity.

The report notes that the issue of detainees and forcibly disappeared persons is one of the most crucial human rights issues in Syria which there has been no progress in resolving despite its inclusion in several UN Security Council resolutions, as well as in UN General Assembly resolutions, in Kofi Annan’s plan, in Security Council resolution 2254 of December 2015, and finally in the statement on cessation of hostilities issued in February 2016.

The report stresses that the Syrian regime has not fulfilled any of its obligations in any of the international treaties and conventions it has ratified, most particularly the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights. It has also violated several articles of the Syrian Constitution itself, with thousands of detainees imprisoned without any arrest warrant for many years, without charges, and prevented from appointing a lawyer and from receiving family visits. Approximate 68 percent of all detentions documented have subsequently been categorized as enforced disappearance cases.

The report further notes that, in light of the continuing high rates of arbitrary arrests, torture, and enforced disappearance at the hands of Syrian regime forces, we see no indicator of any willingness on the Syrian regime’s part to end torture or comply with the ICJ’s order for provisional measures since its issuance on November 16, 2023. Even worse, the regime continues to imprison 135,638 arbitrarily arrested detainees/forcibly disappeared persons in its detention centers, all of whom are still being subjected to torture, which further confirms that the Syrian regime explicitly continues to contravene the Convention against Torture, which the regime ratified in 2004, and continues to fail to comply with the Convention.

The report additionally notes that the other parties (Syrian Democratic Forces, Hay’at Tahrir al Sham, and all Armed Opposition factions/Syrian National Army are also all obliged to implement the provisions of international human rights law, and that they have committed widespread violations through arrests and enforced disappearances.

In the report, SNHR again calls on the UN Security Council to follow through with the implementation of Resolution 2042, Resolution 2043, and Resolution 2139.

The report stresses that the UN must form an impartial special committee to monitor cases of arbitrary arrest and reveal the fate of the 102,000 missing persons in Syria, 85 percent of whom are detained by the Syrian regime. The report adds that pressure should be applied on all parties to immediately reveal their detention records in accordance with a timetable, and to immediately make detainees’ whereabouts public, and allow humanitarian organizations and the International Committee of Red Cross to have direct access to them.

Lastly, the report emphasizes that children and women should immediately be released from captivity, and families and friends of detainees or wanted individuals should not be detained as prisoners of war, as well as providing a number of additional recommendations.

Press release: (Download the full report below)

The Hague – The Syrian Network for Human Rights (SNHR) revealed in its latest report, released today, that 47 civilians were killed in Syria in May 2024, including eight children and three women, as well as 15 individuals who died due to torture. The group also documented two attacks on vital facilities, including two schools.

The 23-page report provides a summary of the civilian deaths that occurred in May 2024, shedding light particularly on victims who died due to torture, as well as documenting the massacres perpetrated by the parties to the conflict and controlling forces in Syria which the SNHR team was able to document during this period. The report also outlines the most notable incidents that took place during the month, in addition to summarizing the action taken by SNHR in regard to the issue of extrajudicial killings in Syria, as well as providing details of the attacks carried out against vital facilities during this month.

This report draws upon the constant daily monitoring of news and developments by SNHR’s team, and on information supplied by our extensive network of dozens of various sources, as well as on the analysis of a large quantity of pictures and videos.

The report emphasizes the Syrian regime’s continuing absolute failure to register the deaths of any of the hundreds of thousands of citizens it has killed since March 2011 in the official death records of the civil registry. It explains that the regime exerts absolute control over the issuance of death certificates, which are not made available to any of the families of its victims, including the missing and forcibly disappeared, whether these victims were killed by the Syrian regime or by other affiliated parties. The regime only allows death certificates to be issued for those who meet the narrow criteria set by itself and its security services. The report further reveals that the vast majority of victims’ families are unable to obtain death certificates from the Syrian regime, for fear of linking their name with that of a person who was detained by the regime and killed under torture, meaning that he or she was a dissident who opposed the regime, or of their loved one being registered as a ‘terrorist’ if they are wanted by the security services; additionally, many victims’ families have been forcibly displaced outside the areas controlled by the regime.

The report further reveals that on August 10, 2022, the regime government’s Minister of Justice issued Circular No. 22 specifying the procedures for the conduct of proceedings related to registering deaths within Sharia courts. The circular included new conditions stipulating that five items of evidence must be submitted to and approved by the relevant judges in proceedings related to registration of deaths. It also requires that all relevant courts involved in death registration cases comply with the circular’s content. The circular also imposed security clearance conditions on judicial authorities to register death cases, increasing the security services’ intrusion into these legal procedures.

The report documents the killing of 47 civilians, including eight children and three women, in May 2024 at the hands of the parties to the conflict and controlling forces. Of the 47 civilians killed during this month, 13, including one child, were killed by Syrian regime forces, while one was killed by ISIS. The report adds that all armed opposition factions/Syrian National Army (SNA) killed one civilian. Meanwhile, Hay’at Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) killed three civilians in May, while Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) killed eight, including three children. Finally, 21 civilians, including four children and three women, were killed by other parties. Additionally, the report records the killing of two medical workers, and two attacks on vital civilian facilities, at the hands of the parties to the conflict and controlling forces in Syria.

As the report further reveals, Daraa governorate saw the highest number of civilian deaths in May accounting for about 26 percent of the total, with all the victims killed in the governorate being killed by other parties. Daraa governorate was followed by Aleppo governorate with approximately 21 percent, then and then Idlib governorate which accounted for approximately 19 percent of the total.

Moreover, the report notes that more victims were killed by the explosion of landmines planted by unidentified parties in May. Adding May’s death toll to the rest of the year’s total to date, 65 civilians, including nine children and 14 women, have been killed by landmines since the beginning of this year.

On the subject of deaths due to torture, the report reveals that 15 individuals were documented as dying due to torture in Syria, in May 2024. Of these victims, 10 died due to torture at the hands of by Syrian regime forces, while three died due to torture at the hands of HTS, one at the hands of all armed opposition factions/SNA, and one at the hands of the SDF.

The report further reveals that SNHR documented two attacks on vital civilian facilities in May 2024, with one of these carried out by the SDF and the other by other parties. Since the start of 2024 up until the end of May, 56 attacks on vital civilian facilities by the parties to the conflict and controlling forces in Syria have been documented.

The report additionally notes that the evidence collected by SNHR indicates that some of the attacks documented in the report were deliberately directed against civilians and civilian objects. These attacks, along with indiscriminate bombardment, also resulted in the destruction of more vital facilities and other buildings. Moreover, the report notes, there are reasonable grounds to believe that the war crime of attacking civilians has been committed in many cases.

As the report also notes, the use of remote bombardment to target densely populated areas reflects a criminal mindset on the regime’s part, showing that it is intent on deliberately inflicting the greatest possible number of deaths, in clear contravention of international human rights law and flagrant violation of the Geneva IV Convention, Articles 27, 31, and 32.

The report further notes that no warnings have been given by Syrian regime forces, Russian forces, or US-led International Coalition forces before carrying out any of their attacks, as required by international humanitarian law. This has been the case since the beginning of the popular uprising in Syria, which shows an utter disregard for the lives of civilians in Syria.

Moreover, it is clear from the volume of violations, their repeated nature, and the excessive level of force used, as well as the indiscriminate manner of the bombardment and the coordinated nature of the regime’s attacks, that they must be the result of orders from the higher echelons of power in accordance with a state policy.

All armed opposition factions/SNA forces, meanwhile, have violated Security Council resolution 2139 through attacks that constitute violations of customary international humanitarian law, resulting in collateral civilian deaths and injuries.

The report calls on the UN Security Council to take additional steps following its adoption of Resolution 2254 and stresses the importance of referring the Syrian dossier to the International Criminal Court, adding that all those involved in perpetrating crimes against humanity and war crimes should be held accountable.

The report also urges all relevant United Nations agencies to make far greater efforts to provide food, medical, and humanitarian assistance in areas where fighting has ceased, and in internally displaced persons’ camps, and to follow up on payment with those states that have pledged voluntary contributions.

The report additionally calls for the implementation of the ‘Responsibility to Protect’ doctrine (R2P) after all political channels have proved fruitless throughout all the agreements reached, as well as the Cessation of Hostilities statements, and Astana agreements that followed, stressing the need to resort to Chapter VII, and to implement the norm of the ‘Responsibility to Protect’ doctrine, which was established by the United Nations General Assembly.

The report further recommends that the international community should work to launch projects to create maps revealing the locations of landmines and cluster munitions in all Syrian governorates. This, it notes, would facilitate the process of clearing these lethal munitions, as well as educating the population about their locations.

The report additionally calls on the Independent International Commission of Inquiry (COI) to launch investigations into the cases included in this report and previous reports and confirms the SNHR’s willingness to cooperate and to provide further evidence and data in any such investigations, as well as calling on the commission to focus on the issue of landmines and cluster munitions in its next report.

The report also stresses that the Syrian regime must stop the indiscriminate shelling and targeting of residential areas, hospitals, schools, and markets, as well as ending its acts of torture that have caused the deaths of thousands of Syrian citizens in detention centers and complying with UN Security Council resolutions and customary humanitarian law.

Lastly, the report reiterates SNHR’s appeal to all the parties to the conflict to provide detailed maps of the locations where they have planted landmines, especially those present in civilian locations or areas near residential communities, in addition to making several other recommendations.

Press release: (Download the full report below)

The Hague – The Syrian Network for Human Rights (SNHR) revealed in its latest monthly report released today that no fewer than 212 cases of arbitrary arrests were documented in April 2024, with those detained including 12 children and seven women. The group also noted that the Syrian regime has been arresting refugees who have been forcibly repatriated from Lebanon.

The 21-page report notes that, given the staggering rates of continuing arbitrary arrests, the number of Syrian citizens classified as missing has skyrocketed, so much so that this can be called a phenomenon in itself. Indeed, Syria is one of the worst countries worldwide in terms of the numbers of ‘disappeared’ citizens. The report adds that the Syrian regime surpasses many of the world’s other authoritarian regimes by virtue of having absolute hegemony over the legislative and judicial branches of government. The regime has wielded this hegemony to promulgate a multitude of laws and decrees that violate international human rights law, as well as the principles pf law and the parameters of arrests and interrogation established in domestic legislation and the current Constitution of 2012. A part of this process, the report stresses, is legitimizing the crime of torture. There are several texts in Syrian law that outlaw torture, including Article 53 of the current Syrian constitution which bans arbitrary arrest and torture and Article 391 of the Public Penal Code, which provides that anyone who uses coercion during interrogation shall receive a timed prison sentence ranging from three months to three years, while torture is wholly prohibited. Despite these texts, however, other legal texts, including Law No. 16 of 2022 on Criminalizing Torture, explicitly contradict the aforementioned legal articles, and legitimize impunity for torturers.

The report summarizes the arbitrary arrests/detentions and the releases of detainees from various detention centers documented as having been carried out by the parties to the conflict and controlling forces in April 2024. The report does not, however, include abductions carried out by unidentified parties. Another exception made by SNHR is of individuals detained for committing criminal offenses, such as murder, theft, narcotics-related crimes, and other crimes that have no political nature or are unrelated to the armed conflict, dissident activism, or freedom of opinion and expression. The report also touches upon the laws and decrees promulgated by the parties to the conflict in relation to issues of arrest and enforced disappearance in the period covered. In much of the reportage, the report incorporates a descriptive and analytic methodology.

The report documents no fewer than 212 cases of arbitrary arrest/detention in April 2024, with those detained including 12 children and seven women (adult female). Of these, 174 have subsequently been classified as enforced disappearances. Syrian regime forces were responsible for 98 of the 212 cases, including of two women, while Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) were responsible for 62 cases, including of nine children and three women. Additionally, the report records 11 arbitrary arrests/detentions at the hands of Hay’at Tahrir al-Sham (HTS), while all armed opposition factions/Syrian National Army (SNA) were responsible for 41 arbitrary arrests/detentions, including of two children and two women.

The report also shows the distribution of April’s cases across Syria’s governorates. Analysis of the data shows that Aleppo governorate saw the highest number of cases of arbitrary arrests/detentions documented in April, followed by the governorates of Deir Ez-Zour, then Rural Damascus, Homs, Damascus, Idlib and Hasaka, and finally Daraa. The report also compares the number of arbitrary arrests/detentions carried out by the parties to the conflict and controlling forces in Syria with releases from the various forces’ detention centers documented in April 2024. In this regard, the report stresses that the number of arbitrary arrests far surpasses the number of releases from detention centers, with the number of releases equaling approximately 30 percent of all the detentions documented; this confirms again that at least two or three times as many people are detained as are released, primarily by the Syrian regime, which indicates that these arrest and detention practices are standard policy in comparison to the extremely limited numbers of people released by all parties to the conflict, but mainly from regime detention centers.

The report further notes that Syrian regime forces carried out arrests/detentions of refugees who had been forcibly repatriated from Lebanon. This took place after the Lebanese army had carried out raid and arrest campaigns targeting Syrian refugees in Lebanon who were then deported to the border. Most of those arrested at the border by Syrian regime forces were taken to security and military detention centers in the two governorates of Homs and Damascus.

Moreover, the repot records widespread arrests/detentions of civilians by regime personnel in the governorates of Rural Damascus, Damascus, and Daraa on the pretext of the detainees failing to join the regime’s military or reserve forces as part of the mandatory military service policy. These arrests were carried out during raids or mass arrests at checkpoints, and even targeted individuals who had previously agreed to settle their security situation with the regime in the areas that saw settlement agreements. Also, the report documents multiple arrests/detentions of people on their way to the Syrian-Lebanese border with the aim of crossing irregularly into Lebanon. Most of these arrests were concentrated primarily in Homs governorate. Furthermore, there were widespread, random arrests/detentions by regime forces targeting citizens in the governorates of Damascus, Hama, and Aleppo. Most of these arrests were carried out as part of mass raid and arrest campaigns, as well as at checkpoints, which the report believes were the result of ill-intentioned and malicious security reports. On a related note, the report stresses that, through these arbitrary detention and enforced disappearances carried out in April, the Syrian regime continues to violate the order of the Hague-based International Court of Justice (ICJ) issued on November 16, 2023, on requesting provisional measures in the case brought by Canada and the Netherlands against the Syrian regime on the application of the Convention Against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment.

Meanwhile, the report notes, the SDF also continued enforcing the group’s policies of arbitrary detention and enforced disappearance in April. In pursuit of these policies, SDF personnel continued carrying out campaigns of mass raids and detentions, targeting civilians on the pretext of fighting ISIS, with some of these arrest campaigns backed by US-led Coalition helicopters. The report also documents the SDF carrying out arrests/detentions of civilians over accusations of working with the SNA. Moreover, the report documented a number of SDF arrests targeting women, in order to pressurize their husbands into surrendering themselves. These arrests were concentrated in Manbij city in rural Aleppo governorate. The SDF also carried out more arrests/detention of civilians for forced conscription, with these detainees taken to SDF military training and recruitment camps, which are concentrated in SDF-controlled areas of Aleppo governorate. Meanwhile, the SDF has also continued abducting children with the objective of conscripting them for military training, sending them to military training camps; the parents and families of these conscripted children are not allowed to contact them, while the SDF refuses to disclose their fate.

As the report further reveals, HTS detained more civilians in April 2024. These arrests, which were concentrated in Idlib governorate and some areas of rural Aleppo governorate under the group’s control, targeted media activists, political activists, and local dignitaries. Most of these arrests were carried out in connection with the detainees expressing opinions critical of HTS’s management of areas under its control. These detentions are routinely and arbitrarily carried out in the form of raids in which HTS members storm their victims’ homes, often breaking down the doors, or abducting their victims in the street or while they’re passing through temporary checkpoints. We also documented arrests/detentions mostly carried out as part of raids and mass arrests, or at checkpoints in Idlib governorate that targeted individuals over their participation in the recent anti-HTS protests in the governorate.

Furthermore, all armed opposition factions/SNA continued carrying out arbitrary arrests/detentions and kidnappings in April 2024, including of women. Most of these detentions were conducted on a mass scale, targeting individuals coming from areas controlled by the Syrian regime or the SDF. In addition, the report documented detentions that exhibited an ethnic character, with these incidents concentrated in areas under the control of the armed opposition factions/SNA in Aleppo governorate. Most of these arrests occurred without judicial authorization and without the participation of the police force, which is the sole legitimate administrative authority responsible for arrests and detentions through the judiciary, as well as being carried out without any clear charges being presented against those being detained. Furthermore, the report documented raids and arrests by SNA personnel targeting civilians who were accused of working with the SDF, with these arrests being concentrated in some of the villages which are administratively a part of Afrin city in Aleppo governorate. The report also recorded arrests/detentions of civilians by the SNA’s ‘al-Hamza Squad’ in retaliation for the detainees demanding the return of their homes which had been seized by al-Hamza Squad at an earlier date. Those arrests were concentrated in Afrin city. Additionally, the report documented the arrests of a number of individuals for trying to travel from regime-held areas to the Syrian-Turkish border in attempts to irregularly cross into Türkiye. These arrests were also concentrated in Afrin city.

On the subject of releases, the report documents the release of one detainee in connection with the amnesty decree promulgated by the Syrian regime on April 30, 2022 (Decree No. 7 of 2022). The detainee in question was released from the government complex in Daraa city. Also, in Damascus governorate, the report documented the regime’s release of four individuals originally from the governorates of Hama and Damascus. These detainees were released after serving the full term of their arbitrary sentences. As such, these releases were not related to any of the amnesty decrees that have been promulgated to date, with these detainees having been imprisoned for periods of between one to three years. Additionally, the report documented the release of 14 individuals who had been held without trial for relatively brief periods of time, ranging from a few days to a few months, without appearing before a court. Most of these detainees came from the governorates of Homs, Suwayda, and Daraa, and most had spent the duration of their detention in regime security branches.

As the report further reveals, 24 people, including one child, were released in April from SDF detention centers, where they had been held for various periods ranging from a few days to six years, with most of these detainees originating from the governorates of Deir Ez-Zour, Hasaka, and Aleppo. Most of these releases were the result of meditation by tribal intermediaries or came after the detainees had completed their sentences. Meanwhile, the report documents the HTS’ release of 17 individuals from its detention centers in Idlib governorate, with the released detainees having been detained for periods ranging from a few days to three years, without any clear charges being brought against them. Meanwhile, all armed opposition factions/SNA released 16 individuals, including one child, after detaining them for periods ranging from a few days to six months without bringing any clear charges against them or putting them on trial. Most were released only after their families had been extorted into paying sums of money to secure their release.

As the report further notes, SNHR’s data is classified as a reputable principal source of information by many UN bodies, being used in numerous statements and resolutions. The most recent of these was a draft resolution on the human rights situation in Syria (A/C.3/78/L.43), passed by a vote on Wednesday, November 15, 2023, which condemned the Syrian regime’s continuation of gross, systematic, and widespread violations of international humanitarian law and international human rights law. This latest resolution also acknowledged that the number of detainees in Syria continues to rise steadily, already exceeding 135,000. Relatedly, the resolution holds the regime responsible for the systematic use of enforced disappearance, which, it notes, constitutes a crime against humanity.

The report notes that the issue of detainees and forcibly disappeared persons is one of the most crucial human rights issues in Syria which there has been no progress in resolving despite its inclusion in several UN Security Council resolutions, as well as in UN General Assembly resolutions, in Kofi Annan’s plan, in Security Council resolution 2254 of December 2015, and finally in the statement on cessation of hostilities issued in February 2016.

The report stresses that the Syrian regime has not fulfilled any of its obligations in any of the international treaties and conventions it has ratified, most particularly the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights. It has also violated several articles of the Syrian Constitution itself, with thousands of detainees imprisoned without any arrest warrant for many years, without charges, and prevented from appointing a lawyer and from receiving family visits. Approximate 68 percent of all detentions documented have subsequently been categorized as enforced disappearance cases.

The report further notes that, in light of the continuing high rates of arbitrary arrests, torture, and enforced disappearance at the hands of Syrian regime forces, we see no indicator of any willingness on the Syrian regime’s part to end torture or comply with the ICJ’s order for provisional measures since its issuance on November 16, 2023. Even worse, the regime continues to imprison 135,638 arbitrarily arrested detainees/forcibly disappeared persons in its detention centers, all of whom are still being subjected to torture, which further confirms that the Syrian regime explicitly continues to contravene the Convention against Torture, which the regime ratified in 2004, and continues to fail to comply with the Convention.

The report additionally notes that the other parties (Syrian Democratic Forces, Hay’at Tahrir al Sham, and all Armed Opposition factions/Syrian National Army are also all obliged to implement the provisions of international human rights law, and that they have committed widespread violations through arrests and enforced disappearances.

In the report, SNHR again calls on the UN Security Council to follow through with the implementation of Resolution 2042, Resolution 2043, and Resolution 2139.

The report stresses that the UN must form an impartial special committee to monitor cases of arbitrary arrest and reveal the fate of the 102,000 missing persons in Syria, 85 percent of whom are detained by the Syrian regime. The report adds that pressure should be applied on all parties to immediately reveal their detention records in accordance with a timetable, and to immediately make detainees’ whereabouts public, and allow humanitarian organizations and the International Committee of Red Cross to have direct access to them.

Lastly, the report emphasizes that children and women should immediately be released from captivity, and families and friends of detainees or wanted individuals should not be detained as prisoners of war, as well as providing a number of additional recommendations.

Download the full report

Press release: (Download the full report below)

The Hague – The Syrian Network for Human Rights (SNHR) revealed in its latest report, released today, that 68 civilians were killed in Syria in April 2024, including 13 children and three women, as well as nine individuals who died due to torture. The organization also documented five attacks on vital facilities, including two schools.

The 24-page report provides a summary of the civilian deaths that occurred in April 2024, shedding light particularly on victims who died due to torture, as well as documenting the massacres perpetrated by the parties to the conflict and controlling forces in Syria which the SNHR team was able to document during this period. The report also outlines the most notable incidents that took place during the month, in addition to summarizing the action taken by SNHR in regard to the issue of extrajudicial killings in Syria, and shedding light on attacks on civilian facilities.

This report draws upon the constant daily monitoring of news and developments by SNHR’s team, and on information supplied by our extensive network of dozens of various sources, as well as on the analysis of a large quantity of pictures and videos.

The report emphasizes the Syrian regime’s continuing absolute failure to register the deaths of any of the hundreds of thousands of citizens it has killed since March 2011 in the official death records of the civil registry. It explains that the regime exerts absolute control over the issuance of death certificates, which are not made available to any of the families of its victims, including the missing and forcibly disappeared, whether these victims were killed by the Syrian regime or by other affiliated parties. The regime only allows death certificates to be issued for those who meet the narrow criteria set by itself and its security services. The report further reveals that the vast majority of victims’ families are unable to obtain death certificates from the Syrian regime, for fear of linking their name with that of a person who was detained by the regime and killed under torture, meaning that he or she was a dissident who opposed the regime, or of their loved one being registered as a ‘terrorist’ if they are wanted by the security services; additionally, many victims’ families have been forcibly displaced outside the areas controlled by the regime.

The report further reveals that on August 10, 2022, the regime government’s Minister of Justice issued Circular No. 22 specifying the procedures for the conduct of proceedings related to registering deaths within Sharia courts. The circular included new conditions stipulating that five items of evidence must be submitted to and approved by the relevant judges in proceedings related to registration of deaths. It also requires that all relevant courts involved in death registration cases comply with the circular’s content. The circular also imposed security clearance conditions on judicial authorities to register death cases, increasing the security services’ intrusion into these legal procedures.

The report documents the killing of 68 civilians, including 13 children and three women, in April 2024 at the hands of the parties to the conflict and controlling forces. Of the 68 civilians killed during this month, 11, including four children and one woman, were killed by Syrian regime forces, while one was killed by ISIS. The report adds that all armed opposition factions/Syrian National Army (SNA) killed one civilian. Meanwhile, Hay’at Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) killed six civilians in April, while Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) killed eight. Finally, 41 civilians, including nine children and two women, were killed by other parties. Additionally, the report documents one massacre perpetrated in in the same period by the parties to the conflict and controlling forces in Syria, in which seven children from the same family were killed.

As the report further reveals, an analysis of the month’s data shows that Daraa governorate saw the highest number of civilian deaths in April accounting for about 38 percent of the total, with most of the victims killed in the governorate being killed by other parties. Daraa governorate was followed by the two governorates of Idlib and Deir Ez-Zour governorate which accounted for approximately 16 percent each, and then Aleppo governorate with about 15 percent of the total.

Moreover, the report notes that more victims were killed by the explosion of landmines planted by unidentified parties in April. Adding April’s death toll to the rest of the year’s total to date, 63 civilians, including nine children and 14 women, have been killed by landmines since the beginning of this year.

On the subject of deaths due to torture, the report reveals that nine individuals were documented as dying due to torture in Syria, in April 2024. Of these victims, two died due to torture at the hands of by Syrian regime forces, while six died due to torture at the hands of HTS, and one at the hands of all armed opposition factions/Syrian National Army (SNA).

The report further reveals that SNHR documented at least five attacks on vital civilian facilities in the month of April, including four by Syrian regime forces, while the fifth attack was by other parties. Since the start of 2024 up until the end of April, 54 attacks on vital civilian facilities by the parties to the conflict and controlling forces in Syria have been documented.

The report additionally notes that the evidence collected by SNHR indicates that some of the attacks documented in the report were deliberately directed against civilians and civilian objects. These attacks, along with indiscriminate bombardment, also resulted in the destruction of more vital facilities and other buildings. Moreover, the report notes, there are reasonable grounds to believe that the war crime of attacking civilians has been committed in many cases.

As the report also notes, the use of remote bombardment to target densely populated areas reflects a criminal mindset on the regime’s part, showing that it is intent on deliberately inflicting the greatest possible number of deaths, in clear contravention of international human rights law and flagrant violation of the Geneva IV Convention, Articles 27, 31, and 32.

The report further notes that no warnings have been given by Syrian regime forces, Russian forces, or US-led International Coalition forces before carrying out any of their attacks, as required by international humanitarian law. This has been the case since the beginning of the popular uprising in Syria, which shows an utter disregard for the lives of civilians in Syria.

Moreover, the volume of violations, their repeated nature, and the excessive level of force used, as well as the indiscriminate manner of the bombardment and the coordinated nature of the regime’s attacks, must be the result of orders from the higher echelons of power in accordance with a state policy.

All armed opposition factions/SNA forces, meanwhile, have violated Security Council resolution 2139 through attacks that constitute violations of customary international humanitarian law, resulting in collateral civilian deaths and injuries.

The report calls on the UN Security Council to take additional steps following its adoption of Resolution 2254 and stresses the importance of referring the Syrian dossier to the International Criminal Court, adding that all those involved in perpetrating crimes against humanity and war crimes should be held accountable.

The report also urges all relevant United Nations agencies to make far greater efforts to provide food, medical, and humanitarian assistance in areas where fighting has ceased, and in internally displaced persons’ camps, and to follow up on payment with those states that have pledged voluntary contributions.

The report additionally calls for the implementation of the ‘Responsibility to Protect’ doctrine (R2P) after all political channels have proved fruitless throughout all the agreements reached, as well as the Cessation of Hostilities statements, and Astana agreements that followed, stressing the need to resort to Chapter VII, and to implement the norm of the ‘Responsibility to Protect’ doctrine, which was established by the United Nations General Assembly.

The report further recommends that the international community should work to launch projects to create maps revealing the locations of landmines and cluster munitions in all Syrian governorates. This, it notes, would facilitate the process of clearing these lethal munitions, as well as educating the population about their locations.

The report additionally calls on the Independent International Commission of Inquiry (COI) to launch investigations into the cases included in this report and previous reports, and confirms the SNHR’s willingness to cooperate and to provide further evidence and data in any such investigations, as well as calling on the commission to focus on the issue of landmines and cluster munitions in its next report.

The report also stresses that the Syrian regime must stop the indiscriminate shelling and targeting of residential areas, hospitals, schools, and markets, as well as ending its acts of torture that have caused the deaths of thousands of Syrian citizens in detention centers and complying with UN Security Council resolutions and customary humanitarian law.

Lastly, the report reiterates SNHR’s appeal to all the parties to the conflict to provide detailed maps of the locations where they have planted landmines, especially those present in civilian locations or areas near residential communities, in addition to making several other recommendations.