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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Download the full report

Press release: (Download the full report below)

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Press release: (Download the full report below)

The Hague – The Syrian Network for Human Rights (SNHR) announced today in a report marking the 13^th anniversary of the popular uprising for democracy in Syria that it has documented the deaths of 231,278 Syrian civilians, including 15,334 who died due to torture, in addition to the arbitrary arrest/enforced disappearance of 156,757 others, while roughly 14 million citizens have been displaced. In the report, the group also stresses that the heroic Syrian people who rose and confronted the world’s most vicious dictatorial regime 13 years ago have been abandoned in their quest for a democratic political transition.

As the 78- page report notes, 13 years ago, armed with nothing but their unshakable resolve and extraordinary bravery, the Syrian people set out to transform the Syrian nation from a hereditary dictatorship ruled with iron and fire by one murderous family, to a democracy rooted in the principles of free and fair elections. In their fateful quest, the Syrian people rose up to reclaim their long-denied dignity that had been stolen by the regime’s barbaric security apparatus. Popular protests rapidly swept across Syria, showing the nationwide yearning to take back the country from the savage rule of a decades-old autocratic hereditary dictatorship and its brutal security forces. Against the regime’s massive military power, however, this longing for freedom and human rights was not enough, with the hopeful, joyous chants of the Syrian protesters at these huge demonstrations muted by the barbarism of the regime’s response in the form of live bullets, mass arrest targeting prominent activists leading the demonstrations, and vicious torture that has claimed tens of thousands of lives. Indeed, there are still thousands of political prisoners in the regime’s jails who have been forcibly disappeared since 2011.

The Syrian regime’s gross violations, many of them constituting crimes against humanity’ coupled with the abject and absolute failure of the international community, including the UN Security Council, meant that what began as peaceful protests quickly devolved into an internal armed conflict that has had a vast and terrible human and material cost and numerous complexities. All the Arab, regional, and international efforts made so far have failed to resolve the armed conflict in Syria. Despite these hurdles, however, the report asserts the Syrian people’s right to hold those responsible for violations against them accountable, most prominently the ruling regime that has been at the root of their suffering and of the conflict, and, secondly, reiterates that the Syrian people alone have the right to choose how to govern their nation in a free and democratic process, without being subjected to oppression and indignity at the hands of the various forces controlling various parts of Syria today.

As Fadel Abdulghany, SNHR Executive Director, says:

 “This report serves as a testimony to the extraordinary bravery of the Syrian people in their struggle for freedom, dignity, and democracy. On the other hand, it is also a bleak portrait of the ever-continuing suffering and injustice endured by the people of Syria, in addition to exposing the international community’s abject utter failure to save them. All of these points serve to reiterate and emphasize the imperative need to refocus on the Syrian issue and bring about a political resolution in line with Security Council resolution 2254.”

The report stresses the dire losses suffered by Syrians on the individual, societal and state levels, in the face of the hereditary dictatorial regime’s murderous brutality as the people’s quest to join the free, democratic world continues. The report notes that Syria’s regions have seen both gradual and rapid, major changes of control over the past 13 years in accordance with military developments, stressing that the various parties to the conflict and controlling forces have all committed human rights violations in their pursuit of gaining or maintaining military control of certain areas. To that end, the report outlines the toll of most notable human rights violations between March 2011 and March 2024.

The report reveals that no fewer than 231,278 civilians, including 30,193 children and 16,451 women (adult female), were killed at the hands of the parties to the conflict and controlling forces in Syria between March 2011 and March 2024. The Syrian regime was responsible for 201,260 of these deaths, with its victims including 22,039 children and 12,002 women, while Russian forces killed 6,969 civilians, including 2,055 children and 983 women. Meanwhile, ISIS killed 5,056 civilians, including 959 children and 587 women, while Hay’at Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) killed 538 civilians, including 76 children and 82 women, and the Turkistan Islamic Party killed four civilians. All armed opposition factions/Syrian National Army (SNA) were responsible for the deaths of 4,227 civilians, including 1,009 children and 886 women, while Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) killed 1,491 civilians, including 264 children and 177 women. Additionally, the US-led International Coalition forces killed 3,055 civilians, including 926 children and 658 women, and finally 8,978 civilians, including 1,865 children and 1,076 women, were killed by other parties. The report also includes a running count of the civilian death toll and its distribution by year over the past 13 years. Analysis of the data shows that 91 percent of all victims were killed at the hands of Syrian regime forces and their allies, with roughly 52 percent of all victims being killed in the governorates of Rural Damascus ‘Rif Dimshaq’, Aleppo, and Homs.

As the report further reveals, among the victims were 876 medical personnel, approximately 83 percent of whom were killed by the Syrian-Russian alliance forces, and 717 media workers, approximately 78 percent of whom were killed by Syrian regime forces.

The report also notes that no fewer than 156,757 of the individuals arrested by the parties to the conflict and controlling forces in Syria since March 2011 up until March 2024, including 5,235 children and 10,205 women (adult female) are still imprisoned and/or forcibly disappeared. Of these, 136,192 individuals, including 3,696 children and 8,497 women, were arrested by Syrian regime forces, while 8,684 individuals, including 319 children and 255 women, were arrested by ISIS, and 2,587 individuals, including 47 children and 45 women, were arrested by HTS. Furthermore, 4,243 individuals, including 364 children and 879 women, were arrested by all armed opposition factions/SNA, and 5,051 individuals, including 809 children and 529 women, were arrested by the SDF. The report includes graphs showing the running count and distribution of the total arrests by year since March 2011 across all Syrian governorates.

The report also documents the deaths of 15,334 individuals due to torture, including 199 children and 115 women (adult female), at the hands of the parties to the conflict and controlling forces in Syria. Of these, 15,074 individuals, including 190 children and 95 women, died at the hands of Syrian regime forces, meaning that Syrian regime forces are responsible for 99 percent of all documented deaths due to torture. Meanwhile, 32 individuals, including one child and 14 women, died due to torture at the hands of ISIS, while another 41, including two children and one woman, died due to torture at the hands of HTS, 57 individuals, including one child and two women, died due to torture at the hands of all armed opposition factions/SNA, and 100 individuals, including two children and three women, died due to torture at the hands of the SDF. Finally, 30 individuals, including two children and one woman, died due to torture at the hands of other parties.

The report provides statistics on the use of four types of weapons – barrel bombs, chemical weapons, cluster munitions, and incendiary weapons – noting that Syrian regime helicopters and fixed-wing warplanes have dropped no fewer than 81,916 barrel bombs since the first documented use of this weapon on July 18, 2012, resulting in the deaths of 11,087 civilians, including 1,821 children and 1,780 women.

Additionally, the report documents 222 chemical weapons attacks in Syria since the first documented use of these internationally outlawed weapons in December 2012. The Syrian regime was responsible for 217 of these attacks, while the remaining five were carried out by ISIS. A total of 1,514 people, including 214 children and 262 women (adult female), have been killed in CW attacks by Syrian regime forces. A further 11,212 individuals were injured in CW attacks, with 11,080 of this total injured in attacks by the Syrian regime, while the remaining 132 were injured in attacks by ISIS.

On the subject of cluster munitions, the report reveals that the Syrian regime and its ally Russia have used these internationally outlawed munitions heavily. The report records 497 cluster munition attacks since the first documented use of cluster munitions in July 2012. Of these 497 attacks, 252 were carried out by Syrian regime forces, while 237 were carried out by Russian forces, in addition to eight Syrian/Russian attacks. As the report reveals, cluster munition attacks resulted in the deaths of 1,053 civilians, including 394 children and 219 women (adult female).

Finally, the report documents 181 attacks involving the use of incendiary weapons on civilian residential areas, including 51 attacks by Syrian regime forces, and 125 attacks by Russian forces, while the remaining five attacks were carried out by international coalition forces.

As the report further notes, the various parties to the conflict have carried out attacks that resulted in damage to vital facilities. Since March 2011, SNHR has documented no fewer than 897 attacks on medical facilities, and 1,453 attacks on places of worship, in addition to documenting damage to 1,675 schools, some of which were targeted on multiple occasions. The report reveals that Syrian-Russian-Iranian alliance forces have been responsible for roughly 86 percent of these attacks.

The report also reveals that more than half of the Syrian population has been forcibly displaced either as IDPs or as refugees, citing statistics from the UN Office of the High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) which estimate that roughly 13.4 million Syrians have been forced to flee internally or seek asylum in other countries since the beginning of the popular uprising for democracy in March 2011.

In the report’s second chapter, a number of ongoing violations that threaten the Syrian people for decades to come are highlighted. One of these categories involves extrajudicial arrests/detentions, enforced disappearance, torture, and executions through summary procedures, which the report describes as an interconnected series of brutal violations that have been perpetrated by the Syrian regime for 13 years. In this context, the report stresses that the 23 amnesty decrees promulgated by the Syrian regime since 2011 have all failed to secure the release of the overwhelming majority of detainees. Moreover, the report stresses that torture in regime detention centers has no time limits or other constraints, with more and more deaths due to torture being recorded even after the ruling by the International Court of Justice (ICJ). The report further adds that the specter of enforced disappearance continues to haunt the families of forcibly disappeared persons, raising grave concerns for the lives of about 113,000 Syrian citizens who are still forcibly disappeared at the hands of the parties to the conflict, with the regime being responsible for about 86 percent of all enforced disappearances. The report also sheds light on the abnormal exceptional courts, including the Counterterrorism Court and the Military Field Court; the latter. for example, issued at least 7,872 death sentences and was involved in at least 24,047 enforced disappearances between March 2011 and August 2023

The report also reveals that landmines and cluster munitions remnants are still scattered across wide areas of Syria, posing a lethal threat to citizens’ lives that will last for decades to come. There is also the issue of forced displacement, described by the report as an ongoing tragedy, with Syria continuing to be unsafe for its own inhabitants let alone for returning refugees. In this context, the report stresses that other states restoring relations with the Syrian regime will lead to larger numbers of Syrian refugees worldwide rather than the opposite, while the refoulment of refugees and forced repatriation of asylum seekers constitute violation of international law. In fact, returning refugees are subjected to the same life-threatening violations suffered by local residents in Syria, amid an absence of any legitimate or credible legal environment and the prevalent climate of oppression, despotism, and the centralization of authoritarian rule. There can be no free and dignified return for refugees without the country first realizing a political transition towards a democratic government that respects human rights. Relatedly, from the start of 2014 until March 2024, the report records no fewer than 4,643 arbitrary arrests of refugees returning to their homes in Syria from countries of asylum or residence, including 1,518 people who have subsequently been categorized as forcibly disappeared. Of the 4,643 people arrested, 3,532, including 251 children and 214 women (adult female), were refugees returning from countries of asylum or residence to their original areas of residence in Syria, 97 of whom had been forcibly repatriated from Lebanon, including two children and five women, while the remaining 1,014 arrests involved IDPs who returned from their areas of displacement elsewhere in Syria to regime-held areas.

Additionally, the report notes that Syrian-Russian alliance forces have destroyed vast areas across Syria, uprooting millions of Syrians from their lands and homes towards a traumatic, uncertain fate of forced displacement. Meanwhile, the Syrian regime has been seizing Syrian dissidents’ properties through laws and legislation promulgated since March 2011 in service of one goal, which is to take advantage of the chaotic climate of an internal armed conflict to accelerate the process of seizing the properties of Syrian dissidents. In that context, the report outlines a number of mechanisms through which the regime has employed its quasi-legal arsenal of laws, as well as a deliberate policy of destruction used by the regime to take over homes, lands, and real estate properties.

As the report further reveals, the Syrian regime has been taking advantage of state-issued documents to achieve self-serving objectives and is committing a range of violations against citizens in the process of acquiring official documents, using such processes to fund its war against the Syrian people, with its extortionate passport processing charges being one example. In that, the report pinpoints six main patterns of violations affecting Syrians in the process of acquiring passports.

In the last chapter, the report stresses that the international community has totally and abjectly failed to bring about a resolution to the Syrian conflict and realize a political change. To that end, the report notes that the UN Security Council has miserably failed to implement any of its resolutions on Syria. The report also notes that the perpetuation of a culture of impunity has emboldened the Syrian regime to continue to commit violations against the Syrian people for over 13 years. On a related note, the report tackles the issue of the politicization of the humanitarian assistance file since 2014, reiterating that delivering humanitarian assistance does not require permission from the Security Council, while also stressing that an abundance of evidence has proved that the Syrian regime is stealing the vast majority of relief aid, with those genuinely affected and in desperate need only receiving 10 percent of the total.

As the report further stresses, normalizing relations with the Syrian regime, which is continues to commit crimes against humanity against the Syrian people to this day, constitutes a violation of international law and a desecration of the rights of million victims. The attempts being made by some Arab states, or any other states for that matter, to reestablish any form of relations with the Syrian regime are grievously insulting, first and foremost to those states deciding to take such action, and secondly sends a wrong message to their own peoples that they choose to side with a genocidal regime responsible for crimes against humanity which sits atop the backs and skulls of its victims, which is itself an insult to the dignity of any state doing so, in addition to being a grotesque insult to the regime’s millions of Syrian victims. Such rehabilitation, as the report stresses, also constitutes a violation of international law since it is an act of support for a regime that has committed, and still is committing crimes against humanity against an entire nation of people.

The report concludes by stating that all parties to the conflict in Syria have violated both international humanitarian law and international human rights law, with the Syrian regime and its allies being the perpetrators of by far the largest number of violations. The report stresses that Syrian regime forces have perpetrated various violations on such a scale that they amount to crimes against humanity, ranging from extrajudicial killing to torture, forced displacement, and others, with all these crimes being perpetrated in a simultaneously systematic and widespread manner. In addition, Syrian regime forces have committed war crimes through indiscriminate bombardment and the destruction of buildings and facilities. Since the Syrian regime has failed to uphold its responsibly for protecting the country’s people from crimes against humanity and war crimes, the report affirms, it is the responsibility of the international community to intervene to t take protective measure collectively and decisively.

The report further notes that Russian forces have violated Security Council resolutions 2139 and 2254 through indiscriminate bombardment attacks, as well as violating many articles of international humanitarian law by committing dozens of violations that qualify as war crimes.

The report calls on the UN Security Council members to stop using their veto to protect the Syrian regime, which has committed hundreds of thousands of violations over the past 13 years, many of which constitute crimes against humanity and war crimes. Furthermore, the report calls on all parties to the conflict and controlling forces to reveal the fate of the nearly 113,000 forcibly disappeared persons in Syria, 86 percent of whom have been forcibly disappeared by the Syrian regime.

The report additionally calls on the UN Security Council to refer the Syrian issue to the International Criminal Court (ICC), and calls for all those involved in crimes against humanity and war crimes to be held accountable. The report also calls for bringing about a political transition on the basis of the Geneva Communiqué and Security Council Resolution 2254, to ensure the stability and territorial integrity of Syria, and the dignified and safe return of refugees and IDPs.

As well as calling on the UNSC to refer the Syrian issue to the ICC, the report also calls on the international community to do likewise, or to quickly establish a tribunal dedicated to trying crimes against humanity and war crimes in order to end the cycle of impunity in Syria that has now spanned more than a decade Also, the report stresses, real pressure should be brought to bear on Russia and Iran, which should be categorized as key partners in the violations committed in Syria.

The report also calls on the international community to take serious punitive actions against the Syrian regime to deter it from killing Syrian citizens under torture. It further calls for pressure to also be applied to the other parties to the conflict through all available means to completely end all torture practices. Moreover, the report calls for the ending of internationally outlawed refoulment of Syrian refugees, since the conditions in Syria are still unsafe, and calls on the international community to apply pressure towards a political transition that would ensure the voluntary and automatic return of millions of refugees, in addition to making a number of other recommendations.

Press release: (Download the full report below)

The Hague – The Syrian Network for Human Rights (SNHR) today released its 13^th annual report since the start of the popular uprising in March 2011. The report, entitled, ‘Political Transition and Progression to Democracy is the Only Way to Stop Violations in Syria,’ summarizes the most notable violations of human rights at the hands of the parties to the conflict and controlling forces in Syria for the year 2023. Most notably, the report reveals that 1,032 civilians; including 181 children and 119 women (adult female) as well as 59 victims who died due to torture, were killed in 2023, while a total of 2,317 cases of arbitrary arrest/detention were documented throughout the year, and approximately 195,000 people were displaced.

As the 192-page report explains, Syria’s protracted conflict continued throughout the past year of 2023, with its devastating effects continuing to wreck the lives of millions of Syrians. Over the past 13 years, SNHR has documented numerous types of violations at the hands of the parties to the conflict and controlling forces in Syria, many of which still persist. While all parties have been responsible for violations, the Syrian regime remains by far the greatest culprit, being responsible for a massively greater number of abuses than any of the other parties. These violations, which include, inter alia, killings, arbitrary arrests, enforced disappearances, forcible displacement, torture, seizure of lands and properties, assassinations and remote bombings, have intensified in light of the prevalent state of insecurity; all have resulted in a catastrophic human rights crisis in Syria. The past year, 2023 was particularly marked by the resumption of military hostilities, as the year saw the most intensified escalation by the Syrian-Russian alliance forces in two years, targeting areas in northwestern Syria that are subject to the Cessation of Hostilities agreement of 2020.

The mounting and worsening effects of the massive magnitude of the violations committed in Syria over the past 13 years is only becoming more dramatic and serious year by year. These effects manifest themselves in accelerating deterioration of the already abysmal living and security conditions across the country. The economic situation in particular dramatically worsened in 2023, which was even worse than the preceding two years.

The report stresses that human rights violations continued to occur across all parts of Syria in 2023, being manifested in various forms, including civilian deaths and targeted attacks, enforced disappearances and arbitrary arrest, torture, and attacks on vital civilian facilities. The report adds that the protracted nature of the Syrian conflict only underlines the imperative need for a sustainable political resolution. The complications of the Syrian crisis, with the involvement of many international, foreign stakeholders, all of whom have conflicting regional and international interests, require a clinically nuanced approach that prioritizes the aspirations and rights of the Syrian people. Any political resolution proposed must aim to end hostilities and establish a sustained ceasefire, build a comprehensive political dialogue, ensure accountability for human rights violations, and launch reconstruction and rehabilitation. However, the report notes that, besides the ongoing conflict and the political resolution reaching a deadlock, there are other issues urgently requiring attention, namely the humanitarian crisis and displacement, economic decline, employment and livelihoods, children and young people, and women’s rights and involvement in all fields.

As Fadel Abdulghany, SNHR Executive Director, says:

“This report can be viewed as a historical testament documenting the gross violations that the Syrian people have had to endure. Simultaneously, it is a reminder of the incredible resolve of the Syrian people and their persistent calls to attain their legitimate right to political transition. The findings of this report only underscore the difficulty of achieving this goal without collective action at the international level. Therefore, we call on the international community to renew its commitment to finding a sustainable solution to the protracted armed conflict. This report also confirms that Syria remains one of the world’s worst humanitarian catastrophes, and accordingly we stress that humanitarian assistance must continue, and must be increased. While we continue to document and report violations and expose their perpetrators, our mission remains the same as it always has been: to advocate for justice, peace, and dignity for all Syrians.”

The report explains its objective of providing an in-depth summary of the state of human rights in Syria throughout 2023, with emphasis on the ongoing violations and the pressing need for a political resolution, as well as the other crucial issues affecting the lives of the Syrian people. To that end, the report provides an outline of the most notable and prominent violations of human rights in Syria for 2023, while drawing comparisons between the most notable patterns of violations documented in 2023 and 2022. The report also contains a summary of the most noteworthy political, military, and human rights developments in an attempt to provide a clearer picture of the context in which the violations took place. In this, the report provides details of the most notable developments in the arenas of politics, military, and human rights, as well as the investigations carried out on Syria over the past year. Moreover, the report touches upon the subject of the course of accountability, stressing that the progress made on that front still falls far short of deterring the perpetrators of violations and holding them accountable. The report also highlights the role played by SNHR in supporting the course of accountability, noting that the group released approximately 75 reports and 856 news articles in 2023, in which it addressed multiple types of the most notable human rights violations committed by the parties to the conflict and the controlling forces in Syria. These reports were based on evidence from numerous sources, including approximately 304 testimonies given by victims who have been subjected to various types of violations, been injured in or survived attacks, along with paramedics, central signal workers or victims’ families. All these testimonies were obtained through speaking directly with eyewitnesses, with none of them cited from any second-hand sources.

As SNHR’s database shows, a total of 1,032 civilians were documented as having been killed in 2023, including 181 children and 119 women (adult female), at the hands of the parties to the conflict and controlling forces in Syria. Of this total, the Syrian regime was responsible for the deaths of 225 civilians, including 57 children and 24 women, with regime forces committing five massacres this year, while Russian forces killed 20 civilians, including six children and five women, as well as committing one massacre. Meanwhile, ISIS killed one civilian, while Hay’at Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) killed 16 civilians, including two children and five women. Furthermore, the report documents that 17 civilians, including five children and one woman, were killed at the hands of all armed opposition factions/Syrian National Army (SNA), while Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) killed 74 civilians, including nine children and 10 women. Moreover, the report records that five civilians were killed by the US-led International Coalition forces. Lastly, the report records that 674 civilians, including 102 children and 74 women, were killed by other parties, who were also responsible for no fewer than 14 massacres.

As the report further reveals, approximately 2,317 cases of arbitrary arrest/detention were documented in 2023, with those detained including 129 children and 87 women (adult female). Of these, the Syrian regime was responsible for 1,063 cases, including 24 children and 49 women, while HTS was responsible for 248 cases, including four children and seven women. In addition, all armed opposition factions/SNA were responsible for 365 cases, including 10 children and 25 women, while the SDF was responsible for 641 cases in 2023, including 91 children and six women.

The report adds that no fewer than 59 individuals died due to torture in 2023, distributed as follows: 34 at the hands of Syrian regime forces, including one child and one woman, 10 at the hands of the SDF, including one child, three at the hands of all armed opposition factions/SNA, eight at the hands of HTS, including one woman, and finally four at the hands of other parties.

The report also provides details of the most notable violations against medical personnel and media workers, noting that four medical personnel, including one woman, were killed in 2023, all at the hands of Syrian regime forces, while three media workers were killed this year: one by Syrian regime forces, and two by other parties.

As the report further reveals, no fewer than 206 attacks on civilian vital facilities were documented in 2023 at the hands of the parties to the conflict and controlling forces, including 142 by Syrian regime forces and six by Russian forces. Furthermore, HTS and all armed opposition factions/SNA were responsible for one attack each, while the SDF was responsible for 48 attacks. Finally, the report records that nine attacks on vital civilian facilities were carried out by other parties.

In 2023, the report records one attack that involved the use of cluster munitions by Syrian regime forces in Idlib governorate. The attack resulted in the death of 1 civilian, and injured eight others. Meanwhile, the report documents eight attacks involving the use of cluster munitions, all at the hands of Syrian regime forces, with three civilians injured in these attacks.

The report also notes that approximately 195,000 people were displaced in 2023 as a result of the military operations carried out by the parties to the conflict and controlling forces in Syria, including 152,000 people who were displaced as a result of the military operations by the Syrian-Russian alliance forces.

The report concludes that the Syrian regime has failed in upholding its responsibility to protect Syria’s population from crimes against humanity and war crimes. This responsibility entails the prevention of such crimes, including the prevention of incitement to commit them by all possible means, and when the state clearly fails to protect its population from crimes of atrocity, or is itself the main party responsible for committing such crimes, as in the case of the Syrian regime, this means that it is the responsibility of the international community to intervene to take protective measures in a collective, decisive and timely manner. The report adds that while all parties to the conflict in Syria have violated both international humanitarian law and international human rights law, the Syrian regime and its allies are the perpetrators of by far the largest number of violations.

The report calls on the UN Security Council to take additional steps following the adoption of Resolution 2254, which clearly demands that all parties should, “…Immediately cease any attacks against civilians and civilian objects as such, including attacks against medical facilities and personnel, and any indiscriminate use of weapons, including through shelling and aerial bombardment,” and should find ways and mechanisms to implement Security Council Resolutions 2041, 2042, 2139 and Article 12 of Resolution 2254 regarding detainees and forcibly disappeared persons in Syria.

The report also calls on the UN Security Council to abstain from using the concept of sovereignty as an excuse for inaction, and to take action to redress the invocation of the Security Council’s arbitrary powers at the expense of international law, and especially humanitarian aid.

Moreover, the report calls on the UN Security Council to take serious steps to achieve a political transition under the Geneva Communiqué and Security Council Resolution No. 2254, to ensure the stability and territorial integrity of Syria, and the dignified and safe return of refugees and IDPs. Additionally, the report calls on the UN Security Council to allocate a significant amount of funds for clearing live mines left over by the Syrian conflict from the United Nations Mine Action Service, particularly in areas prepared to carry out this task with transparency and integrity.

Additionally, the report calls on the international community to act at the national and regional levels to form alliances to support the Syrian people and to increase support for relief efforts, and to practice their universal jurisdiction to try perpetrators of crimes in Syria before national courts in fair trials for all those involved. The report also calls for the situation in Syria to be referred to the International Criminal Court (ICC) or for the establishment of a tribunal to try crimes against humanity and war crimes in Syria as soon as possible to end the shameful impunity that has continued in Syria for well over a decade.

The report also calls on the international community to stop any forcible return of Syrian refugees, since the situation in Syria continues to be unsafe, and to put pressure on the relevant parties to achieve a political transition that would ensure the automatic return of millions of refugees.

In addition, the report calls for ending all attempts to normalize relations with the Syrian regime. Should some of the Arab states believe they are compelled to do so, the report adds, they must require as preconditions: 1.The release of approximately 136,000 political detainees, including 96,000 forcibly disappeared persons; 2. the disclosure of the fate of victims of torture and execution practices in regime detention centers, as well as details of their burial; and 3. Allow the launch of an independent accountability process for all Syrian regime personnel involved in crimes of murder and torture, no matter their security and military ranks and positions. The report also contains a number of other recommendations.

Press Release:

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

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

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

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

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

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

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Press release: (Download the full report below)

The Hague – The Syrian Network for Human Rights (SNHR) today released its 12^th annual report on violations against females in Syria, to mark the International Day for the Elimination of Violence Against Women. The report notes that no fewer than 28,926 females have been killed in Syria since March 2011, including 117 who died due to torture, while 11,203 are still detained/arrested, with SNHR also documenting 11,541 incidents of sexual violence committed against females. It should be stressed that the vast majority of all these violations were perpetrated by Syrian regime forces.

The 62-page report notes that, over the past 13 years, women in Syria have been consistently and repeatedly subjected to a wide range of gross violations. This has not been the only trauma women have suffered, it notes, with thousands of women also facing insurmountable challenges over their involvement in activism, or, on a more basic level, in obtaining their most essential rights and needs amid the numerous horrific violations committed by the parties to the conflict.

The report draws upon the evidence contained on SNHR’s database, which is the result of our daily monitoring and documentation activities conducted since March 2011, and which encompasses violations of extrajudicial killing, arbitrary arrest, enforced disappearance and torture, recruitment, sexual violence, attacks that saw the use of various weapons, and attacks on vital civilian facilities. The report outlines the most notable violations committed by the parties to the conflict and controlling forces in Syria against females between March 2011 and November 25, 2023, as documented on SNHR’s database. The report also compares the toll of violations recorded in last year’s annual report on women with this year’s total, in order to show whether rates of violations have increased, decreased, or stayed the same across the different type of violations.

Fadel Abdul Ghany, SNHR Executive Director, says:
“In documenting the violations and difficulties faced by Syrian women, our aim is not to simply chronicle the massive suffering they’ve borne, or to recount their often unimaginably extraordinary endurance. The reports we release are also a message to the international community, the UN Security Council, and women’s rights organization around the world urging them to exert far more serious effort to alleviate the plight of Syria’s women and empower them to handle the exceptional challenges they face in Syria.”

The report stresses that females in Syria have been subjected to multiple and repeated patterns of violations that vary in their severity and geographic distribution, and in their current and future ramifications on females of all ages in Syria. Relatedly, the report focuses on the gross human rights violations committed against females, which have been perpetrated in a systematic way. These seven primary violations are: Extrajudicial killing; unlawful detention, arbitrary arrest, abduction, and enforced disappearance; torture; sexual violence; child recruitment; attacks on vital facilities, such as schools, and medical facilities, such as hospitals, and the obstruction or denial of humanitarian assistance. In addition to these seven gross violations, the report sheds light on other violations related to protection of females such as the judicial and security procedures related to proving ownership, registering deaths, and the gender dimension of a number of laws and legislative articles involving discriminatory practices that affect women. Moreover, the report reveals, female activists have faced slander and intimidation, which has grown dramatically worse due to the continuing conflict.

The report documents the killing of 28,926 women and girls at the hands of the parties to the conflict and the controlling forces in Syria between March 2011, and November 25, 2023, with 22,061 of these female victims killed at the hands of Syrian regime forces, while 1,608 others were killed by Russian forces. In addition, a total of 981 females were killed by ISIS, and 87 were killed by Hay’at Tahrir al-Sham (HTS). Furthermore, the report reveals that the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) were responsible for killing 279 females, while all armed opposition factions/Syrian National Army (SNA) killed 1,324 females. Lastly, 961 females were killed in attacks by international coalition forces, while 1,625 children were killed by other parties. Analysis of these figures shows that the Syrian regime has been responsible for approximately 77 percent of all extrajudicial killings of females. According to the accumulated death toll, 2013 saw the highest documented death toll among females, followed by 2012, then 2014, and then 2015.

With regard to arrest/detention, enforced disappearance, and torture, the report notes that no fewer than 11,203 females are still detained and/or forcibly disappeared at the hands of the parties to the conflict and the controlling forces as of November 25, 2023, divided as follows: 8,962 females are still detained and/or forcibly disappeared by Syrian regime forces, 49 by HTS, 921 by SDF, and 971 by all armed opposition factions/SNA. The report adds that 276 of the females who are still forcibly disappeared were arrested by ISIS before the group became defunct for the most part in Syria. The report further notes that, according to the accumulated toll, 2015 was the worst year in terms of arrests/detentions and enforced disappearances involving females, with 78 percent of all arrests in that year made by Syrian regime forces.

The report documents the deaths of 117 females due to torture in Syria since March 2011, including 79 who died in Syrian regime detention centers, while 14 died in ISIS detention centers, two died in SDF detention centers, and two died in armed opposition/SNA detention centers. Lastly, one female died due to torture at the hands of other parties.

As the report further reveals, Syrian regime forces have targeted females due to their gender. Arresting and detaining females is generally employed as a means of imposing control over an area and ensuring the local population’s submission. In addition to being targeted for their gender, the report reveals that females have also been targeted for their involvement in political activities and activism, such as participating in the peaceful demonstrations calling for political change, as well as in various forms of civilian, media, and human rights activism. In many cases, females have also been arrested due either to their own sect or ethnicity or to affiliation with a certain area, sect, or ethnicity while passing through checkpoints, or when visiting government institutions. These arrests have exhibited a retaliatory character, forming part of a policy of collective punishment, or being intended to extort, pressure, and persecute the victims’ families. Moreover, the report reveals that, from the beginning of 2018 up until November 25, 2023, SNHR has documented that no fewer than 23 of the women forcibly disappeared in regime detention centers have been registered as dead in the civil registry’s records. The cause of death has not been revealed in any of these cases, while the victims’ bodies have not been returned to the families, and their deaths were not publicly registered at the time they took place.

The report also sheds light on the Syrian regime’s use of sexual violence as a weapon of war and an instrument of punishment in order to spread mass fear and to force residents to flee ahead of raids. Sexual violence has also been routinely used by regime forces as a method of torture, retaliation, and intimidation. Given the practice of sexual violence on such a wide scale, it is very clear that this is happening with the implicit approval of the officers in charge of the regime’s security services and armed forces who authorize such practices. The report outlines the most common patterns of sexual violence by regime forces, adding that these forces committed no fewer than 8,019 incidents of sexual violence including about 881 incidents that took place in detention centers, and no fewer than 443 cases of sexual violence against girls under the age of 18.

The report adds that attacks targeting medical facilities have had dangerous ramifications for females. These consequences are made more serious and compounded by the fact that most of these facilities have been deliberately targeted in attacks that resulted in massive casualties among female patients, staff, and health workers. Destroying medical facilities has also suspended or stopped healthcare provision to females in the affected areas, which meant that many girls and women have lost access to basic healthcare which they need to survive. Moreover, military operations have temporarily put medical facilities out of commission, which also had serious consequences. The report documents no fewer than 555 attacks on medical facilities at the hands of regime forces, putting most of them out of commission, while Russian forces carried out no fewer than 209 attacks on medical facilities since the launch of their military intervention on September 30, 2015, up until November 25, 2023. Furthermore, theSDF carried out 12 attacks on medical facilities, while HTS carried out two attacks. Finally, armed opposition factions have been responsible for no fewer than 15 attacks on medical facilities between March 2011 and November 25, 2023.

The report also reveals that in addition to the SDF’s other extrajudicial abuses of females, the SDF group have also detained females. Females in SDF detention centers suffer incredibly poor conditions and are subjected to various methods of torture. It is also not uncommon for females to be mistreated on the basis of their ethnicity in SDF detention centers, where they are deprived of healthcare and food. Moreover, those detained are not charged with any specific charges or subject to a trial until they have already suffered long periods of detention that may last for months or even years.

Also on the subject of the SDF, the report adds that, through military recruitment and conscription, the SDF has used females, including female children, to reinforce its military forces and assert control over the areas under its control. Juvenile girls are a key element of the SDF. This military recruitment and conscription are a key part of a systematic, established policy carried out under the supervision of the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK). In this context, the report documents no fewer than 281 cases of underage girls being recruited or conscripted by the SDF. No fewer than eight of these juvenile female conscripts have been killed in battle, while about 164 others have been discharged, with 109 girls still actively serving with the SDF.

The report adds that SDF personnel have carried out many acts of sexual violence against females in the group’s detention centers, female recruitment centers checkpoints, reception centers and camps under the group’s protection and supervision. To that end, the report records that, as of November 25, 2023, we have documented no fewer than 17 incidents of sexual violence at the hands of SDF.

The report reveals that female detainees held in HTS detention centers are also subjected to harsh detention conditions, ranging from being denied any opportunity to contact their families to intimidation, threats, and serious accusations during interrogation. HTS uses various methods of torture in its detention centers, which are extremely similar to those employed by the Syrian regime in its detention centers.

The report also provides a summary of the violations perpetrated by the armed opposition/SNA, noting that females have been detained and abducted by armed opposition factions/SNA in a widespread manner in recent years. The contexts and motives of these incidents vary depending on the current situation on the ground and developments concerning those factions, such as changes in territorial control, or even the dissolution of many of the groups involved in those practices. However, the same practices of targeting females have persisted. These practices were also difficult to make sense of since there is no real framework governing the armed opposition’s practices, and there is also no independent judiciary that oversees such operations in a transparent and clear way.

The report also sheds light on campaigns of threats and slander against woman activists all over Syria, noting that there have been various types of campaigns and attacks against female activists, including verbal violence and threats of physical violence, that have been directly targeted at them or sent indirectly through text messages. There have also been cases in which female activists have been the victims of slander or have endured sensitive personal information on them being published or promoted on social media or in other public settings. In many other cases, women have been summoned to the security headquarters of the various controlling forces, and faced accusations impugning their morality or attacking their dignity, or even been publicly molested. For instance, the report records that many women who were involved in the anti-regime protests in Suwayda governorate, which have been going on since August 2023, have been the victims of slander campaigns, as well as threats and been subjected to societal and security services’ pressure, all with the objective of driving them to cease their activism. The report adds that HTS, through its institutions, has also issued a number of discriminatory decisions against females in areas under its control, including the imposition of policies such as gender segregation in universities and banning women from studying certain majors in the universities under its control. The group has also imposed a dress code on women and limited their personal freedom.

The report concludes that all the parties to the conflict in Syria have failed to engage in the proper treatment of women, as defined by international law and Rule 134 of customary international humanitarian law. Furthermore, the parties to the conflict in Syria, particularly the Syrian regime which is responsible for the vast majority of violations in the conflict, have violated many legal articles regarding women, as included in Protocol II additional to the Geneva Convention, adopted in 1977.

This report also shows that patterns of discrimination against women have been exhibited in a range of practices, which constitute violations of the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW), which established all the articles that states must implement to protect women from the negative effects resultant from discrimination. In addition, such practices constitute a violation of UN Security Council Resolution 1325.

The report stresses that among the violations outlined that have been perpetrated by the Syrian regime in the form of widespread and systematic attacks in a way that qualifies them as crimes against humanity are: murder, torture, rape, and enforced displacement.

The report adds that among the violations outlined in this report that have been perpetrated by the Syrian regime, as well as the other parties to the conflict, in a way that qualifies them as war crimes are: sexual violence, violence to life, particularly murder in its different forms, mutilation, cruel treatment, and outrages upon personal dignity.

The report recommends that the international community provide protection and assistance for forcibly displaced females, both internally displaced persons (IDPs) and refugees, particularly girls, and respect their specific needs, most importantly protection.

Moreover, the report calls for providing sufficient resources to enable the rehabilitation of female survivors, particularly victims of sexual violence, sexual exploitation, and forced marriage. This includes establishing institutions to protect and care for female victims who have suffered exclusion from their families and communities. The report also makes a number of other recommendations.

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Press release: (Download the full report below)

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

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

Fadel Abdul Ghany, SNHR Executive Director says:

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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The Hague – The Syrian Network for Human Rights (SNHR) today released its eighth annual report on the most notable violations by Russian forces since the launch of Russia’s military intervention on September 30, 2015. In the latest report, the group reveals that Russian forces have killed 6,954 civilians to date in Syria, including 2,046 children, and carried out 1,246 attacks on vital civilian facilities.

The 26-page report notes that, Russia has played an instrumental role in obstructing the will of the Syrian people since the early days of the popular uprising. In its attempts to justify its position, behavior, and support of the Assad regime, Moscow has given different, and sometimes contradictory, supposed pretexts. Moreover, over the course of the popular uprising in Syria, Russia has consistently shielded the Syrian regime, as well as supporting it logistically, politically, economically, and militarily. In the political sphere, Russia has provided support through blocking any international condemnation of the Syrian regime’s actions at the UN Security Council, which has been effectively crippled, preventing it from taking any meaningful action in relation to the Syrian regime’s crimes against humanity, thanks to Russia’s using its veto powers on 18 separate occasions – four times before the launch of its military intervention and 14 times since. The report adds that Russia has also voted against all resolutions condemning the Syrian regime’s vicious and brutal attacks on any opposition at all on 21 occasions during UN Human Rights Council sessions. Even more damningly, Russia has mobilized allied or subservient states, including Algeria, Venezuela and Cuba, to do the same.

In the words of Fadel Abdul Ghany, SNHR Executive Director:
“Every year, we reiterate our human rights position, namely that Russia’s intervention in Syria is unlawful because it is based on a request by an illegitimate regime that claimed power through fire and iron, rather than through a constitution and legitimate elections. In addition to this, Russian forces chose to intervene in support of a regime that was and is engaged in perpetrating crimes against humanity, before even mentioning the war crimes and crimes against humanity which Russia itself has committed in Syria. All these facts render Russia’s presence in Syria unlawful. Russia must pay restitution to the families of the victim it has killed and rebuild the vital facilities and homes it has destroyed.”

The report provides an updated breakdown of the most notable violations of human rights committed by Russian forces since the launch of the military intervention up until September 30, 2023. In assigning culpability to Russia in certain attacks, the report explains, SNHR draws upon a wide range of scrupulously cross-checked information, statements by Russian officials, and a large number of first-hand accounts.

The report further notes that, as SNHR’s database attests, Russian forces in Syria have killed 6,954 civilians, including 2,046 children and 978 women (adult female), and committed no fewer than 360 massacres. Analysis of the data shows that the intervention’s first year was the bloodiest (with about 52 percent of all victims killed by Russia killed in the intervention’s first year), while Aleppo governorate saw the most victims (around 41 percent) followed by Idlib (38 percent).

Furthermore, the report documents that Russian forces killed 70 medical personnel, including 12 women, mostly in Aleppo governorate, with the highest proportion of these victims also killed in the first year of the intervention, 44 Civil Defense Personnel, half of whom were killed in Idlib governorate where the highest death toll was documented, accounting for 35 percent of all Civil Defense personnel killed in the first year of the intervention, and 24 media workers, all of whom were killed in the governorates of Aleppo and Idlib.

As the report further reveals, Russia has carried out no fewer than 1,246 attacks on vital civilian facilities, including 223 schools, 207 medical facilities, and 61 markets, since the launch of its military intervention. As the graphs included in the report show, the intervention’s first year saw 452 attacks on vital civilian facilities by Russian forces, with Idlib being subjected to the largest number of attacks, 629 in all, accounting for 51 percent of the total.

Furthermore, the report reveals that Russian forces have carried out no fewer than 237 cluster munition attacks and no fewer than 125 attacks using incendiary since the launch of Russia’s military intervention on September 30, 2015.
The report stresses that the ferocious level of violence shown in Russia’s attacks has played a major role in displacement movements in Syria, with Russian attacks, in parallel with those of the Syrian-Iranian alliance, leading to the displacement of approximately 4.8 million people, most of whom have been displaced more than once.

The report further stresses that despite all these well-documented crimes perpetrated by its forces, Russian authorities continue to this day to deny carrying out any attacks against civilians in Syria. Meanwhile, the Russian Minister of Foreign Affairs, Sergei Lavrov, repeatedly claims that Russia’s intervention is lawful because it took place at the request of the Syrian regime and supposedly for the purpose of combating ISIS. Mr. Lavrov asserts that his country’s government is complying with the rules of international humanitarian law, while apparently completely ignoring the fact that Russia has never launched even one investigation into the confirmed information of Russian involvement in numerous violations through its attacks, which qualify as war crimes according to many UN reports, as well as international and local reports.

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

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

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

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The Hague – The Syrian Network for Human Rights (SNHR) today released its 12^th annual report on enforced disappearance in Syria, in observance of the International Day of the Disappeared that marks August 30 of every year. The group noted that no fewer than 112,713 of the people arrested in Syria since March 2011 are still forcibly disappeared, including 3,105 children and 6,698 women.

The44-page report outlines numerous incidents of enforced disappearance and includes many accounts of victims’ families. The report notes that the ongoing incidence of enforced disappearances in Syria, perpetrated by the various parties to the conflict and controlling forces in the country, is one of the most complex and monstrous violations that has haunted the nation for 12 years to date. This is because the phenomenon of enforced disappearance in Syria involves a sequential string of gross violations, from arbitrary arrest to unlawful detention and deprivation of personal freedom, as well as torture in its various physical, psychological, and sexual forms, and exceptional trials involving summary and secretive procedures. Enforced disappearance, by its very nature, usually takes place hidden from view, with forcibly disappeared persons lacking all and any forms of protection and legal and human rights monitoring. That is to say that their most fundamental rights are deliberately denied in detention centers, where they are additionally subjected to agonizing and severe torture and absolute medical negligence. Moreover, while all parties to the conflict have resorted to use of enforced disappearance as a means to intimidate society, spread fear, and consolidate control, the Syrian regime’s security machine uses enforced disappearance in a widespread and systematic manner, viewing it as an extremely effective instrument with which to subjugate and crush any aspirations for change, freedom, and democracy. Through its ruthless use of enforced disappearance, the Syrian regime has massively surpassed all other parties to the conflict by inflicting and perpetuating use of this terrible strategy against all groups in Syrian society, whether men, women or children, the very old or very young, without showing the slightest shred of human decency or consideration and without making any exception for the most vulnerable victims.

Fadel Abdul Ghany, SNHR Executive Director, says:

“Enforced disappearance is one of the most prominent reasons why millions of IDPs and refugees refuse to return to their homes. In today’s Syria, forcibly disappeared persons account for approximately five percent of the total Syrian population numbered at roughly 24 million. Five percent is an extremely and alarmingly high percentage, and is the worst in the world. This is without mentioning the other agonies that forcibly disappeared persons suffer, such as torture, seizure of properties and lands, and family disintegration.”

The report outlines the toll of enforced disappearance since the beginning of the popular uprising for freedom in Syria in March 2011 up until August 2023. The report mainly focuses on the violations committed by SNHR’s team during the past year, August 2022 to August 2023. In this, the report stresses that the Syrian regime continues to tamper with laws and records and continues to record more forcibly disappeared persons as dead in the civil registry records. Additionally, the report presents an outline of the most notable figures who hold leadership positions in the Syrian regime’s security agencies, security/committees, and military bodies, which are involved in enforced disappearance crimes against tens of thousands of Syrians.

The report mainly draws upon SNHR’s regularly updated database that we created and which we’ve developed over the past 12 years. The report also draws upon interviews with enforced disappearance victims’ families from across Syria, with 18 accounts included in this report that have been gathered directly, and not taken from any second-hand sources.

As the report further clarifies, the newly formed UN institution on missing persons in Syria will undoubtedly galvanize efforts at both the Syrian and international levels in support for resolving the missing persons issue, and perhaps lead to the creation of a central database with a platform to enable tens of thousands of families to safely contact it. While we welcome this development, there are, nonetheless, a number of concerns regarding this new body that need to be addressed. First, in its current development stage, the new body does not have a clearly defined role in ensuring the release of arbitrarily arrested detainees; second, there is no explicit text referring to holding those responsible for perpetrating violations in Syria accountable; third, the predictable lack of cooperation by the parties to the conflict will complicate its mandate in revealing the fate of the missing.

The report also reveals that SNHR is in regular and continuous contact with the UN Working Group on Enforced or Involuntary Disappearances, the UN Special Rapporteur on torture and other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment, the UN Special Rapporteur on Promotion and Protection of Human Rights while Countering Terrorism- Specific work on victims of terrorism, and the UN Special Rapporteur on the right of everyone to the enjoyment of the highest attainable standard of physical and mental health on these cases. Since March 2011, the report further reveals, SNHR has briefed the UN Working Group on no fewer than 593 enforced disappearance cases; including those of dozens of women, children, and whole families. In addition, we are still documenting and processing hundreds of cases in accordance with our rigorous methodology.

As the report reveals, no fewer than 155,604 of the people arrested in Syria between March 2011 and August 2023, including 5,213 children and 10,176 women (adult female), are still under arrest and/or forcibly disappeared by the parties to the conflict and controlling forces. Of these, the Syrian regime holds 135,638 individuals, including 3,693 children and 8,478 women, while no fewer than 8,684 individuals, including 319 children and 255 women, have been forcibly disappeared by ISIS. Furthermore, 2,514, including 46 children and 45 women, are still detained/forcibly disappeared at the hands of Hay’at Tahrir al-Sham (HTS).

Meanwhile, no fewer than 4,064 individuals, including 364 children and 874 women, are still detained/forcibly disappeared at the hands of all armed opposition factions/Syrian National Army (SNA), in addition to 4,704 individuals, including 791 children and 524 women, who are still detained/forcibly disappeared at the hands of the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF).

Moreover, no fewer than 112,713 of the individuals arrested between March 2011 and August 2023, including 3,105 children and 6,698 women (adult female), are still forcibly disappeared by the parties to the conflict and controlling forces in Syria. Of those, the Syrian regime is holding or has forcibly disappeared 96,103 individuals, including 2,327 children and 5,739 women, while no fewer than 8,684 individuals, including 319 children and 255 women, have been forcibly disappeared by ISIS. Furthermore, the report notes that 2,162 people, including 17 children and 32 women, are still detained/forcibly disappeared at the hands of HTS. Meanwhile, no fewer than 2,943 individuals, including 256 children and 563 women, are still detained/forcibly disappeared at the hands of all armed opposition factions/SNA, since 2011 in all of the areas currently and previous under their control, in addition to 2,821 individuals, including 186 children and 109 women, who are still detained/forcibly disappeared at the hands of the SDF.

The report further stresses that all the amnesty decrees issued by the Syrina regime have completely failed to secure the release of any significant number of detainees and forcibly disappeared persons. These decrees have had no real effect or led to any transparency, or to any mechanisms that might ensure the release of all detainees and forcibly disappeared persons or compensate them. Put plainly, these decrees are a cruel political deception used to promote the appearance of the Syrian regime’s taking action in order to alleviate international pressure on it while in reality further exploiting and extorting the families of detainees and forcibly disappeared persons. In this context, the report notes that no fewer than 7,351 individuals (6,086 civilians and 1,265 military servicemen) have been released from the Syrian regime’s various civilian and military prisons and detention centers across Syria in relation to the 22 amnesty decrees issued by the regime between March 2011 and October 2022. Of those 6,086 civilians, 349 are women and 159 were children at the time of their arrest. We have recorded no releases in relation to the most recent amnesty decree issued by the Syrian regime on December 21, 2022, also known as Legislative Decree No. 24 of 2022.

The report also provides a running count of the toll of forcibly disappeared persons since March 2011, and its distribution by year and according to the parties to the conflict. As the report shows, the first four years of the popular uprising for freedom saw the largest waves of enforced disappearance, with 2012 being the worst, followed by 2013, then 2011, and then 2014.

Additionally, the report shows a distribution of enforced disappearances by governorate (i.e., where enforced disappearances took place, rather than the victim’s governorate of origin) at the hands of the parties to the conflict and controlling forces in Syria. According to the report, Rural Damascus (Rif Dimshaq) governorate saw the highest number of enforced disappearances, followed by Aleppo, then Damascus, and then Deir Ez-Zour.

The report further notes that, since the beginning of 2018, the Syrian regime has been recording some of the forcibly disappeared persons as dead in the civil registry records. The report reveals that the Syrian regime has disclosed the deaths of no fewer than 1,609 individuals, including 24 children, 21 women, and 16 medical personnel, in the civil registry records since the beginning of 2018 up until August 2023. The causes of these victims’ deaths were not provided in these records, while their bodies have not been returned to their families, and their deaths were not announced when they took place. The report stresses that the Syrina regime has employed its institutions at multiple levels to carry out these unlawful practices and tamper with the civil records of the disappeared, from the ministries of interior and justice to the officials at the civil registry offices across all of Syria.

Furthermore, the report stresses that arbitrary arrests and enforced disappearances are two of the most serious risks facing internally displaced persons (IDPs) and refugees returning to regime-held areas, even for those who have never been involved in any dissident activism. As the report reveals, since the beginning of 2014, up until August 2023, no fewer than 3,376 refugees, including 246 children and 212 women (adult female), who returned from their countries of asylum or residence to their original areas of residence in Syria have been arrested by Syrian regime forces. A total of 2,094 of these detainees were released, while 926 of the remaining 1,282 detainees, most of whom returned from Lebanon, Türkiye, and Jordan, have gone on to be classified as forcibly disappeared. In the same period, no fewer than 989 internally displaced persons (IDPs) who returned to regime-held areas were also arrested, including 22 children and 19 women. The Syrian regime released 246 of these IDPs, while of the remaining 743, a total of 538 have gone on to become forcibly disappeared persons. We have also documented that the Syrian regime re-arrested some of the 246 released detainees in order to forcibly conscript them into the military.

Moreover, the report stresses that hundreds of figures holding leadership positions in the Syrian regime’s security agencies, military divisions, and military and security committees are or have been involved in the violations committed against the Syrian people and the Syrian state since 2011. Enforced disappearance has been practiced in a systematic and widespread way under the direct supervision of the Syrian regime’s entire leadership hierarchy, starting with the President of the Republic, who directly controls the ministries of interior and defense, the National Security Bureau, and their various security agencies and security and military committees. In this context, it should be noted that decisions on appointments, promotions, and transfers of officials heading security agencies are taken through the orders and decrees issued exclusively by the President of the Republic. In this context, the report provides names and brief summaries on some of the figures most heavily involved in forcibly disappearing tens of thousands of Syrians as documented on SNHR’s database on the perpetrators of violations.

The report notes that the Syrian regime has failed to uphold any of its obligations dictated by the international conventions and instruments it has ratified, in particular the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights. Furthermore, the Syrian regime has violated multiple articles in the Syrian Constitution written and adopted by the very same regime. In this, the Syrian regime continues to detain hundreds of thousands of detainees who have been held for many years with no arrest warrant or charges. These detainees are also denied any opportunity to appoint a lawyer or receive visits from their families. Approximately, 68.25 percent of all detainees have gone on to become forcibly disappeared. These detainees’ families have not been informed of their whereabouts. If the desperately worried families try to inquire about the fate or whereabouts of their loved ones, security branches deny any knowledge of them, and the family members are themselves at risk of persecution for asking.

The report further stresses that enforced disappearance has been practiced as part of a widespread attack against all groups of the civilian population, with the Syrian regime being the main perpetrator of this crime by a vast margin compared to other parties to the conflict. In the Syrian regime’s case, this constitutes a crime against humanity according to Article 7 of the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court, and is also a war crime according to Article 8 of the same instrument since it was committed “as part of a plan or policy” primarily by the Syrian regime in its response to the popular uprising for freedom.

The report adds that other parties to the conflict have practiced enforced disappearance, albeit not with the same standardized character and prevalence as that of the Syrian regime. There is also a difference in terms of the quantity and distribution of cases. However, the cases of HTS and ISIS bear a similarity to the Syrian regime’s in terms of the wide distribution and systematic nature of cases.

The report calls on the UN Security Council and the UN to protect tens of thousands of detainees and persons forcibly disappeared by the Syrian regime from the certain risk of dying due to torture, and to save those who are still alive. In addition, the report calls on the UN Security Council and the UN to work to reveal the fate of forcibly disappeared persons in tandem with, or before launching further rounds of any political process, and establish a strict timetable to reveal their fate.

The report also calls on the UN Working Group on Enforced or Involuntary Disappearances to increase the levels of manpower working on the forcibly disappeared persons issue at the office of the Special Rapporteur on cases of enforced disappearance in Syria in light of the magnitude and massive level of enforced disappearance in the country, in addition to making a number of other recommendations.

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The Hague – The Syrian Network for Human Rights (SNHR) today released its 12^th annual report on the practice of torture in Syria, marking the International Day in Support of Victims of Torture. In the report, the group notes that a total of 15,281 deaths due to torture and medical negligence have been documented since 2011, including 198 children and 113 women, with torture practices continuing in Syria without any accountability for those involved.

Torture violations have continued for 12 years to date, with no accountability for those involved

The 45-page report sheds light on a large number of incidents of torture, and accounts by torture survivors and former prisoners, as well as incidents of death due to torture that have been documented in the last year, since June 26, 2022. The report notes that the phenomenon of torture is organically related to the process of arbitrary arrest and enforced disappearance, but is not restricted to those multi-faceted crimes. Today, over 155,000 people are still detained and/or forcibly disappeared at the hands of the parties to the conflict and controlling forces in Syria. The Syrian regime is responsible for 88 percent of all cases of enforced disappearance, with the overwhelming majority of these detainees being political prisoners who have been detained in the context of the popular uprising, all of whom have been subjected to one or multiple form(s) of torture for years. It is important to remember that there is no time limit or other limit to the torture inflicted on detainees, which starts from the very first moment after the victim’s arrest and which is carried out without any parameters that can be, even remotely, described as ‘legal’. What follows is endless suffering under the regime’s systemic and vast machinery of torture of various forms.

The report draws upon SNHR’s database, and its daily documentation efforts over the past year, including interviews with victims’ families, torture survivors and former prisoners released from the detention centers of the various parties to the conflict. To that end, this report contains 20 accounts, all of which have been obtained directly, rather than from second-hand sources. The figures included in this report are the outcome of a years-long process of daily monitoring and documentation since 2011 of incidents of arbitrary arrest and torture. The report categorizes the cases of death due to torture according to the victims’ governorate of origin in order to give a sense of the magnitude of loss and violence that each governorate has suffered compared to other governorates.

Fadel Abdul Ghany, SNHR Executive Director, says:

“This report comes at a time when some Arab states have decided to restore relations with the Syrian regime. We want this report to show those states and other states that the Syrian regime is still practicing the most horrendous methods of torture against women, children, and all arbitrarily detained victims, currently numbering approximately 136,000. Restoring relations with the Syrian regime before releasing detainees is giving the regime a green light to eliminate those detainees. It is well-known that the regime has an atrocious history involving the killing of thousands of political dissidents.”

Toll of torture victims between March 2011 and June 2023

The report documents the killing of 15,281 victims who died due to torture at the hands of the parties to the conflict and controlling forces in Syria between March 2011 and June 2023, including 198 children and 113 women (adult female). Of the 15,281 deaths due to torture, the Syrian regime is responsible for the killing of 15,039 individuals, including 190 children and 84 women, while ISIS is responsible for the killing of 32 victims, including one child and 14 women. Moreover, Hay’at Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) is responsible for the killing of 34 individuals, including two children, due to torture, Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) is responsible for the killing of 94 individuals, including two children and two women, and all armed opposition factions/Syrian National Army (SNA) is responsible for the killing of 53 individuals, including one child and two women. Finally, 29 individuals, including two children and one woman, died due to torture at the hands of other parties.

As the report confirms, the Syrian regime, which is responsible for the arrest of the largest proportion of Syrian citizens since 2011, is also still holding the largest proportion of detainees, as well as forcibly disappeared persons. In every case, torture continues for as long as the victim is in detention. The report also documents many cases in which the regime uses torture against a victim for their connection to an area with a well-known history of opposing the regime as a form of collective retaliation in their detention centers. The report records that the people of the two governorates of Homs and Daraa have experienced more bereavements as a result of deaths due to torture than any other governorate. The report also includes a running count of the toll of deaths due to torture in Syria since 2011.

Law No. 16 ‘The Law on Criminalizing Torture’, promulgated by the Syrian regime in March 2022, is meaningless

The report sheds light on Law No. 16, which was promulgated by the Syrian regime on March 30, 2022. The report stresses that, as SNHR predicted, this law has proven to be nothing more than empty words, and will do nothing to deter the regime’s security apparatus from its systemic practice of torture for long as the ruling regime’s other oppressive laws remain in effect, all of which provide the regime’s security apparatus with official impunity against prosecution, despite contradicting with many of the articles of the Syrian Penal Code and the current constitution. To make matters worse, the law lacks any genuine or clear mechanism that victims’ families and surviving torture victims could use to report the torture being inflicted or take legal action given the absolute hegemony of the regime’s security apparatus, and the absence of any guarantee of safety or protection for a complainant, such as ensuring they maintain anonymity or of any protection for witnesses, experts and their family members. Moreover, the report documents that no fewer than 48 individuals died due to torture at the hands of the Syrian regime between March 30, 2022, when Law No. 16 was passed, and June 2023. In addition, the report records many summons being issued by security forces in all Syria’s governorates to torture victims’ family members to bring them in for interrogation and order them not to publicize the news of their loved ones’ deaths, threatening them with arrest for failure to comply.

The report stresses that, according to international humanitarian law, leaders and higher-ranking officers are responsible for the war crimes committed by their subordinates. In this context, the report contains a new list of names involved in torture practices inside the main detention centers and the military units, drawing upon SNHR’s database on the perpetrators of violations. Relatedly, the report calls on the Independent International Commission of Inquiry on the Syrian Arab Republic (COI) to expose the names of individuals who have been conclusively identified as being involved in horrific violations that constitute war crimes and crimes against humanity.

Finally, the report provides further confirmation that all controlling forces in Syria have used torture against their opponents, and that those practices continue to this day. Moreover, the report stresses that the Syrian regime has explicitly violated the texts of the Syrian Constitution, and the Convention Against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment, which Syria ratified in 2004. The Syrian regime has also manipulated and tampered with laws and legislative articles in order to shield its forces from any potential prosecution.

The report calls on the UN, including the Security Council, to devise a mechanism to oblige all parties to the conflict, especially the Syrian regime, to put an end to torture practices, and to disclose the locations of the victims’ bodies, and return these to their families. The report also calls on the international community to enact new punitive measures against the Syrian regime to deter it from killing Syrian citizens under torture, and to put pressure on the other parties to the conflict, through all means possible, and to put a true end to the use of torture, in addition to making other recommendations.

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Press Release:

The Hague – The Syrian Network for Human Rights (SNHR) released today a statement, marking World Refugee Days, in which the group stressed that Syria is unsafe, as the return of millions of refugees hinges on realizing a democratic political change. Moreover, SNHR called on the Greek authorities and the UN Office of the High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) to launch an investigation into the causes of the sinking of the boat carrying asylum seekers that was heading for Greece, which resulted in the death of 37 Syrians.

The Violations by the Syrian Regime and Other Parties to the Conflict Are the Main Reason Behind Millions of Syrians Seeking Asylum

The statement notes that the violations by the Syrian regime and the other parties to the conflict have led to the displacement of half the Syrian people, who either became internally displaced persons (IDPs) or refugees in other countries worldwide, while tens of thousands more are seeking asylum in other countries in light of the continued violations and, even worse, of other states restoring relations with the very same party committing these violations, which has eradicated any prospect of displaced Syrians being able to return to Syria anytime soon. The statement stresses that the ongoing violations by the various parties to the conflict and controlling forces in Syria are the primary cause of more and more refugees fleeing. While It may be true that the rate of violations has fallen somewhat in the past two years, the cumulative effect of 12 years and counting of violations has brought about a Syria with an atrocious human rights situation, riven by killings, arbitrary arrests, enforced disappearances, forced displacement, torture, pillaging of land and properties, and a widespread state of chronic insecurity under which assassinations and remote bombings have become prevalent, with these and many other violations combining to cause upheaval across Syria. In light of these violations that threaten the very fundamental tenets of human rights and human dignity, with no foreseeable end to this suffering or any feasible way to hold their perpetrators accountable, hundreds of Syrians are trying to sell their properties, flee their country, and seek asylum in nations worldwide.

The statement recorded the death of 37 Syrians, including seven women, who were mostly from Daraa governorate. The victims drowned to death after a fishing boat, which was carrying them along other asylum seekers from different nationalities including Egyptians, Palestinians, and Pakistanis, capsized and sank on June 14, 2023, south of Greece, approximately 47 nautical miles of the coasts of Pylos. The vessel, which carried 700-750 asylum seekers, including women and children, according to estimates, launched off the Libyan coasts towards Europe on the morning of Friday, June 9, 2023. As the statement further reveals, the boat sent out its first distress call on the morning of Tuesday, June 13, while the Greek Coast Guard announced it launched a wide search and rescue operation on the morning of June 14 after the boat had sank. Meanwhile, the UNHCR and the International Orgnaization for Migration stressed that search and rescue at sea is a “legal and humanitarian imperative.”

The statement condemns the slow response to the distress call, and calls on the Greek government and the UNHCR to launch an investigation into this incident and make its findings available to the public and the families of the victims, hold those responsible accountable, and compensate the victims.

Refoulment of Refugees and Forced Repatriation of Asylum Seekers Constitute Violations of International Law

As the statement further reveals, no government in the world has the right to assess the situation in Syria and then make the decision to deport Syrian refugees back to Syria based on such an assessment. This task, namely assessing the situation in Syria, is the responsibility of the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), the Independent International Commission of Inquiry on the Syrian Arab Republic (COI), the international human rights organizations, and of active local human rights organizations working to document violations in Syria, such as SNHR. All these entities have confirmed that Syria is unsafe.

The statement reveals that, from the start of 2014 until June 2023, SNHR documented no fewer than 3,367 arbitrary arrests against refugees returning to their homes in Syria from countries of asylum or residence, with the victims including 246 children and 212 women (adult female), and with all these individuals being detained by Syrian regime forces. Today, a total of 2,094 of these people have been released, while 1,273 are still detained, including 923 people who have subsequently been categorized as cases of enforced disappearance. The statement also documents no fewer than 74 cases of sexual violence against returning refugees during the same period.

Moreover, the statement underscores that readmitting the Syrian regime into the Arab League does not mean that Syria is in any way safe for the return of refugees since the regime is still committing crimes against humanity. SNHR is seriously concerned that any restoration of relations with the Syrian regime may lead to Syrian refugees being forced to return to Syria; indeed, as of this writing, SNHR has already recorded the refoulment of no fewer than 874 Syrian refugees from Lebanon since the beginning of April 2023, including 86 women and 104 children. Of these, we have recorded the arrest of 87 individuals, including two children, five women, and two members of the same family, at the hands of the Syrian regime’s Military Intelligence forces in the al-Masna border area.

The statement further stresses that the refoulment of refugees and the forced repatriation of Syrian refugees constitute blatant violations of customary international law. Any governments carrying out such practices bear legal responsibility for any torture, killing, enforced disappearance, and other violations potentially perpetrated by the Syrian regime against forced returnees, in addition, of course, to the Syrian regime’s direct responsibility for these violations.

The statement calls on the governments of states hosting Syrian refugees, especially neighboring countries which house the largest proportion of refugees, to stop their constant threats against these refugees of deportation back to Syria, which only causes further anxiety amongst already traumatized refugees, threatens their material stability, and hinders the processes of social integration.

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Press Release:

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

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