Populations in Syria continue to face war crimes and crimes against humanity committed by various state forces and non-state armed groups.

BACKGROUND:

Since March 2011 the government and opposition groups in Syria have engaged in an armed conflict. The protracted crisis has its roots in President Bashar al-Assad government’s brutal suppression of protests in 2011, which quickly devolved into an internationalized country-wide conflict characterized by rampant atrocity crimes, including the illegal use of chemical weapons. During the conflict, Syrian government forces have been bolstered by Russian airstrikes, which commenced in September 2015. Since the start of the conflict at least 580,000 people have been killed, including an estimated 306,887 civilians who died from 1 March 2011 to 31 March 2021, according to the most recent civilian casualty figures from the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR). Nearly 13 million people have been displaced, including 6.7 million Syrian refugees.

Throughout areas under its control, the government systematically perpetrates arbitrary arrests, torture, enforced disappearances and deaths in detention. In areas previously held by the opposition, the government is imposing arbitrary restrictions on freedom of movement and depriving individuals of their property, which the UN Human Rights Council-mandated Commission of Inquiry (CoI) on Syria alleges may amount to the war crime of collective punishment. Meanwhile, armed groups, like the Syrian National Army (SNA) and other Turkish-backed groups, perpetrate torture, ill-treatment, systematic looting and arbitrary detention. The armed extremist group Hay’at Tahrir al-Sham also perpetrates abuses, including arbitrarily detaining activists and journalists and torture and ill-treatment in detention.

The CoI has reported more than 130,000 arbitrary detentions, abductions or disappearances since 2011, with the majority attributable to the government. Following intensive advocacy by Syrian victim, survivor and family associations, coordinating under the Truth and Justice Charter, on 29 June 2023 the UN General Assembly (UNGA) established the Independent Institution on Missing Persons in Syria, mandated to clarify the fate and whereabouts of all missing persons in Syria and provide support to victims, survivors and their families.

Syrians suffer from hostilities and unrest along multiple regional frontlines, including across southern, northwest and northeast Syria. In northwest Syria, including in Idlib governorate, ground fighting, shelling and airstrikes have continued despite a ceasefire that has been in place since March 2020. Elsewhere in northern Syria, hostilities and strikes between the SNA and Syrian Defense Forces (SDF) have escalated. Improvised explosive devices, indiscriminate shelling and airstrikes killed and wounded hundreds of civilians throughout 2023.

In 2014 the so-called Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) declared a caliphate across Iraq and Syria and perpetrated widespread abuses against civilians until the group was militarily defeated in their last territorial stronghold in 2019. Tens of thousands of people, mainly women and children, remain trapped in squalid detention camps run by the Kurdish-backed SDF. The CoI has reported that the conditions may amount to cruel or inhuman treatment and may constitute the war crime of outrage upon personal dignity, while the UN Special Rapporteur on the promotion and protection of human rights and fundamental freedoms while countering terrorism has reported that the indefinite detention of children with no legal process likely amounts to fundamental breaches of the rights of the child under international law.

The grave situation across Syria is partly a consequence of the inability of the UN Security Council (UNSC) to hold perpetrators accountable. Since 2013 the UNSC has passed dozens of resolutions on the situation in Syria, however, none have been fully implemented and the Syrian government has directly violated many of them. Russia and China have jointly vetoed ten draft resolutions on Syria and Russia has independently vetoed an additional eight, systematically shielding Syria from international accountability measures.

To close the accountability gap, on 21 December 2016 the UNGA voted to establish an International, Impartial and Independent Mechanism to assist in the investigation and prosecution of perpetrators of atrocities in Syria. Several countries have initiated proceedings or convicted suspected Syrian perpetrators under universal jurisdiction. On 8 June 2023 Canada and the Netherlands jointly initiated proceedings against Syria before the International Court of Justice (ICJ) concerning alleged violations of the Convention against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment. On 16 November the ICJ issued provisional measures calling on the government of Syria to prevent acts of torture and other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment, ensure its officials do not commit any acts of torture and guarantee the preservation of any relevant evidence.

RECENT DEVELOPMENTS:

Since September 2023 hostilities have intensified in northwest Syria, with continuous shelling and airstrikes hitting civilian objects and critical infrastructure, including the main power station in Idlib city, schools, health facilities, displacement camps, markets and mosques. According to Human Rights Watch, Syrian forces have used incendiary weapons and banned cluster munitions during their attacks. At least 70 civilians have been killed and 303 injured, while approximately 120,000 people have been newly displaced.

Hostilities also intensified in the northeast in the fall of 2023, displacing tens of thousands of civilians and impacting civilian infrastructure. Attacks by ISIL have also increased in central Syria, targeting civilians in urban areas. In February OHCHR reported that all parties to the conflict are subjecting civilians trying to return to Syria to arbitrary detention, torture and ill-treatment, sexual and gender-based violence, enforced disappearance and abduction.

ANALYSIS:

For over a decade the government of Syria, its allies and armed opposition groups have all perpetrated countless attacks on civilians and civilian infrastructure, blatantly disregarding international law. Government forces have committed murder, torture and sexual violence as a matter of state policy. All parties to the conflict continue to commit acts that may amount to war crimes and crimes against humanity. Ongoing violations of various ceasefire agreements greatly increase the risk of recurrence of large-scale conflict. It remains unsafe for Syrians to return to their country.

As various armed groups attempt to consolidate their control over territory in a fragmented Syria, civilians are facing indiscriminate hostilities, as well as widespread and systematic human rights violations. The Syrian government and other parties to the conflict continue to perpetrate detention and disappearance as a strategy to control and intimidate civilians, confirming ongoing patterns of crimes against humanity and war crimes. Despite the ICJ provisional measures order, the Syrian government continues to perpetrate enforced disappearance, torture and ill-treatment against detainees and to deliberately obstruct families’ efforts to learn the fate and whereabouts of their loved ones.

RISK ASSESSMENT:

• • Ongoing likely war crimes and crimes against humanity perpetrated by all parties to the conflict, particularly the government.
  • Impunity enjoyed by all perpetrators for atrocity crimes.
  • Inadequate state structures to protect the most vulnerable, including internally displaced persons, returning refugees and minorities.
  • Inability or refusal to address the situation of those missing and disappeared, as well as the continued commission of enforced disappearances and associated violations and abuses by all parties to the conflict.
  • Limited government cooperation with international mechanisms.

NECESSARY ACTION:

All parties to the conflict must uphold their obligations under international human rights and humanitarian law, including ending attacks on civilians and civilian infrastructure, and facilitate unimpeded humanitarian access to civilians trapped or displaced by fighting. All parties should also uphold the ceasefire agreements in the northwest, northeast and south.

The return of refugees and other displaced Syrians must be in accordance with the principle of non-refoulement. Syrian authorities must ensure the protection of all returnees.

UN member states must ensure the Independent Institution on Missing Persons in Syria receives sufficient resources to effectively carry out its mandate. The Syrian government must comply with the ICJ provisional measures order. UN member states should also continue to pursue accountability for alleged atrocities under universal jurisdiction. The UNSC should refer the situation in Syria to the International Criminal Court.