SNHR has published report in which the Networks monitors the most notable violation of human rights by the parties to the conflict in Syria in 2016.
The report documents the killing of 8736 civilians, including 1984 children, 1237 women, and 447 due to torture, at the hands of the Syrian regime forces, where the percentage of women and children victims amounts to 37% which is an explicit indicator on the deliberate targeting of civilians by the Syrian regime forces in indiscriminate shelling and execution operations. Also, the report documents that Syrian regime forces arrested 7543 detainees including 251 children and 448 women.
The report notes that Russian forces perpetrated many massacres, where SNHR documented the killing of 3967 civilians including 1042 children and 684 women by Russian forces.
Furthermore, the report says that Kurdish Self-management forces committed many violations in their areas of control including extrajudicial killing, arrest, torture, and conscription. Kurdish Self-management forces killed 146 civilians including 24 children and 23 women. Additionally, Kurdish Self-management forces arrested 673 individuals including 55 children and 33 women, where many of those detainees experienced extremely poor and degrading detention conditions that resulted in the death of six individuals.
The report records the death toll by Extremist Islamic groups, as ISIS killed 1510 civilians in 2016 including 258 children and 213 women in executions, indiscriminate shelling, or torture, while the group arrested no less than 1419 individuals including 103 children and 50 women. Among the victims were eight who died due to torture.
According to the report Fateh Al Sham (Formerly Al Nussra Front) killed 18 civilians including one woman, while the group arrested no less than 234 individuals including 16 children. Four individuals died due to torture.
The report outlines the violations by armed opposition factions who killed 1048 civilians including 289 children and 210 women, where most of the victims were killed in indiscriminate shelling operations that targeted Aleppo and Damascus neighborhoods. The number of people arrested by armed opposition factions is 178 individuals including six children and two women. Also, the report records that 10 individuals died due to torture.
According to the report, international coalition forces killed no less than 537 civilians including 158 children and 98 women in their airstrikes on Aleppo, Al Raqqa, and Deir Ez-Zour.
The report says that 112 medical personnel were killed in 2016 including 40 by Syrian regime forces, while 86 media activists were killed including 52 who were killed by Syrian regime forces and their ally Russia.
The report documents the use of chemical weapons which were used in 15 attacks – 14 by Syrian regime forces and one by ISIS. In contrast, there were 171 documented cluster attacks – 148 by Russian forces and 22 by Syrian regime forces.
The report calls on the United Nations to find the proper ways to protect the civilians from the daily and frequent violations regardless of the perpetrator party, and mainly the Syrian regime forces’ violations seeing that the regime perpetrated more than 92% of the total violations followed by the Extremist Islamic groups.
Moreover, the report calls on the Security Council to implement the Resolutions it adopted on Syria including the statement of Geneva I, as preserving civil peace and security is the Council’s direct responsibility. In addition, the report emphasizes that all necessary measures must be executed to protect the civilians in Syria, end the siege on the besieged areas, release all political detainees, end the use of chemical weapons. All of these goals were included in special Resolutions on Syria. The execution, however, hasn’t changed in reality before and after these Resolutions were adopted, and the violations’ rate has been nearly the same since March 2011.
Lastly, the report urges the states of the world to support the Syrian people in the extraordinary, on all levels, tragedy they are experiencing, and to apply pressure in the Security Council in order to take urgent action to save what can be saved, and refer the situation in Syria to the International Criminal Court now and not after the conflict ends.