SNHR Calls for An Immediate and Comprehensive Investigation Into the Organizations that Received Dozens of Children from the Former Assad Regime’s Security Agencies

SNHR Possesses Verified Lists of About 3,700 Children Forcibly Disappeared by the Assad Regime

The Hague – The Syrian Network for Human Rights (SNHR) today issued a statement calling for an immediate and comprehensive investigation into the organizations that received dozens of children form the former Assad regime’s security agencies. The human rights group also revealed that it possesses verified lists of about 3,700 children that were forcibly disappeared by the Assad regime.

The statement notes that, over the past 14 years, the Assad regime detained thousands of children, whether together with their parents and other family members or by themselves. Every year, on Universal Children’s Day (November 20), SNHR publishes a report highlighting violations against children, with a particular focus on arbitrary detentions that often resulted in enforced disappearances.

As SNHR’s database attests, at least 3,700 of the children arrested by the Assad regime since March 2011 are still missing and classified as forcibly disappeared. Despite the former regime’s prisons being opened following Operation Deter Aggression, the fate of these children remains unknown.

Children were transferred to orphanages

The statement notes that, a few years ago, SNHR received reports alleging that the Assad regime was removing children from their families or transferring children born in detention centers to orphanages or childcare facilities. At that time, however, we were unable to verify these reports due to numerous exceptional challenges. Some of the most prominent institutions allegedly involved in these operations were those affiliated with SOS Children’s Villages, which took in a significant number of these children without any official documents verifying their identities. These practices continued until 2019 when management changes occurred, and subsequently the SOS Children’s Village began accepting only children with documentation regarding their cases.

One of the most prominent of the unresolved cases in this context, the statement stresses, is that of Dr. Rania al-Abbasi, whose six children were detained alongside their mother and father. To this day, the fate of both the parents and children remains unknown.

The statement adds that, based on accounts from former detainees in the Assad regime’s detention centers, as well as from victims’ families, and in light of the continuing lack of information regarding the fate of dozens of children, SNHR demands that the following steps be taken:

SOS Children’s Villages and all associations 

1. Launch an independent internal investigation into the cases of all children taken into care.
2. Share all available files and documents with the new Syrian authorities.
3. Issue a public written apology to the families of the affected children and provide them with fair compensation.

United Nations and international organizations

1. Investigate the referral system and the procedures of child referrals

• Determine how detained children were referred by the former regime’s security agencies to orphanages.
• Document the number of children subjected to these procedures and work to ascertain and confirm each child’s identity and fate.

2. Investigate the role of associations and orphanages:

• Review the procedures followed by these centers in handling children’s cases.
• Expose any instances of personal data falsification or other violations of children’s rights.
• Ensure these institutions adhere to regulations governing child protection and children’s rights.

3. Disclose the children’s fate

• Identify the whereabouts of children who were transferred.
• Return them to their families if relatives capable of caring for them are found.
• Provide a safe and stable environment for children in cases where suitable families are unavailable.

4. Hold perpetrators accountable

• Prosecute those responsible for these violations, whether these are personnel from the former Assad regime’s security agencies or administrative officials responsible for the management of orphanages and other relevant facilities.
• Hold the parties involved accountable for any suppression of information, or negligence that caused suffering for the children and their families.

The statement also urges the new Syrian governing authorities to treat this issue as a top national and humanitarian priority, as well as to launch a transparent and independent investigation involving both domestic and international human rights organizations to uncover the truth and achieve justice.

Meanwhile, the statement urged international organizations, particularly those concerned with child welfare and children’s rights, to provide the necessary technical and legal support to enable the relevant authorities to conduct this investigation as soon as possible.