The Syrian Network for Human Rights
(No Justice without Accountability)

The Syrian Network for Human Rights (SNHR) is an independent, non-governmental, human rights organization that monitors and documents violations of International Human Rights Law, International Humanitarian Law, and International Criminal Law on Syrian territories. SNHR also works on strengthening a State of rights and establishing that culture in Syria. The Network is completely independent of the Syrian Transitional Government, all parties to armed conflict on Syrian territories, foreign governments, and political factions.

SNHR was founded in June 2011, at the initiative of Fadel Abdulghany, as a response to the systematic increase of violations of human rights in Syria. Since then, the Network continues to document any violations committed across the Syrian governorates by any party, continuously and on a daily basis. SNHR’s work has expanded to include bolstering human rights by reinforcement of these standards in post-Assad Syrian institutions and including them in the legal structure and general culture of these institutions. That is in line with carrying one documenting violations.

 Documents and Databases 

SNHR has established comprehensive databases documenting multiple patterns of violations, including extrajudicial killings, arbitrary detention, enforced disappearances, torture, attacks on vital civilian infrastructure, and the use of prohibited and indiscriminate weapons, including chemical weapons, cluster munitions, barrel bombs, and incendiary weapons. The databases also document forced displacement, sexual and gender-based violence, violations against children, and violations of housing, land, and property rights. The Network maintains a database of individuals implicated in these violations, designed to support accountability measures, including command responsibility analysis.

SNHR’s work is based on a rigorous methodology that adheres to the legal standards of International Humanitarian Law, International Human Rights Law, and International Criminal Law. It is also consistent with the Berkeley Protocol on Open-Source Digital Investigations, the Minnesota Protocol on the Investigation of Potentially Unlawful Deaths, and the Istanbul Protocol on the Documentation of Torture. This methodology is subject to periodic review and is available for the public.

Bolstering Human Rights

Since the fall of the Assad regime, SNHR has intensified its efforts to uphold human rights principles in Syria. It provides analyses and recommendations aimed at aligning Syrian legislation, governance structures, and security sector practices with international human rights standards. The Network also contributes to transitional justice processes, including accountability, truth-seeking, reparations, and guarantees of non-recurrence. Furthermore, it raises public awareness of civil, political, economic, social, and cultural rights among Syrian communities and civil society organizations, and offers legal and policy analyses of Syria’s obligations under international treaties to which it is a party. SNHR accomplishes this work through its publications, public statements, collaboration with civil society organizations, and advocacy efforts with international bodies, while maintaining its independence from all state institutions.

Current Operational Context 

SNHR mandate includes documenting violations committed during the Assad regime and the multi-sided armed conflict between 2011 and 2024, as well as violations occurring during the transitional period. This includes violations resulting from Israeli military operations and the occupation of parts of Syrian territory, the armed conflict in Suwayda Governorate, and any other armed conflicts or military operations on Syrian territory. The Network also works to document newly uncovered evidence from mass graves, former detention centers, and institutional archives. In parallel, it strives to ensure that the transitional period creates the institutional and legal conditions necessary to prevent a recurrence of the systematic violations that characterized the Assad regime.

Reports and Publications 

SNHR publishes thematic reports addressing specific patterns of violations, along with periodic reports on the overall human rights situation in Syria, statistical analyses, interactive maps, and daily reports on documented incidents. It also issues statements on its official website addressing specific developments, incidents, or legal and political positions related to the human rights situation in Syria. All published materials are based on documented data from the Network’s databases and undergo internal review and verification processes before publication.

Supporting Data Sharing and Accountability 

SNHR shares documented data with international bodies and mechanisms concerned with monitoring, investigating, and prosecuting violations in Syria. These bodies include the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, the Independent International Commission of Inquiry on Syria, the International, Impartial and Independent Mechanism on Syria, the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, the Monitoring and Reporting Mechanism on Grave Violations against Children led by UNICEF, the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons, the United Nations Working Group on Enforced or Involuntary Disappearances, the relevant Special Rapporteurs of the Human Rights Council, and the prosecution authorities in countries exercising universal jurisdiction over crimes committed in Syria.

The Network also shares data with the Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights, and Labor at the U.S. Department of State, and with the human rights offices of foreign ministries of countries that issue reports on the human rights situation in Syria. All data exchanges are subject to written agreements and require the source’s consent, a risk assessment, and adherence to confidentiality requirements.

United Nations bodies, numerous international and national courts, and governments have relied on SNHR’s data as a primary source for assessing the scale and patterns of violations in Syria.

Memberships 

SNHR is a member of the International Coalition for the Responsibility to Protect (ICRtoP), the International Coalition for Sites of Conscience, the Cluster Munition Coalition (CMC), the International Campaign to Ban Landmines (ICBL), Every Victim Worldwide (ECW), and EuroMed Rights.

Partnerships 

SNHR collaborates with international and regional organizations through partnership agreements and memoranda of understanding. Partners include: Human Rights Watch, Amnesty International, the Heinrich Böll Foundation, the Armed Conflict Location & Event Data Project (ACLED), the Euro-Mediterranean Human Rights Monitor, Physicians for Human Rights, the Global Public Policy Institute (GPPI), the Cairo Institute for Human Rights Studies (CIHRS), the Aid Worker Safety Database (AWSD), the Human Rights Data Analysis Group (HRDAG), EuroMed Rights, the Paris School of Economics, The New York Times, the Oxford Research Group, the Sustainable Solutions Platform, the Syria Campaign, and the United States government.

Advocacy

SNHR conducts advocacy activities through direct engagement with international decision-makers, including participation in sessions of the UN Security Council and the UN Human Rights Council, bilateral and multilateral meetings with governments, and coordination with international human rights organizations and bodies. These activities aim to strengthen the protection of civilians, support accountability for documented violations, and support transitional justice processes.