The Documentation of No Fewer Than 246 Cases of Arbitrary Arrest and Detention in the First Half of 2026, Among Them 36 Cases in the Second Quarter
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Damascus, July 2, 2026: The Syrian Network for Human Rights said, in its semi-annual report issued today, Thursday, that it has documented no fewer than 246 cases of arbitrary arrest and detention in Syria during the first half of 2026, among them 14 children and three women, in addition to 1,069 cases of release during the same period. The report presents the second quarter as an analytical segment of the tally of the first half, and not as an independent statistical set.
According to the report, the Syrian Network for Human Rights documented no fewer than 36 cases of arbitrary arrest and detention in the second quarter of 2026, among them three children, in addition to 557 cases of release from detention centers. The data show the continued recording of cases of deprivation of liberty outside the legal safeguards, despite the notable decrease in the cases of arbitrary arrest and enforced disappearance after the political and security transformations that followed the fall of the regime of Bashar al-Assad on December 8, 2024, and after the merger agreement concluded between the Syrian government and the Syrian Democratic Forces at the end of January 2026.
The report notes that the tallies contained in it represent the minimum number of the cases that the Network was able to document and verify in accordance with its adopted methodology, and they do not necessarily reflect the full scale of all the cases of arrest, detention, or release during the period covered.
According to the documentary classification that the report adopted based on the executing party or the party whose responsibility is more likely, the Network recorded 141 cases at the hands of the Syrian government forces in the first half of 2026, among them two children and two women, 61 cases at the hands of the Israeli occupation forces, among them 12 children, and 44 cases at the hands of the Syrian Democratic Forces, among them one woman. The report also recorded that 12 of the detainees held by the Syrian government forces were later released, among them one child, and that 29 of those detained by the Israeli occupation forces were released, among them three children. As for the distribution of the tally by governorate, the governorate of Quneitra recorded the highest tally, at 53 cases, followed by Deir Ez-Zour at 43 cases.
In the second quarter of 2026, the Network documented 19 cases at the hands of the Syrian government forces, among them two children, 15 cases at the hands of the Israeli occupation forces, among them one child, and two cases at the hands of the Syrian Democratic Forces. The report also recorded that one child among the detainees held by the Syrian government forces was later released, and that seven of those detained by the Israeli occupation forces were released. The governorate of Quneitra also recorded the highest tally in this period, which reached 13 cases, followed by the governorates of Homs and Daraa with five cases each. The report links the rise of the tally in Quneitra to arrest and detention operations that affected civilians and that the Israeli occupation forces carried out during repeated ground incursions inside the southern Syrian territory.
In addition to that, the report documented 1,069 cases of release in the first half of 2026, among them four children, comprising 533 cases of release from the detention centers of the Syrian government forces, among them one child, 507 cases from the detention centers of the Syrian Democratic Forces, and 29 cases from the detention centers of the Israeli occupation forces, among them three children. In the second quarter alone, the report recorded 557 cases of release, among them 460 cases from the detention centers of the Syrian government forces, among them one child, 90 cases from the detention centers of the Syrian Democratic Forces, and seven cases from the detention centers of the Israeli occupation forces.
The Network mentions that the rise in the number of the release cases was linked to several factors, among them the scrutiny of the records of the detainees, and the implementation of arrangements to release former detainees between the Syrian Democratic Forces and the Syrian government, based on the provisions of the agreement of January 29, 2026.
In a separate section, the report presents detention operations that the Syrian government carried out in the context of pursuing persons suspected of involvement in violations committed during the rule of the former Assad regime. These cases are not included within the statistics of arbitrary arrest or enforced disappearance, given the difference of their legal nature and context. In this category, the Syrian Network for Human Rights documented the detention of no fewer than 96 persons in the first half of 2026, among them 37 persons in the second quarter, in operations that included most of the governorates, during which the detainees were transferred to central prisons in Homs, Hama, and Adra in Rif Dimashq.
Separately from the Network’s documentation, the report cites the announcement of the Syrian Ministry of the Interior, in mid-June 2026, that the number of the detained military personnel alone, from among those suspected of involvement in violations and crimes during the era of the former regime, had exceeded 3,500 of various military ranks.
The report affirms that the documented cases of arbitrary arrest, detention, and enforced disappearance touch upon the right to liberty and personal security guaranteed in Article 9 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, including the prohibition of the arbitrary deprivation of liberty, and the right of the detainee to know the reasons for their arrest, to challenge the legality of their detention, and to be brought before a competent judicial authority within a reasonable period. The report also relies, in its definition of enforced disappearance, on Article 2 of the International Convention for the Protection of All Persons from Enforced Disappearance, and on the broader definition contained in Article 7(2)(i) of the Rome Statute.
The report stresses that any allegations of torture or ill-treatment in detention necessitate an independent and effective investigation and accountability, and that the detention of children and women requires guaranteeing the relevant special protection. As for the detention cases attributed to the Israeli occupation forces during ground incursions in southern Syria, the report links these practices to the disrespect for the sovereignty of Syria and the unity of its territory, and for the provisions of international law and the Charter of the United Nations.
The Syrian Network for Human Rights also called upon the Syrian government to ensure that all arrest and detention procedures are carried out in accordance with the law, and that no person is deprived of their liberty except on the basis of a clear legal ground, while informing the detainees immediately of the reasons for the detention, enabling them to communicate with lawyers and their family members, and bringing them before a competent judicial authority within the period specified by the law and in a manner that is consistent with the international standards. It also calls upon the government to disclose the fate of all the forcibly disappeared, to release all the arbitrarily detained persons, to publish official information about the places of detention, to subject all the detention facilities to independent judicial oversight, to investigate torture, ill-treatment, and enforced disappearance, and to protect the records and the former detention centers from tampering. The Network urges the judiciary and the Public Prosecution to open independent investigations into the documented violations, and to ensure that all procedures are based on individual criminal responsibility, the presumption of innocence, and the safeguards of a fair trial.
In addition to that, the Network called upon the Security Council and the international community to support the efforts aimed at disclosing the fate of the forcibly disappeared, holding accountable those responsible for arbitrary detention, enforced disappearance, and torture, supporting judicial and institutional reform, backing the Syrian organizations that document these violations, and directing the recovered assets, wherever legally possible, toward the programs of reparation of the harm to the victims.
Finally, the Network called upon all the parties in control of territory in Syria to cease arbitrary arrest and enforced disappearance, and to comply fully with the prohibition of torture and ill-treatment. It also called upon the Israeli occupation forces to end the military operations that expose civilians or civilian objects to danger inside the Syrian territory, to cease arbitrary detention, to disclose the fate of those who are still detained or whose fate remains unknown, and to respect the sovereignty of Syria and the unity of its territory under international law and the Charter of the United Nations.
