SNHR is a Principal Source on Syria, Proving the Syrian Regime’s Responsibility for Cluster Munition Attacks
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The International Campaign to Ban Landmines – Cluster Munition Coalition (ICBL-CMC) recently released its 14th annual report on monitoring the use of cluster munitions worldwide. The CMC is a global civil society campaign working to eradicate cluster munitions, prevent further casualties from their use, and put an end to the suffering caused by these weapons.
As a member of the CMC, the Syrian Network for Human Rights (SNHR) provides regularly updated data collected and documented by our team on the ground. This data includes the victims that have been killed or injured; the locations of these incidents, and the parties responsible for the use of cluster munition in each case, where possible. These parties are limited to either the Syrian regime or Russian forces, since we have not documented any use of cluster munition by other parties to the conflict in Syria over the 12 years of the conflict.
As with every year, SNHR reviews and comments on the annual report. With respect to Syria, the report draws upon three main sources:
- Independent International Commission of Inquiry on the Syrian Arab Republic (COI)
- Human Rights Watch (HRW)
- SNHR
The following are the main findings of this year’s report on Syria: Syria has been the worst country in the world in terms of the death toll from cluster munitions from 2012 until 2021, and was the second-worst in 2022 (after Ukraine). The report records 91 deaths and injuries (85 in cluster munitions attacks, and six by the explosion of cluster munition remnants). The report notes that nine civilians at least were killed and approximately 75 injured on November 6, 2022, in a regime attack on a group of camps in northern Idlib backed by Russian forces. SNHR released a report on this incident on March 21, 2023, entitled, ‘Investigation: The Syrian Regime Used Cluster Munitions to Target a Gathering of IDPs Camps in Northwestern Idlib City’.