With Assad Regime Detention Centers Opened and All Detainees Released, SNHR Renews Its Calls to All Parties Still Detaining Prisoners of Conscience or Detainees Arrested in Connection with the Conflict to Immediately Release Them
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Press release: (Download the full report below)
The Hague – The Syrian Network for Human Rights (SNHR) revealed in its latest report released today that no fewer than 2,623 cases of arbitrary detention were documented in 2024, including 349 in December of that year. In the report, SNHR renewed its calls to all parties still detaining prisoners of conscience or detainees arrested in connection with the conflict to immediately release them now that all Assad regime detention centers had been opened and all detainees inside them released.
The 28-page report notes that, given the staggering rates of continuing arbitrary arrests under the now-deposed Assad regime’s rule, the number of Syrian citizens classified as forcibly disappeared persons has skyrocketed, so much so that Syria has been now one of the worst countries worldwide in terms of the numbers of ‘disappeared’ citizens. The report adds that the Assad regime surpassed many of the world’s other authoritarian regimes by virtue of having wielded absolute hegemony over the legislative and judicial branches of government. The Assad regime exercised this hegemony to promulgate a multitude of laws and decrees that violate international human rights law, as well as the principles of law established in the Constitution of 2012. A part of this process, the report stresses, was legitimizing the crime of torture. Although Syrian law contained several texts that outlawed torture, the Assad regime introduced other legal texts, including Act No. 16 of 2022, which explicitly contradicted those articles, and legitimized impunity for torturers.
The report summarizes the toll of arbitrary arrests/detentions, and the releases of detainees from various detention centers. The report does not, however, include abductions carried out by unidentified parties. Another exception made by SNHR is of individuals detained for committing criminal offenses, such as narcotics-related offenses and murder. In other words, the report focuses on cases of a political nature or those related to the armed conflict. The report also touches upon the laws and decrees promulgated by the parties to the conflict in relation to issues of arrest and enforced disappearance in the period covered. In much of its reportage, the report incorporates a descriptive and analytical methodology.
The report reveals that of the 2,623 arbitrary detentions documented in 2024, 1,084 were subsequently classified as enforced disappearances. Of the 2,623 arbitrary detentions, 1,362 were carried out by Assad regime forces, with those arrested including 32 children and 38 women; 423 were by all armed opposition factions/Syrian National Army (SNA), including of 10 children and 16 women; 581 by Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), including of 79 children and eight women, and 257 were by Hay’at Tahrir al-Sham (HTS), including of three children and 10 women
The report also shows the distribution of 2024’s cases across all Syria’s governorates. Analysis of the data shows that Aleppo governorate saw the highest number of arbitrary arrests/detentions in 2024, followed by Rural Damascus, then Damascus, Deir Ez-Zour, Idlib, Homs, and then Hama. The report additionally compares the number of arbitrary arrests/detentions with the numbers of releases of detainees. In this regard, the report stresses that the number of releases from detention centers is far higher than the number of arbitrary arrests/detentions documented in 2024. This is a result of the releases that followed the launch of Operation Deter Aggression on November 27, which resulted in the liberation of several cities formerly under the control of the deposed Assad regime. As soon as these cities had been liberated, the prisons and detention centers were opened, and all detainees were released. Meanwhile, some detainees were also released from the detention centers operated by SDF and all armed opposition factions/SNA.
The report further notes more widespread arrests/detentions of civilians by regime personnel in the governorates of Rural Damascus, Damascus, Hama, Aleppo and Daraa by regime forces on the pretext of military service evasion, with those detained accused of having failed to join the regime’s military or reserve forces as part of the regime’s mandatory military service policy. Most of these arrests were carried out during raids or at checkpoints, and even targeted individuals who had previously agreed to settle their security status with the Assad regime.
Moreover, there were arrests/detentions of a number of civilians, including children, while they were travelling towards the Syrian-Lebanese border in an attempt to irregularly cross into Lebanon. These arrests were concentrated in Homs governorate.
On a related note, the report stresses that, through the arbitrary detentions and enforced disappearances carried out in 2024, the Assad regime continued to violate the orders of the Hague-based International Court of Justice (ICJ) issued in November 2023 on requesting provisional measures in the case brought by Canada and the Netherlands against the Assad regime on the application of the UN Convention Against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment.
Meanwhile, the report notes, the SDF also continued enforcing the group’s policies of arbitrary detention and enforced disappearance. In pursuit of these policies, SDF personnel continued carrying out campaigns of mass raids and detentions, targeting civilians on the pretext of fighting ISIS, with some of these arrest campaigns backed by US-led Coalition helicopters. The report also documented arrests/detentions of civilians over accusations of working with the SNA. Moreover, we documented more arrests/detention of civilians for forced conscription, with these detainees taken to SDF military training and recruitment camps. The group also continued abducting children with the objective of conscripting them, with these children being sent to military training camps. The parents and families of these conscripted children are not allowed to contact them, with the SDF also refusing to disclose their fate.
As the report further reveals, HTS detained more civilians in December 2024. These arrests, which were concentrated in Idlib governorate and some areas of rural Aleppo governorate under the group’s control, targeted media activists, political activists, and local dignitaries. Most of these arrests were carried out in connection with the detainees expressing opinions critical of HTS’s management of areas under its control. These detentions are routinely and arbitrarily carried out in the form of raids in which HTS members storm their victims’ homes, often breaking down the doors, or abducting their victims in the street or while they’re passing through temporary checkpoints. We also documented arrests/detentions mostly carried out as part of raids and mass arrests, or at checkpoints in Idlib governorate that targeted individuals over their participation in the recent anti-HTS protests in the governorate. Most of these arrests were concentrated in Idlib governorate. We also documented arrests/detentions of a number of individuals over their alleged affiliation with the anti-HTS Tahrir Party. These arrests were concentrated in Idlib governorate.
Furthermore, the report goes on, armed opposition factions/SNA also continued carrying out arbitrary arrests/detentions and abductions, including of women. Most of these detentions were conducted on a mass scale, targeting individuals traveling from areas controlled by the Assad regime or the SDF. In addition, the report documents detentions that exhibited an ethnic character, with these incidents concentrated in areas under the control of the armed opposition factions/SNA in Aleppo governorate. These arrests usually occurred without judicial authorization and without the participation of the police force, which is the sole legitimate administrative body tasked with the authority to carry out arrests and detentions through the judiciary. The report also documents arrests by SNA personnel targeting civilians accused of working with the SDF, with these arrests being concentrated in some of the villages which are administratively part of Afrin city in Aleppo governorate. We also documented arrests/detentions by SNA personnel of internally displaced persons (IDPs) returning to their homes in SNA-held areas, with these arrests being concentrated in Afrin city.
Releases
The report documents 24,394 releases from Assad regime detention centers in 2024, only 13 of which were in connection with Amnesty Decree No. 7 of 2022. In Damascus governorate, the report documented the release of 36 individuals from Assad regime detention centers. The detainees in question were released after serving the full term of their arbitrary sentence, having been imprisoned for about three years in regime detention centers. Furthermore, the report documented the separate releases of 145 individuals, including 15 children and 21, all of whom had been held for a few days without trial. Most of these detainees came from the governorates of Damascus, Aleppo, and Daraa, with the majority having spent the duration of their detention in regime security branches.
As mentioned earlier, 24,200 detainees were released in Syria in the wake of Operation Deter Aggression by the Military Operations Command on November 27, 2024, which liberated a number of cities previously under the control of the newly deposed Assad regime. As soon as those cities had been liberated, all prisons were opened and the detainees released.
As the report further reveals, the SDF released 698 individuals, including 13 children, from its detention centers where they’d been held for periods ranging from a few days to six years. Most of them were originally from the governorates of Deir Ez-Zour, Aleppo, and Raqqa.
The report also documents HTS’ release of 151 individuals, including three children, from its detention centers in Idlib governorate, with the released detainees having been detained for periods ranging from a few days to four years, without any clear charges being brought against them.
Elsewhere, all armed opposition factions/SNA released 667 individuals, after detaining them for periods ranging from a few days to one-year-and-a-half without bringing any clear charges against them or putting them on trial. Most were released only after their families had been extorted into paying sums of money to secure their release.
As the report further notes, SNHR’s data is now viewed as a reputable principal source of information by many UN bodies, being used in numerous statements and resolutions, including the draft resolution on the human rights situation in Syria (A/C.3/78/L.43), passed by a vote on Wednesday, November 15, 2023, condemning the Assad regime’s continued serious violations of international law. This resolution also acknowledged that the documented number of detainees in Syria exceeded 135,000. Relatedly, the resolution holds the regime responsible for the systematic use of enforced disappearance, which, it notes, constitutes a crime against humanity. The issue of detainees and forcibly disappeared persons is one of the most crucial human rights issues in Syria which there was no progress toward resolving while the former regime remained in power, despite its inclusion in several UN Security Council resolutions, as well as in UN General Assembly resolutions, in Kofi Annan’s plan, in the statement of cessation of hostilities issued in February 2016, which stated that “all parties undertake to work for an early release of any arbitrarily detained persons, particularly women and children”, and in UN Security Council resolution 2254 of December 2015, article 12, which stated that all detainees, especially women and children, must be released immediately. Despite all these resolutions and other official statements, no progress was ever made by the regime on the issue of securing the release of detainees in any of the rounds of negotiations sponsored by international parties regarding the conflict in Syria. The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) was never able to conduct periodic visits to any of the regime’s detention centers, which constituted a violation of international humanitarian law.
The report stresses that the Assad regime failed to fulfil any of its obligations in any of the international treaties and conventions it ratified, most particularly the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR). It also violated several articles of the Syrian Constitution itself, with thousands of detainees being imprisoned for long periods, often for many years, without any arrest warrants being presented or any charges being brought against them, and being prevented from appointing a lawyer and from receiving family visits. Approximately 89.6 percent of all detentions were subsequently been categorized as enforced disappearance cases, with the families of these detainees being refused any information about their loved ones’ detention locations.
The report further notes the Assad regime never ended its systematic arbitrary detention and torture practices and failed to take any steps at any time to comply with the ICJ Order for provisional measures issued on November 16, 2023.
The report additionally notes that the other parties (SDF, HTS, and all armed opposition factions/SNA) are also all obliged to implement the provisions of international human rights law, and that they too have committed widespread violations through arrests and enforced disappearances.
In the report, SNHR again calls on the UN Security Council to follow through with the implementation of its previous resolutions (2042, 2043, 2139)
Moreover, the report calls on the international community and the UN Security Council to refer the Syrian dossier to the International Criminal Court (ICC) or to establish a special tribunal to try those who were involved in war crimes and crimes against humanity. The report also calls on the UN Independent Institution on Missing Persons in Syria to ask the current transitional authorities for permission to start operating in Syria and calls on the transitional authorities in turn to cooperate with the Institution to ensure transparency and accountability in enforced disappearance cases. The report further notes that the new Syrian government must cooperate with the relevant international organizations by issuing official invitations and giving them unobstructed access to detention centers and crime scenes. In addition, the new government must protect evidence and crime sites, promote justice and accountability, reform governance, prevent further violations, and support those affected, as well as supporting rehabilitation.