The Independent International Commission of Inquiry on Syria released its twenty-sixth report on Wednesday, with the commission submitting the report to the UN Human Rights Council (HRC) on September 22.
The report documents serious violations of fundamental human rights and international humanitarian law across Syria.
The Syrian Network for Human Rights (SNHR) has reviewed the 50-page report, and the following is a summary of the main points the report addressed.
The report addressed the persistent nature of various forms of violations by the parties to the conflict and controlling forces in Syria.
It described the current year 2022 as the worst since the outbreak of the popular uprising in terms of the economic and humanitarian situation, indicating that about 14.6 million people are currently in need of humanitarian assistance.
The report noted that insecurity continues to plague all areas under the Syrian regime’s control, further revealing that the regime security forces and affiliated local and foreign militias who control checkpoints and detention centers abuse their powers, and extort money from citizens.
The report also stressed the continuation of arbitrary arrests, forced disappearances and death due to torture against citizens, including refugees and displaced persons returning to areas controlled by the Syrian regime.
It also touched on other types of violations that are reportedly obstacles to the safe, dignified and sustainable return of refugees, such as the arbitrary use of security clearances imposed by the Syrian regime with the aim of restricting freedoms, which are a prerequisite for obtaining basic property and housing rights.
In this context, the report stressed that the voluntary and safe return of the refugees must be secured and that this must not entail any physical harm or violation of their fundamental human rights.
In regard to the military operations in areas under the control of the other parties to the conflict, the report said that the Syrian regime continued to target civilians in areas of northwestern Syria, with the support of Russia.
It also referred to the observation of Russian warplanes concurrent with raids targeting civilian objects.
“At the same time, Hay’at Tahrir al-Sham both intervened in public life and the provision of services, including fuel, exacerbating civilian suffering amidst widespread poverty. In formalizing restrictions that limit civic space, the group continued to arrest journalists, activists and other individuals who criticized its rule, in a discernible pattern previously identified by the Commission,” the report added.
The Commission “has reasonable grounds to believe that elements of the Syrian National Army have arbitrarily deprived persons of their liberty. Some cases have been tantamount to enforced disappearances.”
It added, “Consistent with an established pattern, elements of the Syrian National Army may have committed torture, cruel treatment and outrages upon personal dignity, including through forms of sexual violence, which constitute war crimes.”
“Nearly 58,000 individuals, including some 17,000 women and 37,000 children, remain unlawfully held in the al-Hol and Rawj camps. Humanitarian conditions in the camps have plummeted. There is no regular water supply, insufficient sanitation, lack of adequate nutrition, health care and housing.”
“There are reasonable grounds to believe that the Syrian Democratic Forces are violating the obligation to treat humanely all individuals who do not – or no longer – take part in hostilities… Democratic Forces may have perpetrated acts tantamount to enforced disappearances,” revealed the report.
The Commission called on the parties to the conflict “to respect international humanitarian law, to cease, in particular, all indiscriminate and direct attacks on civilians and civilian objects,” and “to conduct independent, impartial and credible investigations into incidents entailing civilian casualties in which their forces are implicated to ensure that those responsible for violations are held accountable and to ensure non-repetition and to make their findings public.”
The Commission stressed the need to “cease torture and other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment, including sexual and gender-based violence, in all places of detention, cease all forms of incommunicado detention and other infringements on the due process of law, release those arbitrarily detained and ensure that perpetrators of such violations are held accountable through fair trials.”
It further demanded to cease “all enforced disappearances and take all feasible measures, in line with Security Council resolution 2474 (2019), to locate all those detained and/or disappeared, establish their fate or whereabouts and ensure communication with their families.”
For its part, the SNHR welcomed the report’s outcomes and recommendations.
