Human rights in Syria

Politics of Syria

Arab League Member State of the Arab League

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Human rights in Syria are effectively non-existent. The country's human rights record is considered one of the worst in the world. As a result, Syria has been globally condemned by prominent international organizations, including the United Nations, Human rights Watch, Amnesty International,[1][2][3] and the European Union.[4] Civil liberties, political rights, freedom of speech and assembly are severely restricted under the Ba'athist government of Bashar al-Assad, which is regarded as "one of the world's most repressive regimes".[5][6] The 50th edition of Freedom in the World, the annual report published by Freedom House since 1973, designates Syria as "Worst of the Worst" among the "Not Free" countries. The report lists Syria as one of the two countries to get the lowest possible score (1/100).[7][8]

Since the 1963 coup d'etat by its Military Committee that propelled the neo-Ba'athists to power, the Syrian Ba'ath party has operated a totalitarian state in Syria. Following a period of intra-party power-struggles that culminated in the 1970 coup, General Hafez al-Assad became the Syrian President; establishing a hereditary dictatorship of the Assad family. During the six decades of its rule, the security apparatus has banned all social, political and economic groups independent of the Ba'ath party or the regime; ensuring that the state has total monopoly over all forms of organizations.[9] A state of emergency was in effect from 1963 until April 2011, giving security forces sweeping powers of arbitrary arrests and detentions of civilians; including prisoners of conscience.[3] From 1973 to 2012, Syria was a single-party state. While the 2012 Syrian constitution nominally affirms the formation of political parties; registration process is difficult and thoroughly scrutinized by the regime. Political activities independent of the Ba'ath are discouraged in regime-controlled territories and strictly monitored by the Mukhabarat.[10]

There is no independent judiciary, as it is mandatory for all judges and prosecutors to be approved members of the Ba'ath party. The armed forces has the power to arbitrarily arrest civilians and put them to trial.[11] The authorities have been accused of harassing and imprisoning human rights activists and other critics of the government.[12] Freedom of expression, association and assembly are strictly controlled, and ethnic minorities face discrimination.[3][12] Throughout the decades-long reign of Assad dynasty between 1970 and 2011; over 70,000 Syrians were subjected to forced disappearances, more than 40,000 were executed through extrajudicial killings and hundreds of thousands of civilians became displaced through deportations.[13]

After an initial period of economic liberalization that failed to improve human rights in the early 2000s,[14] Bashar al-Assad launched a string of crackdowns that imprisoned numerous intellectuals and cultural activists; thereby ending the Damascus Spring.[15] At the onset of the Arab Spring in 2011, the country's human rights situation remained among the worst in the world; characterized by arbitrary arrests, mass surveillance by the dreaded secret police and systematic repression of ethnic minorities, such as the Kurds.[16] The government is guilty of crimes against humanity based on witness accounts of deaths in custody[17] including extrajudicial executions,[a] torture,[b] rape,[c] arbitrary detentions, ethnic cleansing, genocides, massacres, state terrorism and forced disappearances[30] during the crackdown against the 2011 Syrian Revolution and the ensuing Civil War.[31] The government has also conducted numerous chemical attacks against its own civilians.[d]

  1. ^ "Human Rights Council debates situation of human rights in Syrian Arab Republic in Special Session". United Nations:OHCHR. 22 August 2011. Archived from the original on 12 May 2023.
  2. ^ World Report 2010 Human Rights Watch World Report 2010 Archived 22 November 2017 at the Wayback Machine, pg. 555.
  3. ^ a b c Cite error: The named reference AmInt2009 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  4. ^ "European Union (EU) imposes further sanctions on Syrian regime". Government of the Netherlands. 4 April 2023. Archived from the original on 1 May 2023.
  5. ^ "Freedom in the World 2023: Syria". Freedom House. Archived from the original on 9 March 2023.
  6. ^ Yacoubian, Mona (14 March 2023). "Syria's Stalemate Has Only Benefitted Assad and His Backers". USIP. Archived from the original on 18 March 2023.
  7. ^ "Freedom in the World 2023: Syria". Freedom House. Archived from the original on 9 March 2023.
  8. ^ "Freedom in the World: 2023" (PDF) (50th anniversary ed.). March 2023: 31 – via Freedom House. {{cite journal}}: Cite journal requires |journal= (help)
  9. ^ Sadiki, Larbi; Fares, Obaida (2014). "12: The Arab Spring Comes to Syria: Internal Mobilization for Democratic Change, Militarization and Internationalization". Routledge Handbook of the Arab Spring: Rethinking Democratization. Routledge. pp. 145–148, 154. ISBN 978-0-415-52391-2.
  10. ^ "Freedom in the World 2023: Syria". Freedom House. Archived from the original on 9 March 2023.
  11. ^ "Freedom in the World 2023: Syria". Freedom House. Archived from the original on 9 March 2023.
  12. ^ a b Human Rights Watch World Report 2005 Events of 2004 Archived 24 June 2016 at the Wayback Machine, Human Rights Watch 2005. (The same group also highlighted, in a report "Syria: End Opposition Use of Torture, Executions" (Abuses Show Need for Accountability) 17 September 2012, That "A detainee who had been held in a school told Human Rights Watch that FSA fighters there had beaten him regularly for 25 days before he was transferred to the detention facility...") ISBN 1-56432-331-5.
  13. ^ Sadiki, Larbi; Fares, Obaida (2014). "12: The Arab Spring Comes to Syria: Internal Mobilization for Democratic Change, Militarization and Internationalization". Routledge Handbook of the Arab Spring: Rethinking Democratization. Routledge. p. 147. ISBN 978-0-415-52391-2.
  14. ^ Black, Ian (16 July 2010). "Syrian human rights record unchanged under Assad, report says". The Guardian. London. Archived from the original on 13 August 2016. Retrieved 17 December 2016.
  15. ^ Sadiki, Larbi; Fares, Obaida (2014). "12: The Arab Spring Comes to Syria: Internal Mobilization for Democratic Change, Militarization and Internationalization". Routledge Handbook of the Arab Spring: Rethinking Democratization. Routledge. p. 146. ISBN 978-0-415-52391-2.
  16. ^ "Syria among worst for rights abuses: HRW report". Reuters. 24 January 2011. Archived from the original on 24 September 2015. Retrieved 1 July 2017.
  17. ^ "Document". Amnesty International. Archived from the original on 26 July 2019. Retrieved 17 June 2019.
  18. ^ "U.S. Says Syria built crematorium to handle mass prisoner killings – the Washington Post". The Washington Post. Archived from the original on 6 July 2017. Retrieved 5 July 2017.
  19. ^ "AI estimates up to 13,000 civilians executed in Syrian military prison over four years – News". Deutsche Welle. 7 February 2017. Archived from the original on 30 April 2017. Retrieved 28 April 2017.
  20. ^ "UN Experts: Widespread Abuses and Killings of Detainees in Syria". 17 February 2016. Archived from the original on 28 July 2017. Retrieved 28 April 2017.
  21. ^ "Syria: Extrajudicial Executions". 9 April 2012. Archived from the original on 24 March 2017. Retrieved 28 April 2017.
  22. ^ "10 Syrian prisoners 'dying every day' amid horrific torture and abuse". Independent.co.uk. 17 August 2016. Archived from the original on 18 May 2017. Retrieved 28 April 2017.
  23. ^ "Report documents horrific torture in Syrian prisons". Los Angeles Times. 17 August 2016. Archived from the original on 8 April 2017. Retrieved 28 April 2017.
  24. ^ "Inside the torture chamber of Assad's inquisition squads". Independent.co.uk. 19 February 2012. Archived from the original on 13 June 2017. Retrieved 28 April 2017.
  25. ^ Emanuella Grinberg and Eyad Kourdi (8 February 2017). "These men say they survived torture in a Syrian prison". CNN. Archived from the original on 13 August 2017. Retrieved 13 August 2017.
  26. ^ "Assad's torture dungeons". The Economist. Archived from the original on 9 July 2017. Retrieved 9 July 2017.
  27. ^ "Archived copy" (PDF). Archived (PDF) from the original on 19 March 2018. Retrieved 18 March 2018.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)
  28. ^ "Surviving Assad: Syrian women tell stories of rape, torture". Archived from the original on 12 March 2017. Retrieved 10 March 2017.
  29. ^ Wolfe, Lauren (3 April 2013). "Syria Has a Massive Rape Crisis". The Atlantic. Archived from the original on 25 April 2017. Retrieved 28 April 2017.
  30. ^ Cutcher, Nicola (30 August 2017). "Syria's 'disappeared' are murdered on an industrial scale. The UN must step in | Nicola Cutcher". The Guardian. ISSN 0261-3077. Archived from the original on 22 December 2017. Retrieved 17 June 2019.
  31. ^ "Amnesty International says Syrian forces may have committed war crimes during crackdown". Associated Press. 6 July 2010. Archived from the original on 16 June 2012. Retrieved 13 September 2011.
  32. ^ Russell, George (6 March 2017). "Ignoring UN, Russia and Assad continue Syrian chemical weapons and bombing attacks labeled war crimes". Fox News. Archived from the original on 25 April 2017. Retrieved 11 May 2017.
  33. ^ "Rescuers in rebel-held Syrian area accuse government of gas attack". Reuters. 22 January 2018. Archived from the original on 9 June 2019. Retrieved 17 June 2019.
  34. ^ "The OPCW Fact Finding Mission Confirms More Sarin and Chlorine Use in Syria". bellingcat. 13 June 2018. Archived from the original on 17 June 2019. Retrieved 17 June 2019.
  35. ^ "UN panel blames Syrian forces for Khan Sheikhoun attack". Al Jazeera. Archived from the original on 12 June 2018. Retrieved 17 June 2019.


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