President Bashar al-Assad was ousted from power in December, following decades of rule by the al-Assad family characterized by repression and grave human rights violations, raising hopes for long overdue justice and reparation for victims. Throughout the year, all parties to the conflict and their allies conducted unlawful attacks on civilians and civilian infrastructure. President Assad’s government, Turkish border guards and factions of the Syrian National Army and the Syrian Democratic Forces were responsible for unlawful killings and torture and other ill-treatment. Tens of thousands of people remained arbitrarily detained or forcibly disappeared. More than 56,000 people continued to be subjected to human rights violations in the custody of the autonomous authorities in north-eastern Syria. Following the overthrow of President Assad’s government, opposition groups freed detainees held in the former government’s detention facilities across Syria. Many of the detainees had been subjected to torture and other ill-treatment; thousands more remained missing. Throughout the year, Syria’s humanitarian situation remained bleak; millions were living in poverty and depended on humanitarian aid to survive.
Background
Prior to the fall of President Bashar al-Assad’s government in December, people in government-controlled areas faced deteriorating socio-economic conditions, violence and the risk of arbitrary detention. Between January and June in Sweida, a Druze-majority city in south-western Syria, people protested against the deteriorating economic conditions and demanded political reforms. Air strikes attributed to the Jordanian Air Force in border areas in Sweida, allegedly to counter drug and weapons smuggling, resulted in several casualties. Dara’a in south-western Syria witnessed multiple attacks by pro-government forces and opposition armed groups, resulting in civilian casualties, according to the UN Independent International Commission of Inquiry on the Syrian Arab Republic (CoI).
Israeli forces increased their military operations in Syria in the context of the conflicts in Gaza and Lebanon. On 1 April an Israeli air strike hit the Iranian consulate in the Syrian capital, Damascus. According to media reports, 16 people were killed, including several senior Iranian military advisers.
Between February and July, north-western Syria saw unprecedentedly large protests against the armed group Hay’at Tahrir al-Sham (HTS). Protesters called for the release of political detainees, socio-economic reforms and the removal of HTS’s leader, Ahmed al-Sharaa (also known as Abu Mohammad al-Jolani).
In August a significant escalation in hostilities was reported in the Deir ez-Zor governorate in north-eastern Syria, killing at least 25 civilians, according to OCHA. The hostilities resulted in a dire humanitarian situation, with OCHA reporting shortages of water, food, medicine and other basic supplies.
On 8 December, opposition forces led by HTS seized Damascus, toppling President Assad’s government and ending his family’s five-decade rule of Syria.1 Following President Assad’s ousting, the Israeli military launched hundreds of air strikes in Syria, claiming it was targeting weapons stockpiles and military infrastructure abandoned by the former Syrian government’s forces to ensure they did not fall into rebel hands. Israel also deployed troops across the border of the Israeli occupied Syrian Golan Heights.
Unlawful attacks
All parties to the conflict and their allies continued to conduct unlawful attacks on civilians and civilian objects in northern Syria, killing and injuring scores of civilians and destroying civilian infrastructure.
President Assad’s government and Russia
In the first half of the year, President Assad’s government, supported by Russia, continued to escalate attacks, begun in late 2023, on areas of north-western Syria under the control of armed opposition groups.
The CoI investigated 13 such attacks that caused civilian casualties – 12 by the Syrian army and one by Russian forces – and found that all likely violated international humanitarian law. The CoI found that some were likely direct attacks on civilians, such as an attack in the village of Kafr Nuran on 28 May in which government forces fired an anti-tank guided missile at an agricultural vehicle, killing two children. Other attacks were likely indiscriminate, including a 1 April attack on the town of Sarmin using rocket fire that killed a woman and two girls and damaged homes, a school and a market.
The CoI and the Syrian Civil Defence (known as the White Helmets) accused the Syrian government of using cluster munitions in densely populated areas in the city of Idlib on 6 and 7 January.
As opposition groups began their advance to take territory held by President Assad’s forces, the Syrian air force, supported by Russian government forces, intensified their air strikes on parts of northern Syria, especially Idlib and Aleppo governorates, killing and displacing civilians. According to OCHA, at least 75 civilians, including 28 children, were killed and 282 injured in north-western Syria between 26 November and 8 December.
Türkiye
Türkiye continued to conduct unlawful aerial attacks on civilians and civilian objects in north-eastern Syria, which remained under the control of the Kurdish-led Democratic Autonomous Administration for North and East Syria (DAANES), a staunch opponent of Türkiye and the Syrian National Army (SNA), a coalition of Türkiye-backed armed groups. After the overthrow of President Assad, Türkiye pushed its offensive against Kurdish groups in this area.
In January, NES NGO Forum, a coalition of international organizations, said that more than 1 million people were without electricity and more than 2 million people had limited access to safe water in north-eastern Syria. Türkiye conducted at least 345 air strikes on north-eastern Syria in the first half of the year, destroying dozens of facilities including health centres, power transfer stations and oil and gas fields, according to Synergy-Hevdesti, a victims’ advocacy group.
In October, Turkish forces carried out military operations in northern and eastern Syria, in what they said was retaliation for an attack on the Kahramankazan facilities of Turkish Aerospace Industries in Türkiye’s Ankara province. The armed wing of the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK), the People’s Defence Forces, claimed responsibility for the attack. The Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), a Kurdish-led armed group, said that the strikes by Türkiye in Syria killed 12 civilians, including two children, and wounded 25 people.
According to a journalists’ association, on 19 December two journalists working for Kurdish media outlets were killed, reportedly by a Turkish drone, while reporting on the fighting between Türkiye-backed SNA factions and Kurdish groups. The next day, Kurdish forces said that a Turkish drone strike targeting a car in Hasakeh governorate killed three civilians.
Armed groups
Attacks by the armed group Islamic State increased significantly, according to the CoI.
Unlawful killings and torture and other ill-treatment
President Assad’s government
Between January and October, the Syrian Network for Human Rights (SNHR) documented the arrest by Syrian authorities of at least 208 refugees forcibly deported from Lebanon. In six cases recorded by SNHR, returnees were subjected to torture upon their return and died in custody.
After the ousting of President Assad, Amnesty International researchers visited many of the former government’s detention centres in Damascus, finding evidence of the torture that survivors had previously described. Recently freed detainees also described torture and other ill-treatment, extrajudicial executions and inhumane conditions of detention in these facilities.
Syrian National Army
Human Rights Watch documented atrocities including abductions, unlawful detentions, sexual violence and torture committed by various factions of the SNA. In March the CoI stated that SNA factions continued to arbitrarily detain civilians and subject some to torture and other ill-treatment in several detention facilities.
Syrian Democratic Forces
On 25 April the SDF arrested Khirou Ra’fat al-Shlash in Aleppo governorate. He was severely beaten, shot in the back and then taken to al-Maliya prison on charges of alleged ties with the Syrian government. On 27 April his family was informed of his death in custody. He had been subjected to torture and other ill-treatment during his detention, according to SNHR.
Arbitrary detention and enforced disappearances
According to SNHR, at least 2,623 arbitrary detentions were documented during the year, the vast majority by Syrian government forces. Of these, 1,084 were subsequently classified as enforced disappearances.
President Assad’s government
In December, opposition groups freed detainees held in the former government’s detention facilities and prisons across Syria. According to SNHR, 24,200 detainees were released; a fraction of the more than 100,000 people thought to be missing in such facilities, prompting questions about the fate of those disappeared (see below, Right to truth, justice and reparation).
Hay’at Tahrir al-Sham
In Idlib governorate, HTS repressed freedom of expression by subjecting journalists, activists or anyone who criticized their rule to arbitrary detention without access to a lawyer or family members.
Syrian National Army
From January to June, Synergy-Hevdesti documented the arbitrary arrest of 338 individuals by SNA’s factions in northern Syria. In July, they reported that 231 individuals remained forcibly disappeared in SNA prisons.
On 26 August, journalists Bakr al-Qassem and Nabiha Taha were detained by SNA military police at a checkpoint in al-Bab. Nabiha Taha was released later that day. Bakr al-Qassem was released on 2 September without charge.
Autonomous authorities / DAANES
The autonomous authorities in northern and eastern Syria were responsible for the large-scale violation of the rights of more than 56,000 people in their custody because of their perceived affiliation with Islamic State. Victims included an estimated 30,000 children, 14,500 women and 11,500 men held in at least 27 detention facilities and two detention camps – Al-Hol and Roj. Many had been detained since 2019.
Right to truth, justice and reparation
European countries continued to investigate and prosecute individuals suspected of committing crimes under international law in Syria through their national courts, including under the principle of universal jurisdiction.
For example, on 17 January, the French Supreme Court confirmed its ruling of September 2021 on charges of complicity in crimes against humanity and financing of terrorism against the French cement company Lafarge.
On 11 March the Office of the Attorney General of Switzerland referred Rifaat al-Assad, uncle of Bashar al-Assad and a former military commander, to the Federal Criminal Court for trial on charges of war crimes and crimes against humanity committed in the Syrian city of Hama in 1982.
On 24 May the Paris Judicial Court sentenced in their absence senior Syrian officials Ali Mamlouk, Jamil Hassan and Abdel Salam Mahmoud for complicity in crimes against humanity and one offence that constituted a war crime.
On 26 June the Paris Court of Appeal upheld arrest warrants issued against Bashar al-Assad, his brother Maher al-Assad and two senior Syrian military officials on charges of complicity in crimes against humanity and war crimes for the use of banned chemical weapons against civilians in Ghouta and Douma in August 2013.
Following the ousting of President Assad, an Amnesty International researcher observed first-hand that official records in detention centres and prisons were left largely unprotected, with significant portions looted, destroyed, or taken by members of the public including families of detainees and some journalists. Witnesses reported that, in some cases, security and intelligence personnel burned documents before they fled, while armed groups who took control of the facilities and newly freed detainees also burned and looted documents. The documents may contain vital information about the structure of the Syrian state’s security and intelligence apparatus, the identity of perpetrators of crimes under international law, and details about detainees and their fates.
Economic and social rights
Syria’s humanitarian situation remained bleak. In August the UN reported that 16.7 million people required humanitarian aid to survive – the highest number since the start of the Syrian crisis in 2011. At least 90% of the population lived in poverty and 12.9 million were food insecure.
The Humanitarian Response Plan for Syria remained alarmingly underfunded, according to OCHA. As of December, only 33.4% of the USD 4.07 billion needed had been secured.
Refugees’ and migrants’ rights
Shortly after the ousting of President Assad, at least 21 European countries announced that they would review their asylum practices, mostly by considering or enacting a suspension of pending asylum applications by Syrians.
At the end of the year, credible information about the security situation in Syria remained scarce. It remained unclear which armed groups controlled various towns and cities and how they intended to govern. Reported attacks in Syria by Israel, the USA and Türkiye, as well as fighting between armed groups, risked further endangering civilians. As a result, in December, Amnesty International called on European states to continue processing Syrian asylum claims and reject calls to return Syrians or restrict family reunification.2
Occupied Golan Heights
The Golan Heights remained under Israel’s occupation and illegal annexation. Following the ousting of President Assad, the Israeli military moved troops into the UN-defined demilitarized buffer zone.
The office of the Israeli prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, said its government had unanimously approved a USD 11 million plan to encourage demographic growth, signalling an expansion of illegal Israeli settlement in the Golan Heights.
On 26 July a rocket strike hit the town of Majdal Shams in the north of the Golan Heights, killing 12 children and young people from the Druze community.
