(SNHR)- The Hague – The Syrian Network for Human Rights (SNHR) revealed in its latest monthly report released Wednesday that no fewer than 1,236 cases of arbitrary arrests were documented in the first half of 2024, with those detained including 56 children and 30 women. Meanwhile, 217 of the 1,236 cases documented in the first half of 2024, were documented in June. The report also notes that at least 126 forcibly deported refugees have been arrested since the start of 2024.
The 27-page report reveals that, as SNHR’s database confirms, about 73 percent of all arbitrary detentions carried out in Syria subsequently turn into enforced disappearances, with the Syrian regime being responsible for about 88 percent of all the arbitrary arrests documented. Naturally, given these staggering rates of arbitrary arrest, the number of Syrian citizens classified as missing has skyrocketed, so much so that this can be called a phenomenon in itself. Indeed, Syria is one of the worst countries worldwide in terms of the numbers of ‘disappeared’ citizens.
The report also stresses that the Syrian regime surpasses many of the world’s other authoritarian regimes by virtue of having absolute hegemony over the legislative and judicial branches of government. The regime has wielded this hegemony to pass a multitude of laws and decrees that violate international human rights law, as well as the principles of law and the parameters of arrests and interrogation established in domestic legislation and by Syria’s current Constitution, most recently amended in 2012. Moreover, the Syrian regime has legitimized the crime of torture, disregarding the existence of several texts in Syrian law that explicitly outlaw torture, including Article 53 of the current Syrian constitution which bans arbitrary arrest and torture and Article 391 of the Public Penal Code, which provides that anyone who uses coercion during interrogation shall receive a timed prison sentence ranging from three months to three years, while torture is wholly prohibited. Despite these proscriptions, however, other quasi-legal texts have been introduced, including Law No. 16 of 2022 on Criminalizing Torture, which explicitly contradict the aforementioned legal articles, and legitimize impunity.
The report summarizes the arbitrary arrests/detentions and the releases of detainees from various detention centers documented as having been carried out by the parties to the conflict and controlling forces in the first half of 2024 up to, and including June. 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 murder, theft, narcotics-related crimes, and other crimes that have no political nature or are unrelated to the armed conflict, dissident activism, or freedom of opinion and expression. 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 analytic methodology.
The report documents no fewer than 1,236 cases of arbitrary arrest/detention in the first half of 2024, with those detained including 56 children and 30 women (adult females). Of these, 1,007 have subsequently been classified as enforced disappearances. Syrian regime forces were responsible for 549 of the 1,236 arrests, including of eight children and 14 women, while Hay’at Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) were responsible for 121. Additionally, all armed opposition factions/Syrian National Army (SNA) were responsible for 219 arrests, including of two children and nine women, while Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) were responsible for 347, including of 46 children and seven women.
The report also shows the distribution of these cases across Syria’s governorates. Analysis of the data shows that Aleppo governorate saw the highest number of arrests in the first half of 2024, followed, in descending order, by Deir Ez-Zour governorate, then Rural Damascus governorate, then Idlib, Damascus, Homs, and finally Hasaka. The report also compares the number of arbitrary arrests/detentions carried out by the parties to the conflict and controlling forces in Syria with the numbers of releases of detainees from the various forces’ detention centers documented in the first half of 2024. In this regard, the report stresses that the number of arbitrary arrests far surpasses the number of releases from detention centers, with the number of releases equaling approximately 30 percent of all the detentions documented; this confirms again that at least two or three times as many people are detained as are released, primarily by the Syrian regime, which indicates that these arrest and detention practices are standard policy in comparison to the extremely limited numbers of people released by all parties to the conflict, but mainly by regime forces. On the subject of releases, the report records at least 398 releases from the various detention centers in Syria in the first half of 2024, including of 13 children and 11 women.
The report documents no fewer than 217 cases of arbitrary arrest/detention in June 2024, with those detained including eight children and five women (adult female). Of these, 177 have subsequently been classified as enforced disappearances. Syrian regime forces were responsible for 93 of the 217 arrests, including of two children and three women, while HTS was responsible for 38. Additionally, all armed opposition factions/SNA were responsible for 34 arrests, while the SDF was responsible for 52, including of six children and two women. Meanwhile, the report recorded 81 releases from the various detention centers in Syria in June 2024, including of three children and three women.
The report stresses that the Syrian regime intensified its arrest operations in the first half of 2024, with these arrests taking place in various contexts, ahead of the promulgation of an anticipated amnesty decree. Another indicator is the noticeable increase in arrest rates which coincided with a noticeable drop in prisoner releases or transfers. Meanwhile, regime courts and detention centers are compiling lists of sentenced detainees, detainees on trial, and detainees who have yet to appear before a court. Usually, the regime follows these intensified arrests with releases in order to create a false perception among the public and the international community that it is enacting positive change through the promulgation of the amnesty decree.
The report also documents more arrests/detentions of refugees who had been forcibly repatriated from Lebanon. These arrests, which took place at the al-Masna Border Crossing on the Syrian-Lebanese border, were carried out after the Lebanese army had carried out raid and arrest campaigns targeting Syrian refugees in Lebanon who were then deported to the border. Most of those arrested at the border by Syrian regime forces were taken to regime security and military detention centers in the governorates of Homs and Damascus. Since the start of 2024, SNHR has documented that at least 126 of the refugees forcibly deported from Lebanon, including four children and three women, have been arrested by regime forces. Furthermore, the report documents arrests/detentions targeting returning “refugees and internally displaced persons (IDPs)” as they were trying to go back to their original areas which are now under the control of regime forces. Those arrests targeted refugees returning from Lebanon, and from Jordan via the Nasib Border Crossing in southern Daraa, as well as via the Damascus International Airport in Damascus city.
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