Articles for Syria

On September 6, 2017, the UN Commission of Inquiry released its latest report addressing the major trends and patterns of international human rights and humanitarian law violations committed between March and July 2017.

On August 28 and 29, 2017, Alkarama wrote to the United Nations Working Group on Enforced Disappearances (WGEID ) regarding the cases of Yasin Issa and his son, Ahmad Issa, as well as Abdul Rahman Al Mushasha, all of whom remain missing since their abductions in Damascus and its surrounding area between 2013 and 2014. The Syrian authorities must provide information on these victims’ whereabouts or fates, or at the least, put them under the protection of the law.

Freedom of expression activist Bassel Khartabil was executed soon after his disappearance from Damascus’ Adra prison on October 3, 2015, his widow has confirmed.

Jamil Al Nimr, former head of the General Intelligence in Jisr Al Shughur, Idlib governorate, was detained in Sednaya Military Prison since his arrest in June 2011 for having disobeyed orders to fire live bullets on peaceful protesters. He suddenly disappeared in December 2012, after his wife’s last visit.

Since the beginning of the six-year long armed conflict, thousands people have become victims of enforced disappearances and security services have abducted many of them at checkpoints.

On 4 April 2017, more than 92 Syrian citizens, including women and children, were killed by sarin gas during a Syrian army airstrike on Khan Sheikhoun, north-western Idlib Governorate.

On 25 April 2017, Alkarama and Human Rights Guardians referred to the Syrian Independent International Commission of Inquiry (CoI) the cases of seven men summarily executed in 2012. In late February of that year, these men, aged from 31 to 66 years old, were summarily executed by the Syrian military forces, during raids carried out in Kafr Al Tun, 60 kms north of Homs, merely because of their religious beliefs.

On 31 October 2016, United Nations member States reviewed the human rights situation in Syria in the context of the country’s second Universal Periodic Review (UPR), an interactive discussion between the State under review and other UN Member States which takes place every four years.

On 25 October 2011, Syrian political activist Mahmoud Al Merhi was arrested at an Air Force Intelligence checkpoint in Homs and remains disappeared since.

On 30 November 2016, Alkarama and Human Rights Guardians referred to the Independent International Commission of Inquiry on the Syrian Arab Republic (CoI Syria) the case of Hani Hussein, a 37-year-old Syrian from Qamishli, who disappeared following his