Syria

HUMAN RIGHTS OVERVIEW

Historic opportunity to end and redress decades of grave human rights violations under President Assad

In the aftermath of the ousting of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad following the seizure of power by opposition forces in the capital city of Damascus, Amnesty International called on the new leaders to break free from the violence of the past and to act according to “the principles of justice, accountability and non-recurrence. Suspected perpetrators of crimes under international law and other serious human rights violations must be investigated, and if warranted, prosecuted for their crimes in fair trials and without the possibility of the death penalty.”

Amnesty International further asked the new administration to take urgent steps to collect and preserve evidence of atrocities enacted by the government of former president Basher al-Assad.

Researchers from Amnesty and two other human rights organizations visited Damascus in December 2024 and reviewed including 10 detention facilities, the sites of 7 mass graves, and the military court.

In all of the detention facilities visited, researchers observed that official documents were often left unprotected, with significant portions looted or destroyed. Residents from the neighborhoods around some of these facilities, former detainees, and others inside those facilities said that in some cases, the security and intelligence personnel burned key information before they fled as the Assad government fell.

Amnesty International’s 2017 report “Human Slaughterhouse” revealed how Syrian authorities under President Bashar al-Assad had carried out killings, torture, enforced disappearance, mass hangings and extermination of detainees – in the Saydnaya military prison, Syria’s most notorious detention centre – as part of a widespread and systematic attack against civilians amounting to crimes against humanity.