syria-un-20180308 2

INDEPENDENT INTERNATIONAL COMMISSION OF INQUIRY ON THE SYRIAN ARAB REPUBLIC DETENTION IN THE SYRIAN ARAB REPUBLIC: A Way Forward 2 I. Introduction 1. Government forces and affiliated militias are arbitrarily or unlawfully detaining tens of thousands of individuals in official and makeshift detention centres throughout the Syrian Arab Republic. The vast majority are being held without due process and are not allowed access to legal representation or to their families. They endure various forms of brutal torture and subsist in severely inhumane conditions. Many have died in detention, while others have been summarily executed. The bodies of those who have died as a result of torture, neglect, inhumane conditions, or from executions are rarely returned to their families, who are also not notified about burials. As the number of detainees has grown, so too have the unofficial and secret places of detention these individuals are held in. 2. As a result, the whereabouts of tens of thousands of detainees remains unknown and unacknowledged by the state. These civilians have been disappeared and many may no longer be alive. This information is based on the chilling accounts of hundreds of former detainees received by the Independent International Commission of Inquiry on the Syrian Arab Republic1 since August 2011, including by those most vulnerable to abuse. 3. The Commission has meticulously documented the acts described above which amount to the crimes against humanity of extermination, murder, rape or other forms of sexual violence, torture, and imprisonment in the context of its widespread and systematic detentions (see A/HRC/31/CRP.1). They have also amounted to the war crimes of murder, cruel treatment, torture, rape, sexual violence, and outrages upon personal dignity (see A/HRC/31/CRP.1. para. 99). 4. The foregoing pervasive violations do not stop with the Syrian Government. Armed groups and terrorist entities have also established makeshift places of detention where captured Government soldiers have been tortured, ill-treated, and, in some cases, summarily executed. Hundreds of civilian men, women, and children have also been held for a variety of reasons including as punishment for suspected loyalty, to extract ransom, or as bargaining chips to initiate prisoner swaps with Government forces and affiliated militias. Some have died performing forced labour. Minority religious groups have also been targeted including Alawites, Ismaili, Shi’a, Druze, and Christian families. Many were moved to Douma, eastern Ghouta (Rif Damascus), under siege now for nearly five years. Hundreds of religious minorities, primarily women and children, remain in the captivity of armed groups in Douma alone, waiting to be swapped. 5. The treatment of detainees by armed groups has amounted to the war crimes of murder, torture and other forms of ill-treatment, and also constituted violations of due process principles (see A/HRC/31/CRP.1). Since 2015, members of the terrorist group Jabhat Fatah al-Sham have also committed the war crimes of murder, cruel treatment, and torture in the context of detention, while ISIL terrorists have been responsible for the crimes against humanity of murder and torture against detainees. 6. United Nations Security Council resolutions 2254 (2015) and 2258 (2015) call on all parties to the conflict to release any arbitrarily detained persons, particularly women and children. Despite these resolutions and the efforts of UN Special Envoy Staffan de Mistura to make progress on issues of those detained in Syria, little has changed. The situation of detainees countrywide remains critical, and represents an urgent and large-scale crisis of human rights protection. 7. Just as progress on negotiating a political agreement is dependent on a ceasefire or reduction in violence, and on urgent access for humanitarian assistance, it is abundantly 1 The Commissioners are Paulo Sérgio Pinheiro (Chair), Karen Koning AbuZayd, and Hanny Megally. coisyria@ohchr.org | @UNCoISyri