Human rights in Syria: the situation after the end of Assad

Translated by Irene Cecchi

December 8th 2024 it’s an historical date for Syria: the fall of the regime of Bashar al-Assad, one of the most sanguinary ones in the 21st century. The event is the result of an offensive carried out by a coalition of rebel forces that fastly conquered big shares of the Country. With the dictator away there’s hope for a better chapter, but also uncertainty for Syrian people, who suffered years of conflicts, human rights violations and a devastating humanitarian crisis.

After almost 14 years of war and economic crisis, the situation of human rights in Syria is tragic. Systemic violations, including torture, illegal executions and civilias attacks are daily occurrence.The humanitarian crisis reached critical levels, with millions of displaced, while urgent needs of the population keeps adding up.

Under Assad’s regime, jails in Syria were full of political prisoners, many of wich suffered torture and inhuman conditions. The violations that the government carries out in jail were reported over the years by activists, ngos and journalists and they also were taken into consideration for the investigations of the UN Human Right Council. In 2021, a report denounced the criminal behaviour of the extremist group Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS), underlining the freedom of press restrictions and women, journalists and activists arbitrary detentions.

With rebels taking over, the HTS and the Syrian National Army (an armed group backed by Turkey) opened the liberated cities’ jails and people immediately headed there trying to find their beloved ones who were imprisoned or simply disappeared.

From that moment on, all the eyes pointed to the Saydnaya prison, near Damasco. It is also known as “human slaughterhouse” for the violations, torture and dehumanization of the ones kept there inflicted by masked jailers. According to a 2017 Amnesty International report, since the beginning of the Arab Spring more than 13000 people hung themselves in there.

Torture can be inflicted by physical and psychological violence, nonsense interrogations that were often mere sadism, sexual abuses especially for women. Family visits are very rare and they could be the reason for more violent attacks. At the basis of all this, there is a repression culture where religion is forbidden and replaced by loyalty to the regime. These atrocities reflect the regime's will to avoid any opposition by the prisoners, recurring to humiliation and dehumanization.

The fast revolutionary liberation didn't allow a proper communication channel between former prisoners and their families who found themselves in the middle of the streets or on social media looking for them. According to the detentions and forced disappearances department of the Syrian Network for Human Rights (SNHR), an independent organization that supervise and document human rights violations in Syria, the jail opening could have been foreseen with the rebel’s advance to this cities and should have been followed by humanitarian organizations to ensure medical aid to the prisoners. The same organization, that has been collecting info and tips to reach the families since December 8th, claims that there is widespread misinformation and that basic proofs are tampered, that’s why it’s fundamental to keep the remaining ones intact to prove the entity of the violations committed behind those bars.

Once jails opened, more than 150 mass graves were discovered, housing the corpses of former prisoners and disappeared people, a testimony of the entity of the government systemic human right violations. In the desert at the North of Damasco, mass graves as big as a football pitch were discovered and, according to Red Cross international committee’s official list of disappeared people, there should be around 35 thousand of corpses, one fourth of the number esteemed by Syrian human rights organizations (between 136 and 150 thousands).

The fall of the regime might start a new phase of challenges and opportunities for the Syrian population, but it’s a process that may also lead to instability, internal conflicts and political and social uncertainty. In fact, even though the new transition executive from HTS (formerly Al-Qaeda ally) is trying to consolidate their power and unite the Country in a peaceful way, by establishing contacts with the armed groups in the South, the Country is still under a lot of pressure, with main military cities in the South bombed by Israel and the Northern ones inhabited by Kurds by Turkey. Yasar Güler, the Turkish defense minister, announced an offensive to eliminate Kurdish-Syrian forces from the North-East of Syria and presented himself as guarantor of the transition to a new islamic government.

The HTS group that took over is an authoritarian organization with an Islamic fundamentalist ideology and, even if they promised to respect religious minorities, it doesn’t mean democracy is going to reign. HTS past is full of serious human rights violations, with political opponents’ disappearances and incarcerations. The group was repeatedly condemned during the protests in Syria, in particular this Thursday the Syrian populations took to the streets to demand democracy and rights for women, after the group closed every organization and ONG advocating for gender equality. The success of the transition process will depend on the Syrian society’s ability to protect their rights and create a democratic block by setting up syndicates or other organizations. Also the international community will play a fundamental role supporting Syria in its journey towards stability, giving humanitarian aid and funding reconstruction and development plans.

Syria will have to face fundamental issues like infrastructure reconstruction, refugees' comeback and social reconciliation between communities. Syrian people everywhere in the world are looking for information about their beloved ones who disappeared during these years, the emotional impact is huge. The real challenge for the whole population will be to build a future in which not only peace is reigning but also justice and social inclusion.

Mondo Internazionale APS - Riproduzione Riservata ® 2024