The Syrian Network for Human Rights (SNHR) issued a report on Monday, 8 December, updating the tally of violations committed by the former regime, on the occasion of one year since Assad’s fall.

The report presents an updated record of violations by the former regime, including what could be documented over the past year in light of access to new areas and victims, and the decline in levels of fear following Assad’s downfall.

SNHR documented that since 2011, 202,021 civilians have been killed by the former regime, including 23,138 children and 12,036 women, in addition to the killing of 662 medical personnel and 559 media workers.

There are still 160,123 people forcibly disappeared, including 3,736 children and 8,014 women. A total of 45,032 people have been killed under torture, including 216 children and 95 women.

SNHR also recorded 566 attacks on medical facilities, 1,287 attacks on schools and kindergartens, and 1,042 attacks on places of worship. It documented the use of 81,954 barrel bombs that killed 11,092 civilians, as well as 217 chemical attacks that left 1,514 dead and 11,080 injured, in addition to 254 cluster munition attacks that killed 835 people and 52 attacks with incendiary weapons.

According to the report, these violations contributed to the displacement of 6.8 million people inside Syria and the flight of around seven million others as refugees abroad.

The network noted that the web of those involved in violations by Bashar al-Assad’s regime extended to include security and military agencies, a judiciary mobilized to serve repression, and civilian institutions that facilitated enforced disappearance and manipulation of records, in addition to economic, cultural, and artistic figures who provided social and political cover for the regime.

SNHR has documented nearly 16,200 perpetrators, including 6,724 members of official forces and 9,476 members of auxiliary militias, who took part in arrests, torture, and bombardment.

Judges and exceptional courts played a pivotal role in legitimizing violations, the report says, while civilian employees helped conceal the fate of detainees and loot property. Businessmen, artists, and media figures contributed to polishing the regime’s image and normalizing its crimes before domestic and international public opinion.

SNHR renewed its call to hold those responsible for these crimes accountable within a comprehensive transitional justice process.

The report pointed out that recalling this anniversary raises questions about the course of transitional justice in Syria and the need for the current authorities and the international community to commit to ensuring genuine accountability for crimes committed, revealing the fate of the forcibly disappeared, and providing redress to victims and their families.

Under the 1951 Refugee Convention, perpetrators of such crimes, or those for whom there are “serious reasons for considering” that they are involved, are not entitled to refugee status, in accordance with Article 1(F), which excludes perpetrators of international crimes, serious crimes, and acts contrary to the purposes and principles of the United Nations.

Despite this exclusion from refugee status, the principle of non-refoulement still applies, and states may grant such individuals temporary protection while continuing to cooperate with judicial and human rights accountability efforts.

The report concluded with a set of recommendations aimed at supporting accountability and entrenching transitional justice in Syria:

To the Russian government:

• Reconsider the decision to grant asylum to Bashar al-Assad.
• Cooperate with international efforts to achieve justice.
• Contribute to redressing the Syrian people for the harm caused by military intervention.

To the United Nations and the international community:

• Exert pressure to ensure that asylum is not turned into a shield for impunity.
• Activate international mechanisms for accountability.

To the Syrian government:

• Commit to the principles of transitional justice by adopting a comprehensive process that includes truth seeking, accountability, reparations, institutional reform, and guarantees of non-recurrence.
• Adopt a comprehensive legislative strategy for justice and non-recurrence.
• Carry out deep reform of the judiciary and abolish exceptional courts.
• Restructure the security and military sectors, including reforms to the security and army.
• Compensate victims and provide for their rehabilitation.
• Rebuild affected areas in line with rights and equity.
• Adopt a clear policy regarding amnesties and accountability.
• Preserve archives and evidence and prevent their destruction.
• Fully cooperate with international mechanisms and universal jurisdiction processes.
• Involve victims and civil society in designing the path to justice.

To media institutions and the academic sector:

• Preserve memory and prevent denial of crimes.
• Strengthen scientific research and specialized studies.

SNHR describes itself as an independent human rights organization that documents human rights violations in Syria. It monitors and records extrajudicial killings, arbitrary arrests, enforced disappearances, torture, and direct targeting of civilians, issues monthly and annual reports, and is considered a primary source of information for international organizations and media outlets, to promote transitional justice and hold perpetrators to account.