Cases of arbitrary detention in Syria have declined to the lowest level the Syrian Network for Human Rights (SNHR) has been able to verify under its adopted methodology.
The network issued its third quarterly report for 2026 on Friday, October 2, documenting 13 cases of arbitrary detention targeting civilians, including one child, between July and September.
According to the network’s report, the documented cases were distributed over the three months, with five cases in July, seven in August, and one in September. August recorded the highest toll, accounting for around 53.8% of the total.
A comparison with the first half of 2026 showed a significant decline. The first six months of the year recorded 246 cases, including 210 cases in the first quarter alone, equivalent to around 85.4% of the total recorded during the first half of the year.
Under the network’s documentation classification based on the party responsible, 12 cases, including that of one child, were attributed to Israeli occupation forces, representing around 92.3% of the total. One case, or 7.7%, was attributed to Syrian government forces and involved a media activist.
Geographically, the cases were concentrated in Daraa and Quneitra governorates, with six cases recorded in each, representing 46.2% per governorate, in addition to one case in Hama.
18 Released, Abductees Freed
The network documented 18 releases during the third quarter of this year, including one child. All of those released had been detained by Israeli occupation forces.
The number of documented releases exceeded the number of new detention cases by six. Twelve of the releases involved people detained during the same quarter, while the other six concerned people detained during earlier periods.
The report also documented two cases in which people abducted by what it described as criminal gangs were freed by Internal Security forces affiliated with Syria’s Ministry of Interior, which also arrested several gang members involved.
According to the network, these cases fall within security operations related to combating kidnapping and extortion crimes and were not included in the report’s main figures because of their different nature and context.
Operations Against IS and Former Regime Suspects
The report separately presented two security operations carried out by Syrian government security agencies against cells affiliated with the Islamic State group in southern Syria and Quneitra governorate. The operations resulted in the detention of several people suspected of links to the group.
In one of the operations, announced by authorities in Khan Arnabeh, Quneitra governorate, nine people were detained. The Ministry of Interior later announced that three were found to have been involved, while no involvement was established for the other six. The ministry apologized to them and their families for the period of detention and the precautionary measures taken.
The network also documented 37 detention cases in the context of holding accountable people accused of committing serious violations during the rule of the Assad regime, including one woman. The cases spanned 10 governorates, with Latakia recording the highest number at 19 cases, or around 51.4% of the total, followed by Damascus with four cases, and Hama and Idlib with three cases each.
The operations involved former military personnel, including officers who had held command ranks, government employees, and members of armed groups that fought alongside former regime forces.
Recommendations and Demands
The report stressed that arbitrary detention violates the right to liberty and personal security guaranteed under Article 9 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights. These protections include the prohibition of arbitrary deprivation of liberty, informing detainees of the reasons for their arrest, enabling them to challenge the legality of their detention, bringing them promptly before a competent judicial authority, and respecting the presumption of innocence and guarantees of a fair trial.
The network called on the Syrian government to ensure that all arrest and detention procedures are conducted in accordance with the law and that no person is deprived of liberty without a clear legal basis. It also called for detainees to be immediately informed of the reasons for their arrest, allowed to communicate with lawyers and family members, brought before a competent judicial authority, and for the fate of all forcibly disappeared people to be disclosed. It further urged authorities to publish official information on detention facilities and ensure they are subject to independent judicial oversight.
The network also called on the judiciary and public prosecution to open an independent investigation into the arbitrary detention case attributed to Syrian government forces, review the legality of detaining people in the context of accountability proceedings and operations against the Islamic State group, bring them promptly before a competent judge, and release anyone for whom there is no legal basis for continued detention.
It called on the UN Security Council, the international community, the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, the Independent International Commission of Inquiry, and the International, Impartial and Independent Mechanism to support efforts to determine the fate of forcibly disappeared people, hold those responsible for arbitrary detention, enforced disappearance, and torture accountable, and support judicial and institutional reform programs.
Finally, the network called on all parties controlling territory in Syria to immediately halt all forms of arbitrary detention and enforced disappearance, disclose the whereabouts of all detainees, enable them to communicate with their families and lawyers, release all people detained for peacefully exercising their fundamental rights, and fully comply with the prohibition of torture and ill-treatment.
The network also called on the Israeli government to halt military operations that endanger civilians or civilian objects inside Syrian territory, stop the arbitrary detention of civilians, register all detainees and inform their families and the International Committee of the Red Cross of their detention and whereabouts, and respect Syria’s sovereignty and territorial integrity in accordance with international law and the Charter of the United Nations.
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