The Assad regime’s security forces continue to carry out random arrests and raid civilian homes in order to terrorize those living in areas under the regime’s control. A report by a human rights group indicated that at least 203 people were arbitrarily arrested across Syria in November, including 138 cases of enforced disappearance.
In a report issued on Monday, the Syrian Network for Human Rights (SNHR) said that it recorded at least 203 cases of arbitrary arrests in November 2019, including eight women (adult female), at the hands of the main perpetrator parties to the conflict in Syria, with 112 of these carried out at the hands of Assad regime forces, including one woman. In addition, 14 cases of arbitrary arrests, including one woman, were carried out by Hay’at Tahrir al Sham.
The report indicated that at least 116 raids and checkpoints across all Syrian governorates resulted in cases of deprivation of freedom being documented in November, most of which were in the governorates of Aleppo, with Syrian Regime forces, followed by the PYD militia, being responsible for most of the raids.
This latest report documents 4,445 cases of arbitrary arrests since the start of 2019, and outlines the record of arbitrary arrests in November. It noted that the majority of these arrests took place in Aleppo and Deir Ezzor provinces.
The report stressed that the Assad regime has not fulfilled any of its obligations in any of the international treaties and conventions it has ratified, most particularly the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights.
The report also noted that the PYD militia had violated many basic rights and practiced numerous violations including torture and enforced disappearance.
The report called on the UN Security Council to follow through in the implementation of Resolution 2042, adopted on April 14, 2012, Resolution 2043, adopted on April 21, 2012, and Resolution 2139, adopted on February 22, 2014, all of which demand the immediate cessation of the crime of enforced disappearance.
The report also called on the UN Human Rights Council to follow up on the issue of detainees and forcibly-disappeared persons in Syria, to raise this subject in all of the council’s annual meetings, and to coordinate with the active local human rights groups in Syria. (Source: Syrian Coalition’s Media Department)