The Syrian Network for Human Rights (SNHR) has emphasized that the forces of the Assad regime are continuing to target civilians in areas under its control through arbitrary arrests. The Network has also warned that any forcible return of refugees to Syria poses a threat to their lives.
In a new report released on Tuesday, the SNHR revealed that detainees are being subjected to torture from the moment of their arrest and are being denied contact with their families or legal representation. The Assad regime denies that it carries out arbitrary arrests, and the majority of the detainees are forcibly disappeared.
The SNHR has recorded no fewer than 158 cases of arbitrary arrest across Syria, including 5 children and 8 women, in April 2023. Out of these, 133 cases have turned into enforced disappearances, with 87 at the hands of the regime forces, including a child and 3 women. The report also indicates that the PYD militia has detained 39 people, including 4 children, while Hayat Tahrir al-Sham has detained 8 people, including 3 women, and 24 others were detained by other parties.
The majority of arbitrary arrests were recorded in the provinces of Aleppo, Rural Damascus, Damascus, Raqqa, Daraa, Hasakah, and Deir Ezzor, the SNHR added.
The SNHR stresses that there can be no stability or security while the same security services, which have committed crimes against humanity since 2011 and are still continuing until now, remain in place.
It called on the UN Security Council to monitor the implementation of Resolutions 2042, 2043, and 2139, and has emphasized the need to release children and women and stop taking families and friends hostage during times of war. (Source: SOC’s Media Department)
