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GENEVA (27 January 2025) – In a report drawing on its extensive investigations since the start of the Syrian conflict, the UN Syria Commission of Inquiry today detailed how the former Syrian Government systematically used arbitrary detention, torture and enforced disappearances to quash dissent.
These acts constitute crimes against humanity and war crimes, representing some of the worst systematic violations of international law committed during the conflict.
The overthrow of the former government and the release of prisoners from its torture chambers mark a sea change for Syrians, something almost unthinkable just two months ago.
“We stand at a critical juncture. The caretaker government and future Syrian authorities can now ensure these crimes are never repeated,” said Paulo Sérgio Pinheiro, Chair of the Commission. “We hope our findings from almost 14 years of investigations will help end impunity for these patterns of abuse.”
The report, “Web of Agony: Arbitrary Detention, Torture, and Ill-Treatment in the Syrian Arab Republic,” is based on more than 2,000 witness testimonies, including over 550 interviews with survivors of torture. It presents the Commission's most comprehensive analysis to date of detention-related violations by the former government, leaving a legacy of trauma and suffering for the Syrian people.
Despite the overthrow of the former government last month, agony persists for tens of thousands of families who did not find their missing relatives among the freed prisoners. The discovery of additional mass graves has led many families to conclude the worst.
The report underscores the urgent need for decisive action to safeguard evidence, archives, and crime sites, including mass graves, until experts can examine them and where needed conduct forensic exhumations.
In December and January, two Commission teams visited mass graves and former State detention centres in the Damascus area, including the notorious First Military Prison (Sednaya), Military Intelligence Branch 235 (Palestine) and the Air Force Intelligence Branches in Mezzeh and Harasta. They found that while much of the evidence and documentation in detention facilities had been burnt or destroyed, significant amounts remained.
“For Syrians who did not find their loved ones among the freed, this evidence, alongside testimonies of freed detainees, may be their best hope to uncover the truth about missing relatives," said Commissioner Lynn Welchman. “We commend the new authorities for their commitment to protecting mass graves and evidence and encourage further efforts, with the support of relevant Syrian civil society and international actors.”
The report reveals in gruesome detail the patterns of torture and cruel, degrading, inhumane treatment that former State forces inflicted on detained men, women, boys, and girls. These include severe beatings, electric shocks, burning, pulling out nails, damaging teeth, rape, sexual violence including mutilation, prolonged stress positions, deliberate neglect and denial of medical care, exacerbating wounds, and psychological torture.
Survivors and witnesses have described to the Commission how prisoners suffering from torture injuries, malnutrition, disease and illness were left to die slowly, in agonizing pain, or were taken away to be executed. Food rations were meagre or contaminated, there was lack of potable water and sufficient clothing, and insufficient space to even lie down to sleep, on cold floors with just a blanket for a mattress. Survivors reported the practice of leaving corpses in communal cells for days.
Tiny, windowless basement isolation cells were still filled with stench and marked by unimaginable suffering when the Commission initiated its first on-site investigations. The locations visited were consistent with descriptions that hundreds of survivors and defectors have provided to the Commission over the past 14 years.
Having been granted access to Syria for the first time since 2011 by the new caretaker government, the Commission plans to deepen its investigations in coming months, given unprecedented access to sites and survivors, who no longer fear reprisals for providing their testimonies.
“Cases brought before national courts outside Syria, relying on the principle of universal jurisdiction, have led to important convictions of mid- and lower-level perpetrators of war crimes and crimes against humanity,” said Commissioner Hanny Megally. “We now hope to see credible national justice initiatives, in which survivors and families can play a central role. We stand ready to assist alongside Syrian human rights and family associations and our UN partners, including the International, Impartial and Independent Mechanism (IIIM) and the Independent Institution on Missing Persons in the Syrian Arab Republic (IIMP).
ENDS
Note: Due to resource constraints, the publication of this report was significantly delayed and is only available in English at present. It is being translated and will be released in Arabic as soon as possible. The Commission’s findings from 14 years of investigations also document similarly egregious practices by non-state armed groups within their areas of control throughout the conflict, see e.g. this report from 2021 and this from 2023.
Background: The Independent International Commission of Inquiry on the Syrian Arab Republic comprises Paulo Sergio Pinheiro, Hanny Megally and Lynn Welchman. The Commission was established on 22 August 2011 by the Human Rights Council through resolution S-17/1. The mandate of the Commission is to investigate all alleged violations of international human rights law since March 2011 in the Syrian Arab Republic. The Human Rights Council also tasked the Commission with establishing the facts and circumstances that may amount to such violations and of the crimes perpetrated and, where possible, to identify those responsible with a view of ensuring that perpetrators of violations, including those that may constitute crimes against humanity, are held accountable. The Human Rights Council has repeatedly extended the Commission's mandate since then, most recently until 31 March 2025.
More information on the work of the UN Commission of Inquiry on Syria can be found here.
For media requests, please contact: Johan Eriksson, UN Syria Commission of Inquiry Media Adviser, at +41 76 691 0411 / johan.eriksson@un.org ; or Todd Pitman, Media Adviser, Investigative Missions, at +41766911761 / todd.pitman@un.org ; Pascal Sim, Human Rights Council Media Officer at +41229179763 / simp@un.org.