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Syrian Network for Human Rights

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Syrian Network for Human Rights
الشبكة السورية لحقوق الإنسان
AbbreviationSNHR
FoundedJune 2011 (2011-06)
FounderFadel Abdul Ghany[1]
TypeNGO[2]
FocusHuman rights[3]
Websitesnhr.org

The Syrian Network for Human Rights (SNHR, Arabic: الشبكة السورية لحقوق الإنسان) is a UK-based[2][6][7] independent monitoring group,[8][9][10] which monitors casualties and briefs various United Nations agencies.[11] It monitors Syrian casualties of all the parties in the Syrian civil war.[12] The SNHR was founded in June 2011 by Fadel Abdul Ghany, who is the chairman of the board of directors.[13] Members have been detained, and many now live outside Syria.[1]

Its reports have been cited by news media,[14][2] non-governmental organizations,[15][16] as well as by the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights.[17][18]

The SNHR's independence has been called into question since the fall of the Assad regime, with allegations that the organization is influenced by Turkey.[19] These allegations came after the SNHR failed to report the deaths of Kurdish civilians killed by the Turkish Armed Forces and Turkish-backed Syrian National Army (SNA) in its December 2024 civilian death report.[20] The organization excluded Kurdish journalists killed in Turkish airstrikes from its documentation of attacks on media workers,[21][22][23] and the report made no mention of the SNA's revenge operations against Kurdish civilians documented by the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.[20][24] The SNHR's January 2025 report also omitted civilian deaths caused by Turkish and SNA bombardment, including drone strikes on ambulances that killed 3 paramedics and a Turkish airstrike on a public market that killed 13 civilians.[25][26][27]

Accuracy and concerns over independence

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Documentation of deaths in detention

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In 2018, The Violations Documentation Center in Syria (VDC) counted nearly 9,500 deaths in detention since 2011, compared to over 13,000 counted by the SNHR.[28] The VDC acknowledged its estimates were more conservative than the SNHR as its methodology was to only document deaths once information like the name of the victims and the circumstances surrounding their deaths were confirmed.[28]

As of May 2019, according to the SNHR, nearly 128,000 people have never emerged from Bashar al-Assad's secret network of prisons – and nearly 14,000 were killed by torture.[8][9] The New York Times reported that the SNHR's tally, described as the most rigorous, was probably an undercount.[8] Anne Barnard of The New York Times was asked how the SNHR compiled their figures.[9] Barnard said the reason they were considered the most rigorous and reliably conservative numbers is their numbers were actual counts of reports they received, and they were not extrapolations or estimates.[9] Barnard said a death had to be reported by a family member or a direct witness and they did not take third party accounts.[9] She added that they took phone calls and had a form on their website, and then they went through and verified what they could in the detailed report.[9] They also went back and called people listed as possible family members of people who were missing for a long time to find out if they were still missing.[9]

It has been used a source in reports by Amnesty International and the US State Department.[29]

Allegations of Turkish influence

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On 2 January 2025, the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) issued a statement accusing the SNHR of hiding the crimes of Turkey and the Turkish-backed SNA, and alleging that the SNHR's information sharing is directed by Turkey.[19] This came after the SNHR published its December 2024 civilian death report, in which it accused the SDF of killing 108 civilians in the month of December while only attributing 8 civilian deaths to all Syrian opposition forces including the SNA, and 9 civilian deaths to Turkey.[20] These numbers substantially differed from other independent monitoring organizations. The Rojava Information Center documented the killing of 69 civilian by Turkish and SNA forces in the month of December 2024,[30] and the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (SOHR) reported the killing of 35 civilians by Turkey and Turkish-backed factions on 9 December and 10 December alone.[31][32]

In January 2025, the SNHR documented a total of 24 civilians killed by Turkish and SNA forces.[27] This number was also substantially lower than the SOHR's report, which documented a total of 52 civilians killed by Turkey and Turkish-backed forces in January.[33][34] The SNHR's January report[27] did not document the deaths of civilians in several Turkish attacks, including a Turkish drone strike on a public market that killed 13 civilians on 28 January 2025.[26][35]

The SNHR monthly reports also excluded Turkish and SNA attacks on journalists and medical infrastructure and personnel in December 2024 and January 2025. The killing of two Kurdish journalists by a Turkish drone strike on 20 December 2024[36][37] was not included in the SNHR's documentation of attacks on media workers in December.[23] The SNHR's January 2025 report[27] made no mention of the Turkish and SNA strikes on ambulances that killed 3 paramedics during protests against the Turkish offensive,[25] which were characterized as apparent war crimes by Human Rights Watch.[38] The SNHR report documented the killing of 17 protestors in Turkish airstrikes, a lower number than reported by local health authorities,[25] and accused the SDF of using the protestors as human shields.[27] These accusations have been repeated by the Turkish government, and have been challenged by local residents and other human rights organizations.[38] Human Rights Watch verified videos of the strikes and could not identify any visible military targets or weapons in the immediate vicinity of the protest.[38]

The SDF denied the SNHR's reports in which it accused the SDF of executing civilians in the Manbij area, claiming that the SNHR is using systematic disinformation to obscure the crimes committed by Turkey and its mercenaries.[19] The SNA captured Manbij from SDF forces in December 2024 after launching the Manbij offensive. The SNHR's December report[20] attributed every killing in SNA-controlled Manbij to SDF forces, and made no mention of the SNA's revenge operations in which the SNA carried out executions, kidnappings and assaulted properties of nearly 30,000 Kurdish families in Manbij.[39][40]

Governance

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SNHR is registered as a non-profit limited liability company in the United Kingdom, and a non-profit organization in the United States.[29] It is governed by a board of directors with five members and its executive director manages seven divisions.[29] As of 2019, it has 27 full-time employees as well as over 70 volunteers.[29]

References

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  1. ^ a b Specia, Megan (April 13, 2018). "How Syria’s Death Toll Is Lost in the Fog of War" Archived 2019-08-10 at the Wayback Machine The New York Times.
  2. ^ a b c Tran, Mark (2015-12-03). "Beyond the military jargon: who will monitor airstrikes in Syria?". The Guardian. ISSN 0261-3077. Archived from the original on 2023-01-10. Retrieved 2016-01-18.
  3. ^ Osborne. Samuel (October 7, 2015). "Syrian government forces responsible for more civilian deaths than Isis, human rights group claims" Archived 2020-01-03 at the Wayback Machine The Independent.
  4. ^ a b c d e "Organizational Structure" (PDF), Syrian Network for Human Rights, archived from the original (PDF) on 2020-07-12, retrieved 2020-08-10
  5. ^ Al-Khalidi, Suleiman (April 7, 2020). "Syria slow to free prisoners despite coronavirus risk in crowded jails: rights groups" Archived 2020-04-08 at the Wayback Machine Reuters.
  6. ^ Naylor, Hugh (September 5, 2015). "Islamic State has killed many Syrians, but Assad’s forces have killed more" Archived 2020-06-11 at the Wayback Machine Washington Post.
  7. ^ "Safe No More: Students and Schools under Attack in Syria" Archived 2020-10-26 at the Wayback Machine Human Rights Watch.
  8. ^ a b c Barnard, Anne (May 11, 2019). "Inside Syria’s Secret Torture Prisons: How Bashar al-Assad Crushed Dissent" Archived 2023-01-10 at the Wayback Machine The New York Times.
  9. ^ a b c d e f g Chotiner, Isaac (May 13, 2019). "A Times Reporter Documents the Horror of Syria’s Torture Sites" Archived 2020-08-13 at the Wayback Machine The New Yorker.
  10. ^ Lynch, Colum (January 13, 2016). "The War Over Syria’s War Dead" Archived 2020-04-05 at the Wayback Machine Foreign Policy.
  11. ^ Al-Khalidi, Suleiman (July 7, 2019). "Russian-led assault in Syria leaves over 500 civilians dead: rights groups, rescuers" Archived 2019-11-02 at the Wayback Machine Reuters.
  12. ^ Roberts, Rachel (April 3, 2017). "US-led coalition killed more Syrian civilians than Isis or Russia in March, figures show" Archived 2020-03-29 at the Wayback Machine The Independent.
  13. ^ "About Us" Archived 2023-01-10 at the Wayback Machine Syrian Network for Human Rights.
  14. ^ Shoumali, Karam; Barnard, Anne (2014-10-01). "ISIS Takes a Kurdish Village in Syria as Car Bombs Kill Dozens in Homs". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Archived from the original on 2014-10-06. Retrieved 2016-01-18.
  15. ^ "Syria 2019: Everything you need to know about human rights in Syria" Archived 2017-12-28 at the Wayback Machine Amnesty International.
  16. ^ "World Report 2017: Syria" Archived 2019-06-11 at the Wayback Machine Human Rights Watch.
  17. ^ "Pillay castigates "paralysis" on Syria, as new UN study indicates over 191,000 people killed". United Nations Human Rights Office of the High Commissioner. 2014-08-22. Archived from the original on 2023-01-10. Retrieved 2018-09-07.
  18. ^ "Statement to the Security Council by the High Commissioner on Human Rights on Missing Persons" Archived 2023-01-10 at the Wayback Machine OHCHR.
  19. ^ a b c "Statement on misleading information published by the so-called "Syrian Network for Human Rights"". SDF Press. 1 January 2025. Retrieved 2025-02-13.
  20. ^ a b c d "1,264 Civilian Deaths, Including 242 Children and 118 Women, as well as 86 Deaths due to Torture, Documented in Syria in 2024 | Syrian Network for Human Rights". snhr.org. Retrieved 2025-02-13.
  21. ^ "2 Kurdish journalists killed in suspected Turkish drone attack in northern Syria". Committee to Protect Journalists. 20 December 2024.
  22. ^ "Targeting of journalists and obstruction of information-gathering by Turkey and the SNA in northern Syria". Rojava Information Center. 7 January 2025.
  23. ^ a b "503 Civilians Deaths; Including 96 Children and 49 Women, as well as Four Deaths due to Torture, Including One Woman and One Child; Documented in December 2024". SNHR. 2 January 2025. The report documents the killing of six media workers in 2024, all of whom were also killed in December 2024, with five of them killed by Assad regime forces and one by SDF.
  24. ^ "Identity-based liquidation operations in Manbij: Turkish-backed factions loot Kurdish properties and humiliate the people of Kurdish neighborhoods". Syrian Observatory for Human Rights. 10 December 2024.
  25. ^ a b c "Protests and bloodshed at Tishreen Dam, the Syrian war's last faultline". Middle East Eye. Retrieved 2025-02-13.
  26. ^ a b "Killing 13 civilians, including four children, and injuring 20 others | Turkish drones commit horrific massacre in Aleppo countryside". Syrian Observatory for Human Rights. 29 January 2025.
  27. ^ a b c d e "236 Civilian Deaths, Including 32 Children and 18 Women, as well as One Woman's Death due to Torture, Documented in Syria in January 2025, 21 Civilians Were Killed by SDF". SNHR. 1 February 2025.
  28. ^ a b "As Assad claims victory in Syrian civil war, families learn fates of disappeared loved ones" Archived 2020-03-29 at the Wayback Machine The Intercept. September 10, 2018.
  29. ^ a b c d Owens, K. (2018). "Improving the Odds: Strengthening the Prospects for Accountability in the Syrian Conflict by Regulating the Marketplace for Information on Atrocity Crimes Archived 2023-01-10 at the Wayback Machine." U. Miami Int'l & Comp. L. Rev., 26, 369.
  30. ^ "Update December 30 – Heavy Fighting in Manbij Countryside as NES Death Toll Tops 250 – Rojava Information Center". 2024-12-30. Retrieved 2025-02-13.
  31. ^ "Daily death toll | 80 people killed on December 9 across Syria - The Syrian Observatory For Human Rights". 2024-12-09. Retrieved 2025-02-13.
  32. ^ "Daily death toll | 198 people killed on December 10 across Syria - The Syrian Observatory For Human Rights". 2024-12-10. Retrieved 2025-02-13.
  33. ^ "Turkish attacks kill 52 civilians around Aleppo, says human rights organisation". Medya News. 2025-02-03. Retrieved 2025-02-13.
  34. ^ user8 (2025-02-02). "Turkish escalation in January | 392 people, including civilians, killed in military operations in east Aleppo countryside - The Syrian Observatory For Human Rights". Retrieved 2025-02-13. {{cite web}}: |last= has generic name (help)CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (link)
  35. ^ user8 (2025-01-29). "Hours after committing horrific massacre | Turkish forces attack positions near convoy of civilian near Teshreen dam - The Syrian Observatory For Human Rights". Retrieved 2025-02-13. {{cite web}}: |last= has generic name (help)CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (link)
  36. ^ Presse, AFP-Agence France. "Two Journalists Killed In North Syria By 'Turkish Drone'". barrons. Retrieved 2025-02-13.
  37. ^ "2 Kurdish journalists killed in suspected Turkish drone attack in northern Syria". Committee to Protect Journalists. 2024-12-20. Retrieved 2025-02-13.
  38. ^ a b c "Northeast Syria: Apparent War Crime by Türkiye-Backed Forces | Human Rights Watch". 2025-01-30. Retrieved 2025-02-13.
  39. ^ "عمليات تصفية على الهوية في منبج.. الفصائل الموالية لتركيا تعفش ممتلكات الكرد وتهين أبناء الأحياء الكردية - المرصد السوري لحقوق الإنسان" (in Arabic). 2024-12-10. Retrieved 2025-02-13.
  40. ^ "Update December 11 – Turkish/SNA attacks on NES ongoing despite Manbij ceasefire – Rojava Information Center". 2024-12-11. Retrieved 2025-02-13.
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