From the UNHRC Report released in February 2016
Legal Findings and Conclusions83. Many parties to the Syrian conflict have committed serious violations of the rights
of detainees, including the right to life. Further crimes and violations have ensued in the
context of arrests, imprisonment and other forms of deprivation of liberty. Based on the
findings in this report, the commission makes the following legal conclusions:
Government of the Syrian Arab Republic
Human rights violations
84. In their treatment of detainees, the conduct of Government forces amounts to
violations of the right to life through the commission of or failure to prevent killings,
summary executions, and implementation of the death penalty without a fair trial. The
Government has furthermore violated the right to life by failing to conduct independent,
comprehensive and transparent investigations of each individual death in State custody.
85. Government forces and agencies in control of detention facilities are responsible for
torture, degrading and inhuman treatment including rape and other forms of sexual
violence.
86. Detainees in State custody were subjected to arbitrary or unlawful detention as they
were held for prolonged periods without access to a lawyer or afforded the opportunity to
legally challenge the bases of their detention. Other detentions of civilians were rendered
arbitrary or unlawful as their main purpose appears to have been to punish or obtain
information through the use of torture. Information obtained from detainees under duress,
including during the use of torture or threats of rape or other violence against family
members, was frequently used as grounds for the arrest and detention of others, in violation
of international human rights law.
Violations of international humanitarian law
87. When committed after the start of the non-international armed conflict, the
violations above constitute breaches of applicable international humanitarian law, including
Article 3 common to the Geneva Conventions, which prohibits murder, summary
executions, mutilation, torture, rape, outrages upon personal dignity and other inhuman
treatment.
International criminal law
88. Through its widespread conduct of mass arrests, arbitrary arrests and enforced
disappearance, victimising the general civilian population living in restive areas and
persons otherwise perceived to be in opposition to the Government, and the ensuing ill
treatment and killing of those detained, Government forces have engaged in the multiple
commissions of crimes, amounting to a systematic and widespread attack against a civilian
population. In the context of the armed conflict in the Syrian Arab Republic, the number of
civilians targeted with arbitrary detention and enforced disappearance and subsequent
violations, in contravention of international humanitarian law and without any lawful
military justification, suggests that the civilian population as such is the primary object of
that attack.
89. The acts were committed in pursuance of a policy to target civilians broadly
perceived as associated with the opposition, evidenced by the systematic occurrence of
crimes across geographic areas. The existence of a State policy is further demonstrated by
the fact that significant State resources were employed in the commission of the crimes and
the way in which numerous State institutions throughout the country actively participated
and coordinated operations at various levels of the sequential conduct, during which
custodial deaths and other crimes occurred. Military and civilian courts consistently failed
to order investigations into cases where detainees appearing before a judge were visibly illtreated,
sometimes displaying severe injuries, and in cases of deaths in custody.
90. The role of State institutions, namely the intelligence agencies and armed forces, and
their leadership in actively executing mass arrests, transfers of detainees, their ill treatment
and torture, and subsequent issuance of death certificates to misrepresent the circumstances
of death in an effort to conceal detainee abuse, demonstrate the existence of State policy
and commonality of criminal purpose.
91. Guards of each detention facility were often made aware of prisoners in critically ill
health, yet mostly failed to provide or request medical assistance. Guards removed the
bodies of deceased prisoners from the cells on a regular basis, and deaths were reported to
the Head of the branch. This demonstrates that staff and commanders were aware of the
numbers of deaths caused by the prison conditions inflicted on the prison population.
92. Prison conditions were largely consistent over the course of four and a half years
across multiple detention facilities, and were allowed to continue without superiors taking
effective action to prevent their consequences. The high number of killings, as well as other
deaths occurring in the ordinary course of events following torture, poor prison conditions
or from medical neglect, must also have been known to those exercising effective control
and responsibility over the detention facilities. However, between 2011 and 2015, the
treatment of detainees and prison conditions remained unchanged in most detention
facilities, and in some cases have worsened since the beginning of the Syrian uprising,
causing more detainees to die.
93. Information suggests that deaths of detainees were meticulously reported up the
chain of command in several detention facilities of intelligence directorates, and that the
superiors of the detention facilities and intelligence directorates were aware of the deaths
occurring. Information on those that died was also conveyed to the Military Police, who
sometimes informed families. Information also suggests that rather than surrendering the
bodies of the dead to their families, detainees were buried anonymously in mass graves.
94. A centralised system is in place to register deaths of detainees in Governmentcontrolled
detention facilities, with deaths being regularly reported in from security
directorates to the Military Police corps of the Syrian Army. As the custodian of this
information, the Military Police has made partial information on deaths available to some
families of the victims. As a result, deaths occurring in prisons have become widely known
in Syria, and owing to the circumstances of the on-going conflict and widespread
allegations, must have been known among military superiors at the highest levels.
95. Civilian superiors, similarly, have knowledge of the crimes being committed by
their subordinates or, at the very least, were aware of credible allegations of such crimes,
both in the military hierarchy and the civilian leadership of relevant institutions, or have
consciously disregarded such information.
96. The killings and deaths described in this report occurred with high frequency, over a
long period of time and in multiple locations, with significant logistical support involving
vast State resources. They occurred with the knowledge of prison personnel and their
superiors, as well as that of high-ranking State officials in central military hospitals and the
Military Police corps of the Syrian armed forces.
97. Given the above, it is apparent that the Government authorities administering
prisons and detention centres were aware that deaths on a massive scale were occurring.
The accumulated custodial deaths were brought about by inflicting life conditions in a
calculated awareness that such conditions would cause mass deaths of detainees in the
ordinary course of events, and occurred in the pursuance of a State policy to attack a
civilian population.9 There are reasonable grounds to believe that the conduct described
amounts to extermination as a crime against humanity.
98. The commission further finds that the Government is responsible for the crimes
against humanity of murder, rape or other forms of sexual violence, torture, imprisonment
or other severe deprivation of physical liberty in violation of fundamental rules of
international law, enforced disappearance and other inhuman acts.
99. The commission’s factual findings further provide reasonable grounds to believe
that, in relation to relevant conduct occurring after the start of the armed conflict, the
Government has committed the war crimes of murder, cruel treatment, torture, rape, sexual
violence, and outrages upon personal dignity.
http://www.ohchr.org/Documents/HRBodies ... RP1_en.pdf
