COI report to Human Rights Council on the situation in Syria

In the present report, submitted to the Human Rights Council pursuant to its resolution 46/22, the Independent International Commission of Inquiry on the Syrian Arab Republic presents its findings based on investigations conducted between 1 July 2021 and 31 December 2021. The report documents grave violations of fundamental human rights and humanitarian law across the country. They range from a bride killed at her wedding along with four young sisters to the siege in Dar‘a al-Balad, by pro-government forces. They also include the continued incommunicado detention and/or disappearance of tens of thousands of Syrians and the Government’s failure to inform families of their fate. In north-eastern Syrian Arab Republic, nearly 60,000 individuals, mainly women and children, are interned in camps in the direst of conditions; in northern Syrian Arab Republic, the Syrian National Army and Hay’at Tahrir al-Sham seize and occupy displaced civilians’ private property; and in Afrin multiple deaths and injuries were caused by the detonation of a vehicle-borne improvised explosive device in a vegetable market. Throughout the country, Syrians are prevented from speaking freely and are at risk of being arbitrarily detained, and Hay’at Tahrir al-Sham is specifically curtailing women’s freedoms. The crisis in the Syrian Arab Republic is exacerbated by the presence of five foreign militaries, various non-State armed groups and United Nations-designated terrorist entities. The economy is in freefall: an estimated 90 per cent of the population is living below the poverty line, and the national currency lost close to 80 per cent of its value in 2021. Seven million Syrians are internally displaced and seven million are refugees.