Published : 20-08-2022
The Syrian Network for Human Rights (SNHR) issued a report entitled “The Syrian Regime, Through Its Security Services and State Institutions, Controls the Incidents of Registering the Deaths of Victims Killed/’Disappeared’ in the Armed Conflict Since March 2011”, in which it notes that the Syrian regime has killed at least 200,391 civilians, including 14,464 due to torture, and forcibly disappeared 95,696 others since March 2011.
The 11-page report reveals that the Syrian regime has refrained from issuing death certificates to its victims’ families with the exception of a very few cases, regardless of the additional trauma and suffering this causes to the families of those killed.
It said the regime not only kills its victims, but even denies their families the small dignity of issuing a death certificate for them, amplifying the suffering of their family members, often for many years, given the repercussions of a person’s ‘disappearance’ on their spouse, children, parents, siblings, and other family members.
SNHR said part of this additional suffering results from the need to obtain a ‘devolution of inheritance’ document for any deceased person in order to dispose of this or her property, and to ensure that the deceased’s spouse and children are legally eligible to claim any retirement pension due to him or her. This document is also essential in enabling a deceased man’s widow, to request that she be appointed by a Sharia judge as a guardian of their minor children and to allow her to obtain passports for them and obtain any travel visas. Failure to register the death incident also deprives a widow of the opportunity for remarriage, and of other social and legal benefits and rights.
The report provides details of three methods used by the Syrian regime to register and confirm the deaths of some of the citizens who were subjected to extra-judicial killing at its hands due to the internal armed conflict; First, those victims whose families have not yet been able to obtain a death certificate to confirm their loved ones’ demise, even one which does not mention the cause of death or name the responsible party, or even gives another reason for the death, for fear of the security repercussions on the family members, who desperately need these death certificates; second, victims of arbitrary arrest, with the Syrian regime and the other parties to the conflict having arrested at least 154,398 inpiduals, 111,907 of whom have been forcibly disappeared. Throughout the years of detention, the detainees are subjected to the most horrific methods of torture, which have caused the deaths of 14,464 due to torture. Thousands of people who were killed under torture have not been registered as deceased within the official state agencies, with the fate of 95,696 forcibly disappeared persons remaining unknown to the present day; the third method is related to registering the death of missing persons, through these deaths being registered after the passage of four years or more since the person was first documented as missing.
The report stresses that understanding the implementation of any decree/law/circular/decision issued by the Syrian regime cannot be treated as being independent of the unlimited powers and authority of the security services, who are the main controller of all other institutions and authorities.
The report concludes that the Syrian regime continues to issue legislation, laws, and decrees that violate the fundamental rights of citizens and ensure that death registration is done under the supervision and absolute control of the regime’s security services. The regime often gives a false cause of death; It is impossible to obtain any official death certificate stating the true cause, i.e., that the Syrian regime arrested the victim, who subsequently died due to torture in a regime detention center, or that he or she was killed by the Syrian regime’s strikes with barrel bombs or chemical weapons.
The report calls on the UN Security Council and United Nations to hold a meeting to discuss the fate of tens of thousands of Syrians killed or forcibly disappeared by the regime, whose fate the regime has not revealed, who are treated as though they had vanished from existence into nothingness, and to work seriously to achieve a political transition towards a state of democracy and respect for human rights, which will contribute to revealing the fate of hundreds of thousands of Syrians, and constitute a starting point for preserving the rights of the victims.
The Syrian Network for Human Rights (SNHR) issued a report entitled “The Syrian Regime, Through Its Security Services and State Institutions, Controls the Incidents of Registering the Deaths of Victims Killed/’Disappeared’ in the Armed Conflict Since March 2011”, in which it notes that the Syrian regime has killed at least 200,391 civilians, including 14,464 due to torture, and forcibly disappeared 95,696 others since March 2011.
The 11-page report reveals that the Syrian regime has refrained from issuing death certificates to its victims’ families with the exception of a very few cases, regardless of the additional trauma and suffering this causes to the families of those killed.
It said the regime not only kills its victims, but even denies their families the small dignity of issuing a death certificate for them, amplifying the suffering of their family members, often for many years, given the repercussions of a person’s ‘disappearance’ on their spouse, children, parents, siblings, and other family members.
SNHR said part of this additional suffering results from the need to obtain a ‘devolution of inheritance’ document for any deceased person in order to dispose of this or her property, and to ensure that the deceased’s spouse and children are legally eligible to claim any retirement pension due to him or her. This document is also essential in enabling a deceased man’s widow, to request that she be appointed by a Sharia judge as a guardian of their minor children and to allow her to obtain passports for them and obtain any travel visas. Failure to register the death incident also deprives a widow of the opportunity for remarriage, and of other social and legal benefits and rights.
The report provides details of three methods used by the Syrian regime to register and confirm the deaths of some of the citizens who were subjected to extra-judicial killing at its hands due to the internal armed conflict; First, those victims whose families have not yet been able to obtain a death certificate to confirm their loved ones’ demise, even one which does not mention the cause of death or name the responsible party, or even gives another reason for the death, for fear of the security repercussions on the family members, who desperately need these death certificates; second, victims of arbitrary arrest, with the Syrian regime and the other parties to the conflict having arrested at least 154,398 inpiduals, 111,907 of whom have been forcibly disappeared. Throughout the years of detention, the detainees are subjected to the most horrific methods of torture, which have caused the deaths of 14,464 due to torture. Thousands of people who were killed under torture have not been registered as deceased within the official state agencies, with the fate of 95,696 forcibly disappeared persons remaining unknown to the present day; the third method is related to registering the death of missing persons, through these deaths being registered after the passage of four years or more since the person was first documented as missing.
The report stresses that understanding the implementation of any decree/law/circular/decision issued by the Syrian regime cannot be treated as being independent of the unlimited powers and authority of the security services, who are the main controller of all other institutions and authorities.
The report concludes that the Syrian regime continues to issue legislation, laws, and decrees that violate the fundamental rights of citizens and ensure that death registration is done under the supervision and absolute control of the regime’s security services. The regime often gives a false cause of death; It is impossible to obtain any official death certificate stating the true cause, i.e., that the Syrian regime arrested the victim, who subsequently died due to torture in a regime detention center, or that he or she was killed by the Syrian regime’s strikes with barrel bombs or chemical weapons.
The report calls on the UN Security Council and United Nations to hold a meeting to discuss the fate of tens of thousands of Syrians killed or forcibly disappeared by the regime, whose fate the regime has not revealed, who are treated as though they had vanished from existence into nothingness, and to work seriously to achieve a political transition towards a state of democracy and respect for human rights, which will contribute to revealing the fate of hundreds of thousands of Syrians, and constitute a starting point for preserving the rights of the victims.
