Torture, cruelty and ill-treatment in Syria by groups linked to Turkey

The United Nations Independent International Commission of Inquiry on the Syrian Arab Republic presented its report “No Endin Sight: Torture and ill-treatment in the Syrian Arab Republic 2020-2023”. The report addresses the ongoing systematic torture, cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment and enforced disappearances in detention facilities in Syria between 1 January 2020 and 30 April 2023. Based on 254 interviews conducted between 2020 and 2023, the report focuses specifically on cases of torture and ill-treatment in Syrian government detention facilities and in areas controlled by armed groups.

The report, which highlights that it includes state-level accountability for various human rights violations, also provides detailed data on the types of torture and ill-treatment used, including beatings, electric shocks, sexual violence and inhumane conditions in detention facilities. In addition, the Syrian National Army (SNA) and the armed groups that have emerged from it have been operating in parts of northern and eastern Syria since 2016 following Turkish-led operations, in Afrin since 2018, and in the east of the Euphrates since 2019, including in Raqqa and Heseke.

According to the UN report, the SNA has committed numerous war crimes, including torture and cruel treatment, hostage-taking, sexual violence and enforced disappearances. Facilities where such violations have been documented since 2020 include prisons and temporary facilities operated by individual factions of the SNA (including Suleiman Shah, Hamza, Sultan Murad, Ahrar al-Sham, Ahrar al-Sharqiyah, Faylaq al-Sham and Muhammad al-Fatih). Other cases, also documented since 2020, are in SDF-controlled facilities such as Al Sinaa prison and al-Hol and al-Roj camps, where ISIS fighters are held.

The report further states that while many women have been subjected to sexual violence, rape, threats of rape, sexual torture, harassment and humiliation, the majority of men have been subjected to sexual violence in Syrian government detention facilities. It also includes cases of deaths in custody, highlighting that some detainees were severely beaten and never seen again, possibly killed. The UN notes that cases of enforced disappearances still continue in Syria, with some detainees in SNA-controlled facilities dying as a result of torture. In particular, it cites the death of a Kurdish lawyer in SNA civil police custody in December 2022 and the death of another person in Ahrar al-Sham custody in October 2022. There is also extensive documentation of sexual violence in SNA-controlled facilities.