A/HRC/31/CRP.1

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Human Rights Council
Thirty-first session
Agenda item 4
Human rights situations that require the Council’s attention

Out of Sight, Out of Mind: Deaths in Detention in the Syrian
Arab Republic*
Summary
In the Syrian Arab Republic, massive and systematised violence – including the
killing of detainees in official and makeshift detention centres – has taken place out of sight,
far from the battlefield. This paper examines the killing of detainees occurring between 10
March 2011 and 30 November 2015. Its findings are based on 621 interviews, as well as
considerable documentary material.
Detainees held by the Government were beaten to death, or died as a result of injuries
sustained due to torture. Others perished as a consequence of inhuman living conditions. The
Government has committed the crimes against humanity of extermination, murder, rape or
other forms of sexual violence, torture, imprisonment, enforced disappearance and other
inhuman acts. Based on the same conduct, war crimes have also been committed.
Some anti-Government armed groups established makeshift places of detention where
captured Government soldiers were ill treated, and executed. Others were summarily executed
following illicit trials. Some individuals taken hostage have died while held by armed groups.
Jabhat Al-Nusra has set up detention facilities in Idlib where deaths in detention were
documented. The terrorist group also conducted mass executions of captured Government
soldiers. Both Jabhat Al-Nusra and some anti-Government armed groups have committed the
war crimes of murder, cruel treatment, and torture.
ISIS subjected detainees to serious abuses, including torture and summary executions.
Detainees were frequently executed after unauthorised courts issued a death sentence. ISIS has
committed the crimes against humanity of murder and torture, and war crimes.
Accountability for these and other crimes must form part of any political solution. The
situation of detainees is critical, and represents an urgent and large-scale crisis of human rights
protection. Urgent steps must be taken by the Syrian Government, armed groups, external
backers, and the wider international community to prevent further deaths.

*

Reproduced as received.

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I.

Introduction
1.
In the Syrian Arab Republic, massive and systematised violence – including the
killing of detainees in official and makeshift detention centres – has taken place out of
sight, far from the raging battlefield. These are deaths for which military necessity cannot
be invoked as a legal justification. Deaths in custody continue to occur in near-total secrecy
and are largely lost to the international public and political discourse surrounding the
violence of the conflict, in spite of their devastating impact on the lives of hundreds of
thousands of Syrians.
2.
This paper examines the killing of detainees occurring between 10 March 2011 and
30 November 2015. Its findings are based on 621 interviews, as well as considerable
documentary material, detailing the rampant use of torture and inhuman conditions of
detention. Over 200 interviews are drawn from former detainees present at the deaths of
cellmates. Other interviewees include family members who were informed by Government
officials that the detainee had died. In the case of deaths occurring in facilities run by the
Government, those who worked inside detention centres or prisons have provided
corroborating accounts of events and command structures inside.
3.
The Government of the Syrian Arab Republic has consistently denied the
commission and other international human rights monitoring organizations unfettered
access to its territory. This has effectively prevented any internationally mandated
organization, including the United Nations, from documenting the total number of civilians
killed in the conflict, as well as the number of persons subjected to enforced disappearance
or held by the Government or by armed groups and terrorist organizations.
4.
Eyewitness accounts and documentary evidence strongly suggest, however, that tens
of thousands of people are detained by the Syrian Government at any one time. Thousands
more have disappeared after initial arrest by State forces or while moving through
Government-held territory, or have gone missing after abduction by armed groups. The
accounts of hundreds of surviving detainees, notably those held in facilities controlled by
the Syrian intelligence agencies, paint a terrifying picture of the magnitude of the violations
taking place.
5.
As armed groups and terrorist organizations have come in control of territory, they
have also held prisoners under the most brutal conditions. The so-called Islamic State of
Iraq and Al-Sham (ISIS), is known to illegally hold a large, unknown number of detainees
for extended periods in multiple locations, subjecting many to torture and routinely
conducting summary executions. Jabhat Al-Nusra and anti-Government armed groups
control places of detention, holding Government soldiers as well as civilians. The torture
and deaths of detainees have been recorded in some of these facilities.
6.
The situation of detainees in Syria is critical, and represents an urgent and largescale crisis of human rights protection. With thousands of persons still in custody, urgent
steps need to be taken by the Syrian Government, armed groups, the external backers of
various belligerents, and the wider international community to prevent further deaths.

II.

Applicable Law
7.
International human rights law and humanitarian law impose clear obligations on
States and, during war, all parties to non-international conflicts for the treatment and
protection of all persons in their custody. Detainees must be treated humanely and protected
from violence or life-threatening conditions, including from any form of torture or ill
treatment. Medical care and sufficient food are to be provided.

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8.
International human rights jurisprudence establishes that the burden is primarily on
the State to prove that the death of a person in its custody did not result from acts or
omissions attributable to it. This follows from the high level of control exercised by State
authorities over the custodial environment and applies to deaths occurring in civilian
prisons as well as in detention facilities under the control of the military or security
apparatus. All deaths of detainees in State custody must therefore be the subject of an
independent, transparent and comprehensive investigation. Failure to conduct such an
investigation may in and of itself incur the responsibility of the State for the death of the
victim.
9.
The prohibition of summary and extrajudicial executions or killings applies
regardless of detainees’ status or of any offenses with which they may be charged.
Sanctions may only be imposed after a trial conducted in accordance with due process
standards. Both international human rights and humanitarian law contain rules ensuring that
criminal justice is not carried out in secret. Detainees have the right to challenge the legality
of their detention, to be informed of charges brought against them and to be represented by
counsel.
10.
These obligations are non-derogable and apply in situations of armed conflict as
well as in times of peace. They are indispensable to prevent impunity for the deaths of
prisoners, persons held incommunicado and victims of enforced disappearance. They form
core principles for safeguarding the right to life.
11.
Article 3 common to the 1949 Geneva Conventions, to which the Syrian Arab
Republic is a State party, and other international customary law applicable in armed
conflict outlaw murder, torture, and execution without due process. These obligations are
binding on all non-State armed groups and State agents taking part in hostilities. Non-State
armed groups, and nationals of foreign governments participating in hostilities, are
furthermore bound by obligations to protect and respect the human rights of persons in the
areas they operate.
12.
The possible commission of crimes against humanity and war crimes were analysed
on the basis of definitions set out in the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court,
which largely codifies customary international criminal law. Jurisprudence from
international criminal tribunals, in particularly the International Criminal Tribunals for the
former Yugoslavia and for Rwanda, was instructive.
13.
Security Council Resolution 2191 (2014) demanded that all parties to the Syrian
armed conflict end practices resulting in extrajudicial killings and executions, torture,
enforced disappearance, and other violations of international law in the Syrian Arab
Republic. No party to the conflict has, as yet, taken measures to implement this resolution
either by amending their policing, interrogation or detention practices, ensuring the due
process of law or preventing summary execution or arbitrary arrest. As such, the resolution
has remained wholly unimplemented and ineffective.
Domestic law and judicial procedures
14.
The Syrian Arab Republic is party to international conventions that protect the lives
of detainees and prohibit killings and summary executions, enforced disappearance, torture
and other forms of ill treatment, including the International Covenant on Civil and Political
Rights, the Convention against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment
and the Arab Charter on Human Rights. The responsibility of the State includes to provide
victims of violations with an effective remedy, including reparation, and to undertake
prompt and impartial investigations of alleged violations.

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15.
While the Syrian Constitution1 and criminal code2 outlaw torture, the United Nations
Committee against Torture has expressed concern that the provisions fail to ensure
appropriate penalties applicable to such acts, and that the definition of ill treatment in the
relevant provisions does not correspond with that of the Convention against Torture. 3
16.
While the Syrian Constitution provides due process guarantees and outlaws arbitrary
detention,4 the Syrian criminal justice system, which encompasses civilian courts, the
Counter terrorism Court, military and field courts, is systemically failing to uphold
international human rights standards at every step of the judicial process. The right of
habeas corpus is consistently denied to those in custody, with prisoners being held for
prolonged periods without an opportunity to challenge the legal basis of their detention.
Criminal provisions too broadly define, and often outlaw, the mere exercise of rights and
freedoms protected by international human rights law. Death penalties are issued and
enforced by courts not upholding fair trial standards, and often in secret. The judiciary fails
to conduct oversight of the national justice system and provides no effective remedy for
victims of violations attributable to the State, with individuals not daring to challenge
abuses for fear of retribution.

III. Systematic pattern of mass arrests and enforced
disappearance
17.
Since March 2011, a countrywide pattern emerged in which civilians, mainly males
above the age of 15, were arbitrarily arrested and detained by the Syrian security and armed
forces or by militia acting on behalf of the Government during mass arrests, house searches,
at checkpoints and in hospitals.
18.
Arrests targeted civilians perceived to be either supporting the opposition or
insufficiently loyal to the Government. Residents of opposition-controlled areas, relatives
of suspected members of armed groups, activists, defectors and military personnel
suspected of sympathising with the uprising, and those believed to be providing medical
care to the opposition were arrested with the purpose of obtaining information or as
punishment. Civilians suspected of taking active part in armed hostilities were also
detained. More recently, Government forces engaged in mass arrest campaigns in areas that
they recaptured, as was observed following the truces in Assal Al-Ward (Rif Damascus) in
April 2014 and the city of Homs in May 2014, and after the taking of Yabroud (Rif
Damascus) in March 2014.
19.
Those who were kept in the custody of security and armed forces were almost
always denied any means of contacting their families. Some families were first informed
about the death or whereabouts of their relatives from released fellow prisoners. In its
thematic report “Without a trace: enforced disappearances in Syria”, as well as in its
periodic reports, the commission has reported that the crime of enforced disappearance was

1
2
3

4

4

Article 53, Constitution of the Syrian Arab Republic. Promulgated 2012.
Article 391 (i), Syrian Criminal Code.
Immunity from prosecution has also been enshrined in the applicable law for specific categories of
Government officials, including the President. Legislative Decrees 14/1969 and 69/2008 grant
immunity to members of the security forces and police for crimes committed, in violation of
international legal obligations to investigate and prosecute extrajudicial killings, torture, and other
violations. Under the Syrian Constitution, the President is granted full personal immunity.
Article 51-53, Constitution of the Syrian Arab Republic.

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committed by Government forces as part of a widespread and systematic attack against the
civilian population.5

IV. Causes of death of detainees in State-controlled facilities
20.
In the accounts collected from over 500 survivors of Government detention centres
between March 2011 and November 2015, almost all described having been the victims of
and witnesses to torture and inhuman and degrading treatment. Over 200 former
Government detainees witnessed one or more deaths in custody.
21.
Former detainees detailed how cellmates were killed as they were beaten to death
during interrogations and in their cells, or died as a result of severe injuries sustained due to
torture or ill treatment. Others perished as a consequence of inhuman living conditions
inflicted on the prison population, including severe over-crowding, lack of food, and
unclean drinking water. Prisoners were given inadequate or no medical care, and died in
large numbers from preventable conditions such as diarrhoea or other contagious infections
spread in the unhygienic and overcrowded cells.
22.
While the overwhelming majority of the victims who perished while detained in
Government-controlled prison facilities were men, the commission has documented cases
of women and children as young as seven years old dying in the custody of State forces.
One of the earliest documented cases of death in detention is that of a 13-year-old boy,
arrested during a protest in Sayda (Dara’a) in late April 2011. His mutilated body was
returned to his family in May 2011. Women, boys and girls, as well as the elderly, have
been subjected to torture and brutal prison conditions and have suffered physical and
mental trauma. They too have been the victims of, as well as witnesses to, deaths in
custody.
Death caused by injuries sustained during torture
23.
Across detention facilities, interrogators or prison guards killed detainees,
sometimes in front of fellow prisoners. In early 2014, a detainee at Sednaya prison
(Damascus) was killed after guards entered the cell and subjected him to severe beating,
including kicking to the head and vital organs. Other prisoners present were ordered to face
the wall while the man was heard screaming. The victim was left vomiting blood. A former
cellmate explained how the man asked him to tell his wife and family what happened to
him. “He died. We closed his eyes, wrapped him in a military blanket and read the Quran in
our hearts.”
24.
Interrogators and guards employed gruesome methods of torture to kill detainees. In
2014, a detainee held in a centre under the control of the 4th Division of the Syrian army
had his genitals mutilated during torture. Bleeding severely and left without treatment, he
died three days later. A detainee of a Military Security branch in Homs witnessed an elderly
man being severely beaten, and then hung by his wrists from the ceiling. The guards burned
his eyes with a cigarette, and pierced his body with a heated, sharp metal object. After
hanging in the same position for three hours, the man died.
25.
Other detainees died as a result of injuries and wounds sustained during torture.
Victims received little or no medical care to treat the wounds and developed severe
5

Commission of Inquiry on the Syrian Arab Republic, “Without a trace: enforced disappearances in
Syria”, 19 December 2013. See also A/HRC/22/59, paras. 77-83; A/HRC/23/58, paras. 78-81;
A/HRC/24/46, paras.67-74; A/HRC/25/65, paras. 47-49; A/HRC/27/60, paras. 45-51; and
A/HRC/30/48, para. 168.

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infections that eventually led to their demise. In the Air Force Intelligence Branch in
Aleppo, a detainee suffered severely from an infected wound in his leg sustained during
torture. Unable to stand up, he was eventually placed in the corridor outside the cell,
receiving no medical care. After a few days, fellow detainees observed that he was dead.
His family was later able to obtain the body through unofficial channels. Due to marks of
torture and the severe emaciation of his corpse, his family could first only recognise him by
an identifying tag. A 15-year-old boy detained in 2013 by the 4th Division in a detention
facility near Yafour (Rif Damascus) reported seeing several male detainees dying due to
torture and inhuman prison conditions and denial of medical assistance.
Deaths caused by general prison conditions and lack of medical care
26.
A large number of deaths were caused by the squalid conditions in which detainees
were kept. Prison conditions were similar across detention facilities. They included severely
overcrowded cells where prisoners were often forced to stand and sleep in shifts, stripped to
their underwear. Lack of clean drinking water, sanitation, lice infestations and other
unhygienic conditions caused the spread of disease and infections. Many prisoners were
forced to use their toilet as a source of drinking water. Others reported how minimal access
to lavatories forced prisoners to relieve themselves inside the cell. Prisoners frequently
suffered from scabies and other skin diseases. In some detention facilities, guards threw
cold water on the floor of cells, forcing detainees to sustain long periods of cold
temperatures, further weakening their resilience to illnesses.
27.
Prisoners received minimal rations of food that caused dramatic weight loss,
resulting in deterioration of detainees’ general health condition and reducing their ability to
recover from injuries. Some families who received the bodies of their relatives described
the emaciation of the corpses. Former detainees in some facilities described the food
provided to them as spoiled, causing acute gastro-intestinal illnesses.
28.
A high number of prisoners across detention facilities died of severe and continuing
diarrhoea, likely caused by the unhygienic conditions and the inadequate standard of food
in the prisons. The victims would often suffer for months before death occurred.
29.
The risks posed to the health and lives of the detainees by the nature of the
environment in which they were held were compounded by often non-existent or
inadequate medical assistance offered, making otherwise treatable conditions fatal. A
detainee in an Air Force Intelligence branch in Mezzeh military airport suffered from
diabetes. Not having his medicine with him in custody, his requests for vital drugs were
ignored by prison guards. The detainee subsequently died. Another prisoner in the same
detention facility had a cardiac condition. Refused medical assistance, he succumbed. His
body bore signs of torture.
30.
In Palestine Branch 235 of the Military Intelligence Directorate, high numbers of
detainees died of untreated infections. One prisoner was observed with an infected wound
in his leg, for which he received no medication and eventually died, following days of high
fever. Another prisoner, suffering severe weight loss and an unidentified medical condition
that prevented him from going to the toilet, died in his cell after prison guards ignored
repeated requests for medical assistance. One detainee in the Air Force Intelligence Branch
in Mezzeh military airport was suffering from asthma. He died during an asthma attack
while in a severely overcrowded cell with poor air circulation.
31.
Detainees were frequently either ignored or punished with torture when requesting
medical assistance. Some prisoners received limited and mostly inadequate medicine, while
most received no treatment at all. Some severely ill prisoners were transferred to military
hospitals in the Damascus area, including Mezzeh military hospital 601 and Tishreen
military hospital located near Barzah Al-Balad neighbourhood. Prisoners were tortured by

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medical staff at the hospital.6 Others received limited medical care before they were sent
back to the same life-threatening prison conditions. Several prisoners died in the hospital,
with prisoner-patients recounting how they were asked to assist in wrapping dead bodies in
plastic.
32.
Many detainees were subjected to rape and other forms of sexual violence, 7 and
exposed to humiliation and degrading treatment. Prisoners were subjected to threats of
sexual violence against female relatives.
33.
Denied contact with their families and held in inhuman and degrading conditions in
overcrowded cells or prolonged solitary confinement and continuously subjected to torture,
prisoners often suffered severe psychological disturbances and depression. Numerous
accounts describe how some detainees started hallucinating or displaying other signs of
psychological disorders, stopped eating and drinking, and eventually passed away in their
cell for unidentified reasons.
Execution without a fair trial and extrajudicial killings
34.
While largely denied due process rights and often uninformed of formal charges or
convictions, detainees were subjected to killings amounting to extrajudicial killings. In
Aleppo city, bodies started appearing in Queiq river in January 2013, reportedly after
having been dumped in the Government-controlled area of the city. Some of the victims
were confirmed to have been detained by State forces, including the Air Force Intelligence
Branch in Aleppo. Many of the more than 140 victims had their hands tied behind their
backs and appeared to have been executed by gunshot.
35.
Field court proceedings have been extensively used to issue punishments, including
the death penalty, for acts alleged to have been committed in the context of the Syrian
uprising. Proceedings in the field courts bear no resemblance to a fair trial, and confessions
obtained during torture are often submitted as the only evidence, to the extent any evidence
is submitted at all. Those convicted by such purported trials were reportedly executed by
hanging, amounting to a summary execution.

V. Location of State-controlled detention centres where large
numbers of deaths of detainees were recorded
36.
Most deaths in detention were documented as occurring in locations controlled by
the Syrian intelligence services. The Syrian security apparatus encompasses the military
and civil police forces, as well as four intelligence agencies. They are the Military
Intelligence Directorate, the Air Force Intelligence Directorate, the General Intelligence
Directorate, and the Political Security Directorate. Each of these agencies has headquarters
in Damascus composed of several central branches and administers branches throughout the
country, together holding thousands of detainees in their custody.
37.
The highest numbers of fatality cases occurred in places of detention controlled by
the Military Security, including Branches 215 (Raids Company), 227 (Damascus regional
Branch) and 235 (Palestine Branch), as well as the Air Force Intelligence (Investigations)
Branch in Mezzeh military airport, and detention facilities under the control of the General
Security Directorate, including Branch 251 (Internal Security Branch in Al Khatib Street),
6
7

A/HRC/24/CRP.2, "Assault on medical care in Syria", 13 September 2013.
See A/HRC/S-17/2/Add.1, paras. 66-68, A/HRC/21/50, paras. 96-102; A/HRC/22/59, paras. 104-111;
A/HRC/23/58, paras. 91-95; A/HRC/24/46, paras. 95-100; A/HRC/25/65, paras. 62-71;
A/HRC/27/60, paras. 75-83; and A/HRC/30/48, paras. 53, 95, and 169.

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all of which are located in Damascus. Many detainees from across Syria were transferred to
Damascus after their initial arrest and detention. A high number of deaths were also
documented in Sednaya military prison (Rif Damascus) which is under the control of the
Military Police corps of the Syrian army, and where many prisoners are held pending trial
or serving sentences issued by military courts.
38.
A former prisoner recounted how, in a cell holding 60 detainees in Branch 227, six
died in the course of a week in January 2013. In the same detention facility, between
January and March 2014, in a cell holding 12 men, three prisoners died as a result of
deteriorating health and lack of medicine, or as a consequence of torture. Between March
and October 2013, in Branch 235, around 20 detainees were observed to have passed away
in a cell holding 100 prisoners. New detainees were brought in, replacing those that died.
Several former detainees held by Branch 215 described having seen many detainees passing
away during a few weeks or months of detention, as did detainees in Air Force Intelligence
Investigation Branch in Mezzeh military airport and Sednaya military prison.
39.
Deaths of civilians and others held in detention facilities in army bases and military
positions throughout the country were also recorded, in particular among prisoners in the
custody of the 4th and 9th Divisions of the Syrian Armed Forces, as well as the Republican
Guard.

VI. Involvement and knowledge of the State and individual
perpetrators
A.

State responsibility: Coordination between State agencies in the
commission and concealment of deaths
40.
Multiple Government agencies are involved at different stages in the documented
system of incommunicado detentions and ill treatment of prisoners. While army units and
security agencies conduct arrests, transfers and interrogations throughout the country,
institutions such as military hospitals, the Military Police as well as judiciary institutions
have played a role in aspects of the process during which a wide range of violations are
committed. State institutions are systematically failing to prevent or investigate reports of
torture and custodial deaths, as well as to ensure the right to information of the victims’
next of kin.
41.
The Military Police corps of the Syrian army acts as the custodian of a centralised
registration system documenting information on deaths occurring in detention facilities
controlled by various security services. Centralised, systemic procedures have been
instituted to routinely issue official death certificates for those who have died in
Government custody, purporting that the victims died of natural causes and preventing
families from recovering the body of the victim, effectively concealing systemic detainee
abuse and evidence of criminal conduct by State agents.
42.
Increasingly, since 2013, staff at security branches or other State representatives
directed persons searching for detained family members to the Military Police headquarters
in Al-Qaboun (Damascus). Officials of the Military Police informed families that the
person for whom they were searching had died, and subsequently referred them to Tishreen
military hospital, where families would obtain a death certificate for the victim.
43.
Death certificates issued by staff at Tishreen military hospital contained the name
and date of birth of the victim, as well as the alleged date and cause of death. Certificates
bore the stamp of Tishreen military hospital, and appeared to be signed by one or more
officials. Families were also able to obtain death certificates from the civil registration

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authorities after receiving a notification of the death. In stark contrast to the common causes
of death of prisoners documented by the commission, most death certificates recorded the
cause of death as being a “heart attack”. Hospital officials did not provide information
regarding the place of detention, with place of death in most cases stated to be Tishreen
military hospital. Similar attestations were also issued at Mujtahid hospital (Damascus).
44.
In May 2014, one father searching for his detained son described how he waited in
line among dozens of other families at the Military Police facility in Al-Qaboun. He
observed other families being told that their relatives were dead. When his turn came, an
employee at the facility showed him a report stating that his son had died of a heart attack,
and told him to go to Tishreen military hospital to collect a death certificate. He refused to
do so, as “it would be like giving them permission to kill him.” A few months later, Syrian
authorities informed a woman from Rif Damascus that her husband and two of her sons
were dead, all known to have been held in a detention facility controlled by the Military
Security. The family obtained death certificates from Tishreen military hospital, stating that
the cause of death of all the three victims was heart attack. A third son remains unaccounted
for.
45.
In no documented cases did the family receive further proof of death or
documentation indicating that investigative measures had been taken by the authorities to
verify the cause of death, or to establish or absolve responsibility of State agents or others
for the fate of the victim, as required by international human rights law. In most cases,
Government officials did not surrender the body of the victim to the family, nor did they
inform relatives what had happened to the remains. Some families obtained the victim’s
identification card and other belongings. In all cases where the body was returned to the
family, it bore marks of extensive torture. Some bodies were returned from hospital
morgues to their family only after the family agreed to sign a statement confirming that the
deceased had been killed by “terrorists.”
46.
In addition to the responsibility of the State for violations of the right to life through
the killings or failure to prevent killings and omissions leading to the deaths of persons in
their custody, there are reasonable grounds to believe that Government has further violated
the right to life by failing to conduct independent, comprehensive and transparent
investigations of each individual death occurring in places of detention under State control.
47.
The Government has an obligation to account for a person who has been taken into
custody. Failure to do so, where there is evidence that the State was responsible for the
detention, creates a presumption of responsibility. Where death in custody cannot be
established, a disappearance can constitute a failure of its obligation to protect the right to
life, particularly given that enforced disappearance is widespread and the State has not
taken steps to eliminate it. Where the Government has not sought to establish the
whereabouts of the disappeared person and account for their fate, this can also constitute a
failure to respect the obligation to carry out an effective investigation.

B.

Individual criminal responsibility: Participation and knowledge at the
level of individual State agents
48.
In addition to the culpability of those who directly participated in or contributed to
criminal conduct, international criminal law, as well as domestic law, establishes that
civilian and military commanders are responsible for preventing violations against
detainees in detention facilities, including those caused by acts or omissions of their
subordinates under their effective control, as well as for investigating and punishing
violations against detainees should they occur. This obligation encompasses the

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responsibility to supervise and monitor their subordinates in their treatment of detainees. A
superior’s failure either to prevent or punish could incur individual criminal responsibility.
49.
The four intelligence agencies of the Syrian security apparatus operate within a
defined jurisdiction, either linked to subject matter or geographic location. Commanders
administer branches throughout the country, including central branches and headquarters in
the capital. In 2011, in response to the uprising, Joint Investigation Committees were
established in a number of governorates in order to coordinate the conduct of investigations
between security services and to process the large number of detainees. They were
composed of representatives of the four security services and the Criminal Police. Each
governorate is divided into geographical districts placed under the responsibility of a
particular security branch. The security agencies collaborate with the Criminal Police and
Military Police in the arrest, detention and transfer of prisoners. The roles and attributions
of each of them have evolved since the promulgation of the counter-terrorism law of July
2012.
Military Intelligence Directorate
50.
The Military Security Damascus Branch 227 is located in Mezzeh neighbourhood
and is estimated to hold several thousand detainees at all times. Detainees who survived to
give accounts of their detention in the branch witnessed the death of fellow inmates as a
result of torture, disease, and appalling prison conditions, including chronic lack of food.
The head of the facility reportedly kept records of all the detainees and recorded all the
deaths that occurred in his branch before the bodies were transferred to Mezzeh military
hospital 601 in Damascus.
51.
Former prisoners of Branch 235, located north of Al-Qazzaz neighbourhood in
south-eastern Damascus, detail a large number of detainees dying. At least 30 persons were
observed dying under torture in this branch between 2011 and mid-2012. Numerous
families who had learned that their relatives were detained at Branch 235 were later
informed of their death. The branch is operated under the effective control of several highranking military officers in charge of its different sections, including a Major-General and
several Brigadier-Generals. Deaths were recorded and regularly reported to the head of the
Branch. The commission further gathered accounts of deaths in the custody of Military
Security branches throughout Syria. The pattern of prison employees removing and
disposing of the bodies was consistently observed.
52.
Multiple accounts suggest that the heads of several facilities were made aware and
kept records of all the deaths that occurred in the branches, and that bodies routinely
transferred to military hospitals in Damascus where the deaths were registered before the
victims were buried in mass graves. Evidence further indicates that all deaths were
regularly reported on from the heads of the branches to the Head of the Military
Intelligence Directorate.
Air Force Intelligence Directorate
53.
The Investigations branch of the Air Force Intelligence is located in Mezzeh military
airport, south west of central Damascus. Survivors of this branch recounted daily torture
sessions. Detainees were brought back to their cells by the guards with open wounds,
swollen limbs, haemorrhaging and left without medical care. When they died, the bodies
would be removed from the overcrowded cells by prison staff within a few hours.
54.
Many of those interviewed also recounted having witnessed the death of inmates of
the Air Force Intelligence branch located in Harasta (Damascus and southern region
branch). Interrogators and prison guards routinely tortured detainees. Many of the

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incarcerated were ill as a result of the dire conditions of detention. Guards would later
remove the bodies from the cells.
55.
Similar accounts of inhuman prison conditions and the occurrence of deaths
emerged from Air Force Intelligence branches, sections or posts in Aleppo, Dara’a, Latakia,
Homs, Dayr Az-Zawr and Ar-Raqqah. Based on the information available, superiors in
charge of the branches knew, or owing to the circumstances at the time, should have known
of the continuing deaths and violations occurring in the detention facilities under their
effective control.
General Intelligence Directorate
56.
Main detention facilities controlled by the General Intelligence Directorate include
Interior Security branch 251 and Investigations branch 285 located in Kafr Soussa, west of
central Damascus. Former detainees described inhuman conditions of detention resulting in
frequent custodial deaths. Officers were observed giving orders to subordinates on methods
of torture to be used on detainees. Corpses were transported by other prisoners through the
corridors, sometimes to be kept in the toilets, before being removed from the branch.
Evidence obtained indicates that the superiors of the facilities were regularly informed of
the deaths of detainees under their control. Prisoners were transferred to military hospitals
before they were buried in mass graves.
Political Security Directorate
57.
The Political Security administers an Investigations branch with a detention facility.
It shares the detention facility with Branch 227 and has branches in every governorate
outside Damascus, where torture is widely practiced. A defector from a branch of the
Political Security Directorate recalled the very specific instructions he received from his
superiors on how to torture detainees, a description consistent with multiple accounts of the
use of torture occurring in the branch. Deaths in custody were also documented in some of
the branches of the Political Security Directorate.
Military Police
58.
The Chief of the Military Police supervises three military prisons, namely Sednaya
in Damascus, Balooni in Homs city and, prior to ISIS’ capture of the city in May 2015,
Tadmur, near the ruins of Palmyra in the eastern Homs countryside. Since mid-2012, the
Military Police has been in charge of transferring and holding prisoners between branches
and courts. Detention facilities such as Sednaya prison hold thousands of inmates who are
transferred there, often following a summary trial, sometimes resulting in the issuance of a
death penalty and followed by execution. There were dozens of accounts of deaths
occurring in Sednaya prison, with prisoners being beaten to death by guards, or dying from
preventable health conditions. Following a practice similar to that described in other
facilities, inmates witnessed guards removing bodies from the cells.
59.
Furthermore, the Military police operates as a custodian of information concerning
prisoners that died while in custody of the other intelligence directorates, indicating
knowledge of the deaths among the superiors of the agency.
Military hospitals
60.
Earlier testimonies regarding events in 2011 up to mid-2012 stated that the bodies of
those who died in the custody of the intelligence branches or were killed in demonstrations
by Government forces in and around Damascus were kept at military hospital 601 located
in Mezzeh neighbourhood. More recently, deceased detainees were reportedly taken to
Tishreen and Harasta military hospitals. Reports misrepresenting the circumstances of these

11

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deaths were produced in these localities, effectively concealing the responsibility of other
state agents for these deaths. Families could sometimes retrieve these death certificates
officially issued by the hospitals, but not the bodies. In other governorates, they were
sometimes able to recover their relative’s body at medical facilities.
61.
These hospitals fall under the control of the Military Medical services affiliated to
the Ministry of Defence. Representatives of the Military Security directorate were often
present at the facilities, overseeing the various processes instituted to deal with the
detainees.
Attribution of individual responsibility for deaths
62.
Based on over 500 interviews conducted between 2011 and 2015, it is apparent that
prison conditions have remained consistent in most Government detention facilities, and in
many cases worsened since the beginning of the Syrian uprising. The high number of
killings, as well as other deaths caused by poor prison conditions, torture and/or by medical
neglect, must also have been known to those exercising effective control over the detention
facilities, given the reporting procedures documented to be the practice in intelligence
branches. While in some cases orders for the torturing of detainees flowed from those with
effective control to their subordinates, it is apparent that the entrenched systematic nature of
violations taking place within Government detention centres made the giving of such orders
superfluous.
63.
A centralised system is in place to collect reports of deaths of detainees in
Government-controlled detention facilities, with deaths regularly reported 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 civilian as well as military superiors at the
highest levels. Civilian superiors at the highest levels of Government, similarly, have
knowledge of the crimes or allegations of crimes being committed by their subordinates,
both in the military hierarchy and the civilian leadership of relevant institutions, or have
consciously disregarded such information.
64.
In light of these findings, there are reasonable grounds to believe that high ranking
officers – including the heads of branches and directorates – commanding these detention
facilities, those in charge of the Military Police, as well as their civilian superiors, knew of
the vast numbers of deaths occurring in detention facilities under their effective control, yet
did not take action to prevent the abuses, investigate allegations or prosecute those
responsible. In such circumstances, they are individually criminally liable for the crimes
committed in these detention centres.

VII. Death in detention in facilities controlled by AntiGovernment armed groups
65.
While incidents of killing, torture, and related violations against persons deprived of
their liberty occurred also in areas controlled by anti-Government armed groups, no
institutionalised or consistent practice of mass arrests and arbitrary detention, torture, and
killing of detained civilians in areas controlled by most of these groups has been
documented. Abuse and killing of detainees has occurred primarily in context of the capture
and detention of Government soldiers and fighters of rival rebel groups.
66.
The continuing dissolution, re-forming and merging of hundreds of anti-Government
armed groups, and the resulting difficulty on the part of victims and survivors in identifying
12

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possible perpetrators, has limited the commission’s ability to pinpoint perpetrators. The
relatively few numbers of detainees relative to the numbers held by the Government,
together with the continued lack of access to Syria, has made locating former detainees a
challenge.
67.
Some anti-Government armed groups established makeshift places of detention, in
different areas under their control, where captured Government soldiers were held, ill
treated, and executed. Some groups have also detained civilians in such facilities at
different times. Others have established local Sharia courts and subjected detainees to illicit
trials sometimes resulting in summary executions. In late 2012, an FSA commander in
Damascus admitted to having beaten a detainee to obtain a confession. This detainee was
later executed.
68.
In 2012, various anti-Government armed groups present in Aleppo, Homs, and Idlib
detained members of Government armed forces, members of opposing armed groups, and
civilians. Several fighters described the execution of soldiers, usually at the time of their
capture. In some cases, subjected to torture in improvised detention centres, detainees died
as a result of their treatment.
69.
Individuals taken hostage, usually for the purpose of prisoner exchange or to extract
ransom, have occasionally died or been murdered while in the custody of armed groups.
Following the release of parts of a group of 120 civilians captured by anti-Government
armed groups in rural Latakia in August 2013, information emerged that some of the
hostages had died as a direct result of lack of medication and of injuries.

VIII. Death in detention in facilities controlled by Jabhat Al-Nusra
70.
Jabhat Al-Nusra has set up detention facilities in Idlib, where deaths in detention
have been documented. In February 2015, Jabhat Al-Nusra returned the body of a civilian
detained by the group for a few days in Maaret Misreen (Idlib) and later acknowledged that
the victim died as a consequence of torture.
71.
In late April 2015, Jabhat Al-Nusra held civilian men and women, as well as
captured Government soldiers, in Harim prison in Idlib. Most, if not all, had fled from
Ishtabraq village, which was attacked on approximately 25 April 2015. Two women held in
Harim prison described women and children being separated from their male relatives and
being held in squalid conditions, with little food. They were forced to pray. The former
detainees described hearing men screaming while being beaten by members of Jabhat AlNusra. Both also heard Government soldiers being brought into the prison and pleading for
their lives before being executed by shooting.
72.
In Homs, Idlib and Dara’a governorates, Jabhat Al-Nusra and local anti-Government
armed groups have jointly formed makeshift Sharia courts or have together agreed to
support the existing courts. Jabhat Al-Nusra has also founded and support some courts in an
effort to entrench its dominance in some areas, notably Idlib. Information collected
indicates the operation of these courts does not abide by fair trial standards. Where they
jointly operate, they pursue similar practices in terms of arrest, detention and ill treatment
of detainees, including numerous cases of summary executions of prisoners.
73.
Jabhat Al-Nusra, fighting alongside other anti-Government armed groups, has also
conducted mass executions of captured Government soldiers. On 9 July 2015, a Nusra-led
alliance of armed groups captured the Abu Al-Douhour airbase (Idlib) from the Syrian
army. Approximately 70 soldiers were executed on the runway, with Al-Nusra publishing
photographs of the corpses.

13

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74.
The same group kidnapped two young boys outside the besieged Shia enclaves of
Nubul and Zahra (Aleppo) on 25 June 2013. When an attempt to exchange them for
prisoners detained by government forces failed, the boys were killed and their bodies
mutilated.

IX. Death in detention in facilities controlled by the Islamic State
of Iraq and Al-Sham (ISIS)
75.
ISIS, often with the involvement of foreign fighters, has established detention
facilities in several areas they control, including in Ar-Raqqah, Dayr Az-Zawr, and Aleppo
governorates. Detainees were subjected to serious abuses, including torture and summary
executions. Journalists and activists, as well as civilians deemed to violate regulations or
decrees imposed by ISIS were subjected to unlawful deprivation of liberty, torture and ill
treatment. Difficulty in accessing information from ISIS-controlled areas of the Syrian
Arab Republic has hindered the gathering of accounts from former detainees.
76.
The killing of detainees was documented as occurring in an ISIS detention facility in
or near Jarablus in 2014 and 2015. In 2014, a former detainee described ISIS fighters
severely torturing civilians held inside the centre. He witnessed a 27-year-old man being
taken out of his cell, and screaming while he was beaten with a metal bar. When he was
brought into the cell, the man was foaming from the mouth. When his cellmates called for
medical attention, the guards said “let him suffocate”. The man died shortly afterwards.
Another interviewee, also held in a detention facility in Jarablus in September 2015,
described three detainees being shot in front of him by ISIS guards.
77.
One man, detained with a large group of Kurdish civilians as they sought to leave
ISIS-controlled territory in early 2014, was taken to the former Government-run prison in
Tel Abyad. He described he and his cellmates being beaten while ISIS questioned them
about the Kurdish armed group, the YPG. He stated that ISIS fighters killed two men in
front of him: one was shot and the other was beaten to death, and died two hours later,
bleeding from the mouth.
78.
In late 2013, ISIS took over the eye hospital in the Qadi Askar neighbourhood of
Aleppo city and began using its basement as a detention facility. A former detainee stated
that ISIS was abducting and holding people who were critical of ISIS or who had a more
moderate interpretation of Islam. They also reportedly held people who had contact with
foreigners, including fixers for media. In January 2014, the fraught relationship between
ISIS and Liwa Al-Tawhid descended into open hostilities. As ISIS withdrew from the
facility, they shot and killed between 40 and 50 detainees. A survivor described ISIS
fighters hastily killing detainees before they withdrew from the facility. A foreign journalist
later identified his local fixer, held by ISIS, as being among the dead.
79.
ISIS detainees were more frequently executed after unauthorised courts issued a
death sentence, often preceded by proceedings that bore no resemblance of a fair trial. Such
proceedings were conducted in ISIS courts purporting to be based on religious authority.
Children have been among those executed. Persons deemed by ISIS to be “infidel” were
also targeted. Government soldiers and fighters of rival rebel groups were also detained,
tortured, and frequently killed. A man detained by ISIS in Bukamal (Dayr Az-Zawr)
recalled the visit of a judge, who interrogated and sentenced another detainee to death in
three minutes. Immediately thereafter, an ISIS executioner beheaded this detainee in front
of the other detainees.

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80.
Brutal executions carried out in public, sometimes of a retaliatory character, are
common in ISIS-controlled areas. Fighters enforced the death sentences issued by ISIS
courts in an open display of brutality. 8 Victims were frequently beheaded. In a few cases,
victims were pushed off the roof of tall buildings as a means of execution. Others were
executed in public by gunshot. Video footage of the crimes is commonly displayed on the
Internet as an instrument of propaganda and terror.
81.
ISIS has also perpetrated a number of massacres of captured Government soldiers.
In Tabqa (Ar-Raqqah) 200 government soldiers were captured after ISIS overran an airbase
outside the city in August 2014. On 23 August 2014, over 200 of the men were stripped to
their underwear, and marched into the desert before being shot to death.
82.
ISIS also engaged in hostage taking resulting in killing of the victims. Other groups
also sold hostages to ISIS. A young Government soldier was identified in the video
showing the beheading of army soldiers, published by ISIS on or around 18 November
2014. Kidnapped by a group claiming to be Jabhat Al-Islam late June 2014, his family
failed to pay the ransom demanded. They later learned that their son was surrendered to
ISIS. The video of the beheading surfaced a few weeks later.

X. Legal Findings and Conclusions
83.
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.

8

Commission of Inquiry on the Syrian Arab Republic, “Rule of Terror: Living under ISIS in Syria”, 14
November 2014.

15

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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
16

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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.
Anti-Government armed groups and Jabhat Al-Nusra
100. Besides their continuous collaboration for operational necessities, anti-Government
armed groups and the terrorist group Jabhat Al-Nusra have largely shared the control of the
same areas and governed the same communities.
101. Anti-Government armed groups and Jabhat Al-Nusra are responsible for murder,
torture and other forms of ill treatment of detainees. In instituting makeshift courts whose
procedures fall far short of fair trial standards, the responsible groups violated due process
principles, in violation of international humanitarian and human rights law. Executions
ordered by these makeshift, unauthorised courts constitute killings or summary executions
in violation of international humanitarian law and human rights law.

9

See also A/HRC/25/CRP.1, Report of the detailed findings of the commission of inquiry on human
rights in the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea, pp. 1041–1045.

17

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102. When committed after the start of the non-international armed conflict, such acts
also constitute war crimes of murder, cruel treatment, and torture for which perpetrators and
their commanders may be held responsible.
Islamic State of Iraq and Al-Sham (ISIS)
103. ISIS is responsible for murder, torture and other forms of ill-treatment, outrages
upon personal dignity and summary executions occurring in detention facilities run by the
group, in violation of applicable international humanitarian law and international human
rights law. Executions of persons detained and brought before illicit courts amount to
murder or summary executions, constituting war crimes. The group has also committed the
war crime of torture. Its unauthorised mock trials furthermore deprive victims of basic due
process guarantees in violation of international humanitarian law and international human
rights law.
104. This conduct, when forming part of a widespread attack against a civilian
population, constitutes the crimes against humanity of murder and torture.

XI. Recommendations
105. On the basis of its findings, the Commission makes the recommendations
below.
106. The commission recommends that the Government of the Syrian Arab
Republic:
(a)
Take urgent measures to protect the lives of all detainees in their
custody, including by issuing direct orders to military and intelligence personnel,
associated militia and their commanders to refrain from any ill treatment or abuse of
detainees and closely monitor that orders are being complied with;
(b)
Immediately suspend any enforcement of capital punishment, whether
issued by military, field or civilian courts, and take steps to ensure due process,
including transparency of proceedings and right to judicial appeal are respected;
(c)
Urgently inspect and improve all aspects of conditions of detention,
including access to medical care and with regard to the particular needs of female
detainees, in compliance with international standards;
(d)
detainees;

Cease immediately the practice of holding minors with adult male

(e)
As a matter of urgency, release those arbitrarily or unlawfully detained
in official and unofficial detention facilities;
(f)
Immediately discontinue all forms of incommunicado detention or other
forms of deprivation of liberty amounting to enforced disappearance, and afford all
persons in State custody contact with their families and regular access to legal
counsel;
(g)
Take all necessary steps to ensure that in criminal trials, whether in
civilian, military courts, except in cases prosecuting charges of torture, statements
made under torture are not invoked as evidence in any proceedings, in accordance
with article 15 of the Convention against Torture;
(h)
Those detained on the bases of evidence or confessions obtained under
torture or other forms of duress must immediately be released and afforded
compensation;
18

 A/HRC/31/CRP.1

(i)
Ensure that all deaths in custody or allegations of torture or other ill
treatment are promptly, thoroughly, transparently and independently investigated in
line with international standards, with perpetrators held to account. Medical reports
and all other evidence resulting from such investigations must be accessible to the next
of kin;
(j)
Ensure that upon completion of all post-mortem examinations essential
to an investigation into a death, the body should be returned to the next of kin in a
manner that is fully respectful of the dignity of the deceased, so that funeral rites or
other customary procedures can be conducted with the least possible delay;
(k)
Victims of torture and families of deceased prisoners must be afforded
reparations and compensation;
(l)
Ensure that accurate detention records are kept for all places of
detention, and make this information available to the next of kin and international
organizations collecting information on missing persons;
(m) Cooperate with the UN Committee on Enforced Disappearances as well
as the UN Committee against Torture under the follow-up procedure and provide
information requested by the Special Rapporteur for Follow-up on Concluding
Observation in compliance with the Convention against Torture;
(n)
Provide immediate and unimpeded access for the International
Committee of the Red Cross and Red Crescent, the Office of the High Commissioner
for Human Rights and other recognized organizations that monitor treatment of
detainees and prison conditions to all detention facilities, official and unofficial,
including impromptu visits;
(o)
Allow the Independent Commission of Inquiry on the Syrian Arab
Republic and other organizations with a relevant mandate unfettered and
independent access to its entire territory.
107.

The commission recommends that anti-Government armed groups:

(a)
As a matter of urgency, comply with human rights and humanitarian
law standards; particularly, put an end to illicit trials, torture and summary
executions of persons deprived of their liberty;
(b)
Refrain from kidnappings and hostage taking, and conduct akin to
enforced disappearance;
(c)
Take urgent measures to discipline or dismiss individuals under their
command responsible for such acts.
(d)
Provide immediate and unimpeded access for the International
Committee of the Red Cross and Red Crescent, the Office of the High Commissioner
for Human Rights and other recognized organizations that monitor treatment of
detainees and prison conditions to all detention facilities, including impromptu visits;
108.

The commission recommends that Jabhat Al-Nusra and ISIS:

(a)
Reject violent means in relation to the application of religious law, with
due respect for a diversity of religious groups and practices;
(b)
As a matter of urgency, comply with human rights and humanitarian
law standards; particularly, put an end to illicit trials, torture and summary
executions of persons deprived of their liberty;
(c)
Refrain from kidnappings and hostage taking, and conduct akin to
enforced disappearance;
19

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109.

The commission further recommends that United Nations Security Council:
(a)

Under Chapter VII of the United Nations Charter:

i.
Demand that the Syrian Arab Republic and non-State armed
groups immediately halt all detention practices resulting in custodial deaths
and torture;
ii.
Ensure the enforcement of accountability by referring the
situation to the International Criminal Court or other judicial mechanisms;
iii.
Adopt targeted sanctions against persons, agencies and groups
credibly suspected of being responsible for or complicit in conduct leading to
custodial deaths, torture and enforced disappearances.
110. The commission further recommends that UN agencies, funds and programmes
and other aid organisations operating in Syria and refugee hosting states:
(a)
Address torture-related risks as a primary protection concern in the
operational plans of UN agencies, funds and programmes, as well as other actors
working in the region and in Syria;
(b)
Bearing in mind that the after-effects of torture may also include
cumulative traumatic experiences on the family and communities, rehabilitation
should include psychological and medical support both in the short and long terms,
taking into due consideration the risks of re-traumatisation of the victims.
111.

The commission further recommends that the international community:

(a)
Ensure respect for Article 3 common to the Geneva Conventions and
other applicable law, by using their influence to ensure that the individuals and
groups supported by them also comply therewith;
(b)
Comply with the obligation under international humanitarian law to
prosecute or extradite persons suspected of war crimes and present on their territory,
including, when applicable, under the principle of universal jurisdiction;
(c)
Support, as a matter of urgency and to build confidence on a local level,
the creation of a mechanism to register cases of missing persons, investigate their
whereabouts, and identify human remains, including those found in mass graves;
(d)
Consider adopting sanctions targeting those persons, entities and groups
reasonably suspected of being responsible or complicit in violations described in this
report;
(e)
Offer effective protection and assistance to torture survivors and their
families, including by providing adequate physical and psychological treatment and
counselling through the United Nations Voluntary Fund for Victims of Torture and
other organizations supporting victims of torture with the necessary voluntary income
to continue their work.

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