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Report of the Humanitarian Follow-Up and Human Rights Committee: Documenting Severe Violations in the Syrian Coast
The "Humanitarian Follow-Up and Human Rights Committee" has issued a comprehensive report involving 12 activists from both inside and outside Syria. The report spans 72 pages and includes approximately 500 annexed pages containing detailed lists of victims, detainees, and missing persons, along with administrative decisions related to dismissals, property confiscation, and forced displacement, in addition to cases of the abduction of women and children. This report marks the beginning of a series of research studies and reports addressing human rights, crimes of mass displacement, and systematic impoverishment policies that have affected a specific population group, namely the Alawite community. It will also be made available to the Security Council and United Nations organizations working against genocide and ethnic cleansing, serving as a foundational document in the legal pursuit of those involved in these crimes.
This report documents a series of serious violations of international humanitarian law and human rights that have occurred in the Syrian coastal areas. The compelling evidence presents a systematic pattern of widespread violence against civilians, including extrajudicial killings, torture, forced displacement, and looting and destruction of property, alongside arbitrary dismissals from work, particularly targeting individuals from the Alawite community. These violations have been perpetrated by government forces, security elements, local militias, as well as some foreign armed groups.
Reliable testimonies indicate instances of preventing the burial of corpses, seizing homes, and publicly humiliating civilians, showing a clear intent to harm certain groups based on sectarian grounds. Moreover, hate speech from certain religious platforms has escalated sectarian incitement, with calls for jihad fueling sectarian strife.
The report also documents mass killings, house burnings, property theft, and widespread displacement, exacerbating the humanitarian crisis in the affected areas. These incidents demonstrate the current authorities’ failure to uphold the principle of equality before the law and their continued implementation of discriminatory policies based on religious and sectarian affiliation.
The report is based on direct testimonies and field data and offers a set of urgent recommendations, including:
- Establishing a high independent body for transitional justice to hold accountable those responsible for violations.
- Creating an independent international commission of inquiry with wide-ranging powers.
- Imposing strict international sanctions on individuals involved in the crimes.
- Ensuring full protection for Syrians regardless of their backgrounds.
- Deploying international monitoring committees in all regions.
- Declaring the Syrian coastal areas as humanitarian disaster zones.
- Accelerating the introduction of medical and humanitarian aid.
- Providing fair compensation for victims and ensuring their right to voluntary return.
- Urgent support from child rights organizations to ensure psychological protection.
- Allowing independent media access to document crimes.
- Calling on religious leaders to reject fatwas of takfir.
- Criminalizing sectarian incitement.
The lack of serious action from the international community regarding these violations perpetuates a climate of impunity, endangering civil peace. Therefore, the implementation of these recommendations is a legal necessity and a moral commitment to ensure that such crimes are not repeated and to build a state governed by the rule of law and equal citizenship.
