Recommendations

Human Rights Watch has previously made detailed recommendations concerning the steps that the Syrian government, the armed opposition, and inter-governmental bodies and foreign governments should take to address violations of international human rights and humanitarian law in the Syrian conflict. These recommendations include those in Torture Archipelago: Arbitrary Arrests, Torture, and Enforced Disappearances in Syria’s Underground Prisons since March 2011. For more than a year, parties to the conflict and other institutions have failed to implement many of these recommendations while tens of thousands more Syrian civilians—including more than 5,000 children—have been killed, according to local human rights documentation groups.

Human Rights Watch makes the follow recommendations with respect to the specific findings of this report:

To the Syrian Government:

• Cease questioning and physical abuse of students in schools, either by teachers or state security personnel, about the beliefs and activities of the students or their family members. This questioning amounts to unlawful interference with family, privacy, and opinion, violates the rights of children, while beatings and physical abuse amount to cruel, inhuman, or degrading treatment or punishment. Coercive questioning and physical abuse of students should result in appropriate disciplinary action or criminal prosecution of those responsible.
• Cease attacks on schools and other civilian objects.

To the Syrian Government and Armed Opposition:

• Do not deploy forces, weapons and ammunition, or materiel in or near schools where this would place students, teachers, and other civilians at unnecessary risk. All feasible measures should be taken to remove students and other civilians from locations where military forces operate, or from other military objectives.
• Where schools are used for military purposes, work with civilian authorities to ensure that children are immediately relocated and able to continue their education in a separate and safe location.

To the UN Security Council:

• Refer the situation in Syria to the International Criminal Court, which is the forum most capable of effectively investigating and prosecuting those bearing the greatest responsibility for war crimes, including unlawful attacks on schools and other serious international crimes committed in Syria.
• Call for Syria to allow to delivery of humanitarian aid, including emergency, remedial, and other educational materials, across all of its borders, including from Turkey; and
• Support UN efforts to coordinate and provide humanitarian aid to all those in need, including those in opposition-held areas. Such aid should include plans to provide remedial and emergency education.

To Concerned Governments and Intergovernmental Organizations:

Call upon the Syrian government and armed opposition to implement the above recommendations. In particular, they should: 

• Urge governments and arms suppliers to stop selling and providing arms to the Syrian government so long as it continues to commit widespread and systematic violations of the laws of war, including attacks on schools;
• Review the human rights and international humanitarian law commitments and records of the opposition groups they are assisting, including by providing weapons and ammunition, materiel, and other military support, and work with those groups to adopt and implement policies that meet international standards. Governments should cease providing military assistance to groups committing crimes against humanity or widespread and systematic violations of the laws of war.

With respect to humanitarian assistance, they should:

• More effectively address the humanitarian crisis in which millions of Syrians face severe shortages in food, shelter, fuel, medical care, and education by working to increase provision of humanitarian assistance to affected individuals inside Syria, in both opposition and government controlled areas, and to the internally displaced and refugees.
• Take necessary steps to secure children’s right to education, which continues even in emergency situations, by supporting community and field schools covering core competencies in basic education in Syria, working in coordination with local civilian councils, and providing emergency education and remedial learning materials.
• Urge Security Council members  to call expressly on Syria to allow cross-border humanitarian assistance, and publicly press Syria to consent to cross-border operations.
• Greatly expand the amount and pace of cross-border humanitarian assistance by all those capable of undertaking such operations as the only feasible way to address the severe deprivation faced by those in opposition-held areas. Such aid should include plans to provide remedial and emergency education.