(Beirut) – Syrian refugees who returned to Syria between 2017 and 2021 from Lebanon and Jordan faced grave human rights abuses and persecution at the hands of the Syrian government and affiliated militias, Human Rights Watch said in a report released today. Returnees also struggled to survive and meet their basic needs in a country decimated by conflict.
The 72-page report “‘Our Lives Are Like Death’: Syrian Refugee Returns from Lebanon and Jordan,” found that Syria is not safe for return. Among 65 returnees or family members interviewed, Human Rights Watch documented 21 cases of arrest and arbitrary detention, 13 cases of torture, 3 kidnappings, 5 extrajudicial killings, 17 enforced disappearances, and 1 case of alleged sexual violence.
Stay up-to-date and get alerts on latest videos
Subscribe-
Europe/Central Asia
October 20, 2021
-
Africa
October 11, 2021
-
Asia
October 6, 2021
- September 14, 2022We gave every US state a grade on their child rights laws. The results are alarming. Join HRW and partners to discuss the scorecards and what they mean for child rights in the United States.
- September 12, 2022
Rights Under Pressure #ExitInterviews
In the final episode of Ken Roth’s Exit Interviews, Ken is joined by former German Ambassador to the United Nations Christoph Heusgen to discuss the state of human rights in 2022. - September 12, 2022
Turkey: Plastic Recycling’s Impact on Health
Lax Monitoring, Enforcement Creates Serious Rights Risks - September 8, 2022
The Hidden Toll of Syria’s War on Children with Disabilities
- September 7, 2022
Will Truss end the UK’s assault on rights?
Join HRW for a conversation on new United Kingdom Prime Minister Liz Truss as we discuss what this transition means for the assault on human rights. - September 6, 2022
Afghanistan: ISIS Group Targets Religious Minorities
HRW’s Fereshta Abbasi and John Sifton discuss the ISIS group targeting religious minorities in Afghanistan. - August 30, 2022
Access to Education in Africa
Each year tens of thousands of adolescent girls across Africa drop out of school or experience discrimination because they are pregnant, married, or are mothers. In this Twitter Space, we discuss HRW's latest report on education access and barriers across Africa. - August 23, 2022
No Justice, No Freedom for Rohingya 5 Years On
Anniversary of Atrocities Highlights International Inaction - August 22, 2022
Six Months of Russian War Crimes and Devastation in Ukraine
Today marks six months since the start of Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine on February 24, 2022. The hostilities that followed have been characterized by widespread war crimes, potential crimes against humanity, and immense human suffering. At least 5,587 civilians have been killed and another 7,890 injured, according to the United Nations – likely a significant underestimate. Countless homes, schools, hospitals, and other civilian structures have been damaged or destroyed, many during apparently unlawful indiscriminate or disproportionate attacks, the vast majority by Russian forces. Often these attacks have used explosive weapons with wide area effects in populated areas, including some with widely banned cluster munitions. In areas that they have occupied, Russian forces have carried out deliberate attacks on civilians, including summary executions, enforced disappearances, torture, sexual violence, and arbitrary detentions. This violence and abuse has led 6.7 million Ukrainians to flee the country over the past six months, while internally displacing another 6.5 million. Human Rights Watch researchers have been on the ground in and around Ukraine since February 24 – and since the start of this war eight years ago – documenting some of the worst violations. We’ve interviewed hundreds of victims, victims’ families, and witnesses to abuses. We’ve visited towns and villages formerly occupied by Russian forces to investigate atrocities against civilians during the occupation. We also went to the sites of buildings that were hit by Russian bombing and shelling to establish the facts and determine whether specific strikes violated international humanitarian law, or the laws of war. This video tells the story of some of the violations that we’ve investigated over the past six months. In all of our research, what we hear again and again is that the victims of these violations want justice. We hope that the documentation we are doing will help lay the foundation for accountability efforts – and help deter these types of crimes from being committed again, in Ukraine and beyond.