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Doctors and Lawyers

The Syrian government had also forcibly disappeared, arbitrarily detained, tortured, and ill-treated medics and lawyers providing assistance to the wounded and detained, and subjected them to unfair trials. Lawyers working on behalf of political detainees…
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Humanitarian Aid Workers

The Syrian government has arbitrarily arrested, disappeared, tortured, and ill-treated humanitarian aid workers, and subjected them to unfair trials because of the assistance they provide. This violates Syria’s obligations under international humanitarian…
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Journalists & Freedom of Expression Advocates

Syria remains one of the most dangerous places in the world for professional and citizen journalists, media technicians, Internet activists, and those who defend freedom of expression. In 2012, the Committee to Protect Journalists ranked Syria as the most…
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Peaceful Political Activists

Since the early days of the March 2011 uprising, Syrian security forces have targeted peaceful political activists involved in organizing, filming, participating in, and reporting on protests. Security forces have forcibly disappeared activists, held them…
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Khairo and Islam al-Dabbas, Peaceful Activists

Daraya, Damascus Countryside Governorate

Islam al-Dabbas had participated in peaceful protests in Daraya, a suburb of Damascus where in the early months of the uprising, people offered water and flowers to the army and security forces trying to end demonstrations. Now his brother Mohamed…
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Khalil Maatouk, Lawyer

Damascus, Damascus Governorate

On the morning of October 2, 2012, a friend of Khalil Maatouk was driving him to work, as health problems prevented the 53-year-old lawyer from getting around on his own. At 9:45 a.m. Khalil’s friend, Mohamed Zaza, answered a phone call from his wife.…
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Ghada and Sawsan Al-Abbar, Lawyer and Medic

Daraya, Damascus Countryside Governorate

Government forces arrested Ghada and Sawsan al-Abbar together on December 21, 2012 in the town of Daraya, just outside of Damascus. Ghada, 31, a lawyer, worked with a group of other lawyers hoping to start an organization to document human rights abuses.…
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Nidal Nahlawi, Humanitarian Aid Worker

Damascus, Damascus Governorate

On March 13, 2013, security forces broke into the downtown Damascus office where Nidal Nahlawi and his friends were planning relief operations and arrested them. A few weeks later, agents took Nidal to watch them arrest his wife, then returned him to…
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Mohamed Meqdad, Lawyer and Humanitarian

Damascus, Damascus Governorate

On the night of September 20, 2012, Syrian security forces stormed Mohamed Meqdad’s house in Damascus and searched every room, looking for medicine they believed he was distributing to protesters wounded by government fire, said a close relative present…
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Mohamed Atfah, Humanitarian Aid Worker

Homs, Homs Governorate

After months in detention, 20-year-old Mohamed Atfah was a changed person by the time he encountered another detainee from Homs, his hometown. Mohamed had so deteriorated mentally and physically that he was no longer able to recognize people around him,…
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Bassel Khartabil, Freedom of Expression Advocate

Damascus, Damascus Governorate

"The people who are in real danger never leave their countries," Bassel Khartabil tweeted weeks before his arrest, Foreign Policy magazine reported. "They are in danger for a reason and for that they don't leave." So Bassel stayed, only to be arrested on…
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Ali al-Shehabi, Peaceful Activist

Ali al-Shehabi is a Syrian writer of Palestinian parents who lived in Yarmouk Camp, a Palestinian refugee camp in Damascus. A liberal thinker, he spent 10 years in prison after the security forces arrested him in 1982 on the false accusation of being a…
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Anas al-Shoghary, Peaceful Activist

On May 14, 2011, for unknown reasons, some of Anas al-Shoghary’s friends and one of his relatives betrayed him, reporting his activism to the security forces. Military Intelligence agents arrested the 24-year-old Anas in the city of al-Marah in Tartous…
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Abdul Akram al-Sakka, Peaceful Activist

Daraya, Damascus Countryside Governorate

As a preacher for years at the Anas Ben Malek Mosque in Daraya, Abdul-Akram Al-Sakka promoted freedom and peace without openly criticizing the Syrian government. Security forces arrested him on July 15, 2011, and his family still doesn’t know why. “The…
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Mohamed Nour al-Shemali, Peaceful Activist

Security forces arrested 19-year-old Mohamed Nour al-Shemali on December 1, 2012, as he walked through the gates of Aleppo University, a friend told Human Rights Watch. Mohamed and a second friend were on their way to interview internally displaced…
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Hussein Essou, Peaceful Activist

Before the current Syrian uprising, Hussein Essou, 65, worked to protect local farmers in the northeastern province of al-Hassaka from a sale of agricultural lands to the government. He had sought a meeting with President Bashar al-Assad to discuss the…
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Shorbaji Family, Peaceful Activists

Yehia and Mohamed Shorbaji - Peaceful Political Activists Yehia Shorbaji is known in his hometown of Daraya as “the man with the roses,” because, friends and family said, he came up with the idea of giving flowers to the members of the security forces…