Human Rights and Humanitarian Follow-up Committee
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
Following the announcement of a general mobilization of the army and security forces, allegedly to pursue “remnants of the regime,” issued by the interim president, and the calls for “jihad” issued from numerous mosques, the mobilization of numerous armed factions affiliated and not affiliated with the new military administration and their haphazard response to the call, they headed to various areas of the Syrian coast and raided numerous villages and residential neighborhoods, predominantly Alawite.
In the first three days, 25 massacres were committed, which were documented. 811 videos were also documented, and the names of 2,246 victims were verified, most of them young, but also included a proportion of the elderly, children, and women, based on their affiliation with the Alawite sect. 42 victims from other sects were documented due to their sympathy and attempts to conceal civilians.
The region is on the brink of an unprecedented humanitarian catastrophe due to poverty (which has exceeded 97% of the population), unlawful arrests and enforced disappearances (more than 10,000 documented cases), the dismissal of state employees from various sectors (military and civilian), and the dismissal of 2,014 people from the health and education sectors. Encroachment on private property, the spread of hate speech and sectarian incitement, and an escalation of fear and terror throughout the stricken Syrian coastal region.
INTRODUCTION
A report by the “Syrian Network for Human Rights”, issued a decade ago, stated: “Sectarian exploitation of historical grievances in all their forms and providing various forms of material and moral support, have these militias behave as brutal inhumane mechanisms devoid of any national, religious, or moral deterrent. They relish in dismembering their victims, even if they are children, and even boast about this by publishing photos and videos that have nothing to do with humanity.”1
We also witness the silence or Arab and international complicity with the “declared intention” of senior officials in the new caretaker government in Damascus, HTS sharia leaders, and some of the mosques they control, to sectarianly cleanse the Levant of the Alawite sect and stray sects.
The Syrian people have not been freed from fifty years of military-security dictatorship with the escape of its president, and the enjoyment of human rights remains seriously undermined. It is true that the responsibility of the new authorities for the deteriorating humanitarian situation extended only to the Emirate of Idlib before December 8th 2024, that the phenomenon of insecurity and lack of safety predated the fall of the former regime; however, the presence of more than 80 percent of Syrians living below the poverty line was the single most common denominator among Syrians across the country.
1 “Societal Holocaust: The Most Prominent Massacres Featuring Patterns of Sectarian or Ethnic Violations in Syria,” June 13, 2015.
THE ORIGINAL CRIME
Among the various factions, Hay’at Tahrir al-Sham (HTS), has the bloodiest history. It succeeded in controlling Idlib through military and security force, and established a system of complete dominance over people’s behavior and way of life in the smallest details. It applied corporal punishment and torture on a wide scale, and was the reason for the displacement and asylum of more than half of the population of Idlib Governorate.
DOCUMENTED VIOLATIONS
Arbitrary Detention
The new authority, represented by HTS, detained an unknown number of individuals from the military and security institutions, in addition to many others accused of collaborating with the previous regime. In its first week of taking power, according to our records, it arrested 354 individuals.
Enforced Disappearances
Reports have emerged of a significant number of arbitrary arrests, particularly in the governorates of Homs and Hama. However, the largest number occurred in the city of Homs. We do not have documentation of these cases, but there is confirmed information about the disappearance of more than 600 people from the city of Homs alone.
Genocide
According to the Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide, genocide means any of the following acts committed with intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnical, racial or religious group, as such:
(a) Killing members of the group;
(b) Causing serious bodily or mental harm to members of the group;
(c) Deliberately inflicting on the group conditions of life calculated to bring about its physical destruction in whole or in part;
(d) Imposing measures intended to prevent births within the group;
(e) Forcibly transferring children of the group to another group.
URGENT CONCLUSIONS
We call on the UN Secretary-General and the Security Council to respond quickly to the distress call issued by human rights organizations and civil society in Syria, which has been endorsed and signed by tens of thousands of Syrian men and women from all backgrounds and regions:
- Declare the Syrian coast and the rural areas of Homs and Hama as humanitarian disaster zones.
- Ensure that the United Nations implements a sustained, large-scale humanitarian intervention in these areas.
- Ensure that the United Nations intervention includes protection measures, reconstruction, rehabilitation, and long-term support programs.
- Coordinate with civil society and involve local associations in the affected areas to work together.
- Establish community committees in affected villages and areas, composed of trusted local figures.
CONTACT INFORMATION
Human Rights and Humanitarian Follow-up Committee (Syria)
The committee was formed on February 16, 2025, with the participation of 13 Syrian human rights NGOs and Syrian civil society organizations inside and outside Syria.
Contact:
Email: syrmeeting@gmail.com
Email: sihr.geneva@gmail.com
© 2025 Human Rights and Humanitarian Follow-up Committee (Syria)
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