Syria

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Syria</a></span> </div> <div class="views-field-body"> <div class="field-content"><p>Syria responded to months of peaceful protests with brutal force involving indiscriminate air and artillery assaults on residential areas and apparent targeting of civilians, and torture, which constitute war crimes and crimes against humanity, pushing the political confrontation into an internal armed conflict. The opposition is increasingly conducting offensive operations. Some opposition forces have carried out serious abuses like kidnapping, torture, and what appear to be extrajudicial executions. The spread and intensification of fighting have led to a dire humanitarian situation with hundreds of thousands internally displaced or seeking refuge in neighboring countries.</p></div> </div> </li> </ul> </div> </div> </div> </div> </div> <div class="panel-region-separator"></div><div class="panel-pane pane-views-panes pane-taxonomy-landing-page-panel-pane-1 pane-taxonomy-feature-page"> <div class="pane-content"> <div class="view view-taxonomy-landing-page view-id-taxonomy_landing_page view-display-id-panel_pane_1 view-taxonomy-feature-page view-dom-id-4"> <div class="view-content"> <div class="item-list"> <ul> <li class="views-row views-row-1 views-row-odd views-row-first views-row-last"> <div class="views-field-field-imagefile-fid"> <span class="field-content"><a href="/web/20130530015700/http://www.hrw.org/news/2013/05/16/syria-visit-reveals-torture-chambers"><img src="https://web.archive.org/web/20130530015700im_/http://www.hrw.org/sites/default/files/imagecache/crop-300x200/media/images/photographs/2013_Syria_Raqqa_0.jpg" class="imagecache imagecache-crop-300x200 imagecache-default imagecache-crop-300x200_default"/></a></span> </div> <div class="views-field-field-image-caption-value"> <div class="field-content">The "bsat al-reeh" torture device found inside the State Security facility in Raqqa, Syria in late April 2013.</div> </div> <div class="views-field-field-copyright-value"> <span class="field-content">© 2013 Bryan Denton</span> </div> <div class="views-field-title"> <span class="field-content"><a href="/web/20130530015700/http://www.hrw.org/news/2013/05/16/syria-visit-reveals-torture-chambers">Syria: Visit Reveals Torture Chambers</a></span> </div> <div class="views-field-field-news-teaser-value"> <div class="field-content">Government security branches in Raqqa city hold documents and potential physical evidence indicating that detainees were arbitrarily detained and tortured there while the city was under government control. Human Rights Watch researchers visited the State Security and Military Intelligence facilities in Raqqa, now under the de facto control of local armed opposition groups, in late April 2013.</div> </div> </li> </ul> </div> </div> <div class="attachment attachment-before"> <div class="view view-taxonomy-landing-page view-id-taxonomy_landing_page view-display-id-attachment_1 view-dom-id-2"> <div class="view-content"> <div class="item-list"> <ul> <li class="views-row views-row-1 views-row-odd views-row-first"> <div class="views-field-title"> <span class="field-content"><a href="/web/20130530015700/http://www.hrw.org/news/2013/05/29/learning-lesson-libya-and-iraq-reconciliation-not-revenge-0">Learning a Lesson from Libya and Iraq: Reconciliation, Not Revenge!</a></span> </div> <div class="views-field-created"> <span class="field-content">May 29, 2013</span> </div> </li> <li class="views-row views-row-2 views-row-even"> <div class="views-field-title"> <span class="field-content"><a 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views-row-1 views-row-odd views-row-first"> <div class="views-field-title"> <span class="field-content"><a href="/web/20130530015700/http://www.hrw.org/reports/2013/04/10/death-skies">Death from the Skies</a></span> </div> <div class="views-field-field-reportsynopsis-subtitle-value"> <span class="field-content">Deliberate and Indiscriminate Air Strikes on Civilians</span> </div> <div class="views-field-field-reportsynopsis-cover-fid"> <span class="field-content"><a href="/web/20130530015700/http://www.hrw.org/reports/2013/04/10/death-skies" class="imagecache imagecache-scale-crop-200w-133h imagecache-linked imagecache-scale-crop-200w-133h_linked"><img src="https://web.archive.org/web/20130530015700im_/http://www.hrw.org/sites/default/files/imagecache/scale-crop-200w-133h/media/images/report-covers/syria0413_reportcover400.jpg" class="imagecache imagecache-scale-crop-200w-133h"/></a></span> </div> </li> <li class="views-row views-row-2 views-row-even"> <div class="views-field-title"> <span class="field-content"><a href="/web/20130530015700/http://www.hrw.org/reports/2012/07/03/torture-archipelago-0">Torture Archipelago</a></span> </div> <div class="views-field-field-reportsynopsis-subtitle-value"> <span class="field-content">Arbitrary Arrests, Torture, and Enforced Disappearances in Syria’s Underground Prisons since March 2011</span> </div> <div class="views-field-field-reportsynopsis-cover-fid"> <span class="field-content"><a href="/web/20130530015700/http://www.hrw.org/reports/2012/07/03/torture-archipelago-0" class="imagecache imagecache-scale-crop-200w-133h imagecache-linked imagecache-scale-crop-200w-133h_linked"><img src="https://web.archive.org/web/20130530015700im_/http://www.hrw.org/sites/default/files/imagecache/scale-crop-200w-133h/media/images/report-covers/syria0712.jpg" class="imagecache imagecache-scale-crop-200w-133h"/></a></span> </div> </li> <li class="views-row views-row-3 views-row-odd views-row-last"> <div class="views-field-title"> <span class="field-content"><a href="/web/20130530015700/http://www.hrw.org/reports/2012/05/02/they-burned-my-heart-0">“They Burned My Heart”</a></span> </div> <div class="views-field-field-reportsynopsis-subtitle-value"> <span class="field-content">War Crimes in Northern Idlib during Peace Plan Negotiations</span> </div> <div class="views-field-field-reportsynopsis-cover-fid"> <span class="field-content"><a href="/web/20130530015700/http://www.hrw.org/reports/2012/05/02/they-burned-my-heart-0" class="imagecache imagecache-scale-crop-200w-133h imagecache-linked imagecache-scale-crop-200w-133h_linked"><img src="https://web.archive.org/web/20130530015700im_/http://www.hrw.org/sites/default/files/imagecache/scale-crop-200w-133h/media/images/report-covers/syria0512.jpg" class="imagecache imagecache-scale-crop-200w-133h"/></a></span> </div> </li> </ul> </div> </div> <div class="view-footer"> <a href="/web/20130530015700/http://www.hrw.org/by-issue/publications/238">More >></a> </div> </div> </div> </div> <div class="panel-region-separator"></div><div class="panel-pane pane-views-panes pane-taxonomy-landing-page-panel-pane-4 pane-taxonomy-news-listing"> <h2 class="pane-title">Syria</h2> <div class="pane-content"> <div class="view view-taxonomy-landing-page view-id-taxonomy_landing_page view-display-id-panel_pane_4 view-taxonomy-news-listings view-dom-id-7"> <div class="view-content"> <div class="item-list"> <ul> <li class="views-row views-row-1 views-row-odd views-row-first"> <div class="views-field-field-imagefile-fid"> <span class="field-content"></span> </div> <div class="views-field-title"> <span class="field-content"><a href="/web/20130530015700/http://www.hrw.org/news/2013/05/29/learning-lesson-libya-and-iraq-reconciliation-not-revenge-0">Learning a Lesson from Libya and Iraq: Reconciliation, Not Revenge!</a></span> </div> <div class="views-field-created"> <span class="field-content">May 29, 2013</span> </div> <div class="views-field-field-news-teaser-value"> <div class="field-content">Even as Syria’s nightmare continues, policy makers should consider the country’s future once hostilities end. Those planning for Syria’s “day after” should learn a lesson from the past and avoid an approach just adopted in Libya, and before that in Iraq, that will widen divisions rather than heal the wounds.</div> </div> </li> <li class="views-row views-row-2 views-row-even"> <div class="views-field-field-imagefile-fid"> <span class="field-content"></span> </div> <div class="views-field-title"> <span class="field-content"><a href="/web/20130530015700/http://www.hrw.org/news/2013/05/17/syria-rights-activists-face-terrorism-charges">Syria: Rights Activists Face Terrorism Charges</a></span> </div> <div class="views-field-created"> <span class="field-content">May 17, 2013</span> </div> <div class="views-field-field-news-teaser-value"> <div class="field-content">The international community should urge the Syrian authorities to immediately and unconditionally release and drop all charges against a freedom of expression activist and two of his colleagues, 19 regional and international human rights organizations said today. Mazen Darwish and two of his colleagues from the Syrian Centre for Media and Freedom of Expression (SCM), Hussein Gharir and Hani Zaitani, are facing trial on terrorism charges for their peaceful activism, the groups said.</div> </div> </li> <li class="views-row views-row-3 views-row-odd"> <div class="views-field-field-imagefile-fid"> <span class="field-content"></span> </div> <div class="views-field-title"> <span class="field-content"><a href="/web/20130530015700/http://www.hrw.org/news/2013/05/16/syria-visit-reveals-torture-chambers">Syria: Visit Reveals Torture Chambers</a></span> </div> <div class="views-field-created"> <span class="field-content">May 17, 2013</span> </div> <div class="views-field-field-news-teaser-value"> <div class="field-content">Government security branches in Raqqa city hold documents and potential physical evidence indicating that detainees were arbitrarily detained and tortured there while the city was under government control. Human Rights Watch researchers visited the State Security and Military Intelligence facilities in Raqqa, now under the de facto control of local armed opposition groups, in late April 2013.</div> </div> </li> <li class="views-row views-row-4 views-row-even"> <div class="views-field-field-imagefile-fid"> <span class="field-content"></span> </div> <div class="views-field-title"> <span class="field-content"><a href="/web/20130530015700/http://www.hrw.org/news/2013/05/13/syria-brigade-fighting-homs-implicated-atrocities">Syria: Brigade Fighting in Homs Implicated in Atrocities</a></span> </div> <div class="views-field-created"> <span class="field-content">May 13, 2013</span> </div> <div class="views-field-field-news-teaser-value"> <div class="field-content">Human Rights Watch has reviewed graphic evidence that appears to show a commander of the Syrian opposition “Independent Omar al-Farouq” brigade mutilating the corpse of a pro-government fighter. The figure in the video cuts the heart and liver out of the body and uses sectarian language to insult Alawites. The same brigade was implicated in April 2013 in the cross-border indiscriminate shelling of the Lebanese Shi’a villages of al-Qasr and Hawsh al-Sayyed</div> </div> </li> <li class="views-row views-row-5 views-row-odd"> <div class="views-field-field-imagefile-fid"> <span class="field-content"></span> </div> <div class="views-field-title"> <span class="field-content"><a href="/web/20130530015700/http://www.hrw.org/news/2013/05/13/most-disgusting-atrocity-filmed-syrian-civil-war">Is This the Most Disgusting Atrocity Filmed in the Syrian Civil War?</a></span> </div> <div class="views-field-created"> <span class="field-content">May 13, 2013</span> </div> <div class="views-field-field-news-teaser-value"> <div class="field-content">Even by the standards of Syria's ever-worsening stream of atrocity and massacre videos, the latest footage from the country cannot fail to shock for its sheer savagery. The video, posted on May 12 but filmed on March 26 near the Syrian town of Qusayr, on the border with Lebanon, opens by calmly filming a rebel commander cutting open the chest of what we assume is a deceased pro-Bashar al-Assad fighter, removing his heart and liver with surgical precision and sang-froid.</div> </div> </li> <li class="views-row views-row-6 views-row-even"> <div class="views-field-field-imagefile-fid"> <span class="field-content"></span> </div> <div class="views-field-title"> <span class="field-content"><a href="/web/20130530015700/http://www.hrw.org/news/2013/05/02/lebanon-tit-tat-border-kidnappings">Lebanon: Tit-for-Tat Border Kidnappings</a></span> </div> <div class="views-field-created"> <span class="field-content">May 2, 2013</span> </div> <div class="views-field-field-news-teaser-value"> <div class="field-content">The Lebanese government has failed to take adequate measures to protect against, deter, and punish retaliatory kidnappings along sectarian lines in border regions. Human Rights Watch interviewed both victims and family members who carried out retaliatory kidnappings, prompted by alleged detentions and kidnappings of their relatives by the Syrian government forces and armed opposition groups.</div> </div> </li> <li class="views-row views-row-7 views-row-odd"> <div class="views-field-field-imagefile-fid"> <span class="field-content"></span> </div> <div class="views-field-title"> <span class="field-content"><a href="/web/20130530015700/http://www.hrw.org/news/2013/04/30/syria-s-river-death">Syria’s River of Death</a></span> </div> <div class="views-field-created"> <span class="field-content">Apr 30, 2013</span> </div> <div class="views-field-field-news-teaser-value"> <div class="field-content">Syrian men don’t usually cry. But for Yasser, the memory of his son, Mohammed, hurt too much. Sitting in the dark inside his shop on a bustling market street in Aleppo, the 63-year-old, hunched over in his chair, kept asking me: “Why did he deserve to die that way?” Yasser’s grief over his son who was apparently executed is shared by far too many Syrians caught up in this grisly war.</div> </div> </li> <li class="views-row views-row-8 views-row-even"> <div class="views-field-field-imagefile-fid"> <span class="field-content"></span> </div> <div class="views-field-title"> <span class="field-content"><a href="/web/20130530015700/http://www.hrw.org/news/2013/04/26/syria-new-air-missile-strikes-kill-civilians">Syria: New Air, Missile Strikes Kill Civilians</a></span> </div> <div class="views-field-created"> <span class="field-content">Apr 26, 2013</span> </div> <div class="views-field-field-news-teaser-value"> <div class="field-content">New Syrian government air and missile strikes are causing high civilian casualties in opposition-controlled areas of Aleppo in violation of the laws of war. A Human Rights Watch team in northern Aleppo province has investigated recent attacks that killed scores of civilians and destroyed dozens of civilian homes without damaging any apparent opposition military targets.</div> </div> </li> <li class="views-row views-row-9 views-row-odd"> <div class="views-field-field-imagefile-fid"> <span class="field-content"></span> </div> <div class="views-field-title"> <span class="field-content"><a href="/web/20130530015700/http://www.hrw.org/news/2013/04/23/blocking-syrian-refugees-isn-t-way">Blocking Syrian Refugees Isn’t the Way</a></span> </div> <div class="views-field-created"> <span class="field-content">Apr 23, 2013</span> </div> <div class="views-field-field-news-teaser-value"> <div class="field-content">The refugee burden that Syria’s neighbors are shouldering is heavy and should not be borne alone. But keeping people fleeing for their lives in buffer zones inside Syrian borders risks trapping rather than protecting them.</div> </div> </li> <li class="views-row views-row-10 views-row-even views-row-last"> <div class="views-field-field-imagefile-fid"> <span class="field-content"></span> </div> <div class="views-field-title"> <span class="field-content"><a href="/web/20130530015700/http://www.hrw.org/news/2013/04/22/lebanonsyria-end-indiscriminate-cross-border-attacks-2">Lebanon/Syria: End Indiscriminate Cross-Border Attacks</a></span> </div> <div class="views-field-created"> <span class="field-content">Apr 22, 2013</span> </div> <div class="views-field-field-news-teaser-value"> <div class="field-content">All parties to the conflict in Syria should stop indiscriminate cross-border attacks on inhabited areas in Lebanon.</div> </div> </li> </ul> </div> </div> <div class="more-link"> <a href="/web/20130530015700/http://www.hrw.org/news-all/238">more documents on this topic »</a> </div> </div> </div> </div> </div> </div> </div> </div> </div> </div> </div> <div id="footer"> <div class="limiter clear-block"> <div class="clear-block"><a href="#header" class="back-to-top">Back to top</a></div> <div class="nav"> <a href="/web/20130530015700/http://www.hrw.org/rss" class="rss-link">RSS</a> <div class="pipe-links"><a href="/web/20130530015700/http://www.hrw.org/home">Home</a> <span class="pipe">|</span> <a href="/web/20130530015700/http://www.hrw.org/our-work">Our Work</a> <span class="pipe">|</span> <a href="/web/20130530015700/http://www.hrw.org/news">News</a> <span class="pipe">|</span> <a href="/web/20130530015700/http://www.hrw.org/publications">Publications</a> <span class="pipe">|</span> <a href="/web/20130530015700/http://www.hrw.org/multimedia">Multimedia</a> <span class="pipe">|</span> <a href="/web/20130530015700/http://www.hrw.org/about">About Us</a> <span class="pipe">|</span> <a href="/web/20130530015700/http://www.hrw.org/contact-us">Contact Us</a> <span class="pipe">|</span> <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20130530015700/http://ff.hrw.org/">Film Festival</a> <span class="pipe">|</span> <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20130530015700/https://secure.hrw.org/site/c.nlIWIgN2JwE/b.8671517/k.3F9E/Donate_to_Defend_Human_RIghts/apps/ka/sd/donorcustom.asp">Donate</a></div> </div> <div class="footer-blocks clear-block"> <div id="block-views-hrw_footer-block_1" class="clear-block block block-views"> <div class="bcontent"><div class="view view-hrw-footer view-id-hrw_footer view-display-id-block_1 view-dom-id-9"> <div class="view-content"> <div class="views-row views-row-1 views-row-odd views-row-first views-row-last"> <div class="views-field-body"> <div class="field-content">Human Rights Watch<br/> 350 Fifth Avenue, 34th Floor<br/> New York, NY 10118-3299<br/> USA<br/> Tel: 1-(212) 290-4700<br/> <br/> <strong><a href="/web/20130530015700/http://www.hrw.org/en/contact-us">Contact Us - Global Offices</a></strong><br/> <strong><a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20130530015700/http://ff.hrw.org/">Film Festival</a></strong><br/> <strong><a href="/web/20130530015700/http://www.hrw.org/en/about/jobs">Employment</a></strong></div> </div> </div> </div> </div> </div> </div> <div id="block-tic-5" class="clear-block block block-tic"> <div class="bcontent"><div class="col-left clear-block"><strong class="vocab-header"><a href="/web/20130530015700/http://www.hrw.org/regions">Browse by Region</a></strong><div class="item-list"><ul><li class="first first"><a href="/web/20130530015700/http://www.hrw.org/africa">Africa</a></li> <li class=""><a href="/web/20130530015700/http://www.hrw.org/americas">Americas</a></li> <li class=""><a href="/web/20130530015700/http://www.hrw.org/asia">Asia</a></li> <li class=""><a href="/web/20130530015700/http://www.hrw.org/europe/central-asia">Europe/Central Asia</a></li> <li class=""><a href="/web/20130530015700/http://www.hrw.org/middle-east/n-africa">Middle East/N. 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