Nearly 3,000 Individuals Are Still Detained or Forcibly Disappeared by Syrian Democratic Forces

ARK News: The Syrian Network for Human Rights (SNHR) states that nearly 3,000 individuals are still detained or forcibly disappeared by Syrian Democratic Forces that have restricted on civil society organizations through repressive practices similar to those of extremist groups.

The report notes that that the approach adopted by Syrian Democratic Forces to arrests is very similar to that of the Syrian regime, which also fails to implement any legal process or to ensure that arrests are carried out by legally authorized persons or through the presentation of a warrant. In both cases, the detainee is kept ignorant of the party carrying out the arrest, the reason for the arrest and where the detainee is being held. Also in both cases, detainees are not allowed access to any legal defense and are denied access to the outside world, with their families denied any information about their fate.


As the report states, in the period between Kurdish Democratic Union Party forces first taking control of some areas in Syria in July 2012 up until September 2019, the SNHR team documented the detention of at least 2,907 individuals, including 631 children and 172 women (adult female) who are still being arbitrarily arrested by Syrian Democratic Forces, who have continued to detain those first taken prisoners by the Democratic Union Party. At least 1,877 individuals, including 52 children and 78 women, have been forcibly disappeared in this period.

In this regard, the report notes that since the beginning of August 2019, the SNHR team has documented several incidents of arrest, in which the SDF has targeted the founders and employees of independent local humanitarian organizations in Raqqa governorate. The SDF has worked to disseminate and spread reports among the local community claiming falsely that these organizations were linked to ISIS, terrorism, and terrorists, in preparation for the arrest and disappearance of these individuals.

The report outlines the details of incidents of arrest carried out by the SDF against six workers with humanitarian organizations in Raqqa governorate, four of whom were later released, relying on the accounts of a number of workers in local and community-based organizations in Raqqa governorate and eyewitnesses to the incidents of raids and arrests. The report also includes three accounts.

The report notes that that Syrian Democratic Forces has violated international human rights law through committing the crime of enforced disappearance. Enforced disappearance is prohibited by the customary international humanitarian law according to rule 98 which prohibits enforced disappearance in international and non-international armed conflicts. Rule 117 of the same law states, “Each party to the conflict must take all feasible measures to account for persons reported missing as a result of armed conflict and must provide their family members with any information it has on their fate.”

The report calls on the states supporting the Syrian Democratic Forces to put pressure on them to stop arbitrary arrests and enforced disappearances, to respect the rules of international humanitarian law and principles of international human rights law in the areas they control, to support the process of establishing a genuine local administration in the northeastern regions of Syria, in which all the inhabitants of the region may participate without discrimination on the basis of race and nationality and without the intervention of the de facto authorities in order to achieve stability and justice.

The report calls on Syrian Democratic Forces to stop all forms of arbitrary arrest, to disclose the fate of the forcibly disappeared persons, to allow their families to visit and communicate with them, to hold them to fair and independent trials, to stop the policy of restricting local and community-based humanitarian organizations and to allow them to operate.

Lastly, the report recommends that the Human Rights Council should follow up on the issue of detainees and enforced disappearances in Syria, highlight it in all periodic annual meetings, and allocate a special session to consideration of this terrible threat.

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