Human Rights Watch: Syrian Government Has Provided Only Limited Transparency in Holding Senior Officials Accountable
ARK News.. Human Rights Watch stated in its annual report, World Report 2026, that Syria’s new government took initial steps in 2025 to advance justice and accountability for crimes and violations committed by the former government, signaling a potential shift in the human rights file after many years.
In its report released on Wednesday, 4 February 2026, Human Rights Watch said Syrian authorities had established new government bodies tasked with transitional justice and uncovering the fate of thousands of missing persons. However, the organization warned of a lack of transparency regarding the responsibility of senior leaders for “recent acts of violence.”
The report noted that a constitutional declaration issued in March 2025 affirmed the independence of the judiciary, but stressed the need to establish the necessary legal and institutional frameworks to prosecute serious international crimes, address command responsibility, and avoid limiting accountability to individual offenses alone.
Human Rights Watch said that “the Syrian authorities have provided only limited transparency regarding the role of senior military and civilian officials in the violence that occurred across the country in 2025, particularly violence carried out on the basis of identity.”
According to the report, “the deployment of government forces in response to attacks and armed violence in the governorates of Latakia, Tartous, and Hama in March, and in Suwayda in July, led to a wave of identity-based violence. Despite the launch of credible investigations into these incidents, the authorities have not clarified how those in positions of command authority implicated in the violence will be held accountable.”
Adam Coogle, Deputy Middle East Director at Human Rights Watch, said that Syria’s new authorities have made justice and accountability a priority, “but these efforts cannot be selective or one-sided.”
He added: “To move Syria into a new era that respects rights, comprehensive accountability must be ensured for violations committed by all parties before and after December 2024, including institutional responsibility, not only individual crimes.”
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