Report prepared by Syrian Network for Human Rights
Rule 135. of Customary IHL
Rule 135. Children affected by armed conflict are entitled to special respect and protection.
Introduction:
In Mid February of 2012, The nature of Syrian conflict was described as a non-international armed conflict. That means each party to the conflict should be bound to apply Common Article 3 to the four Geneva Convections as well as Customary Norms of International Human Rights Law relating to non international armed conflicts
Security council resolution 1325/2000: emphasizing all member states to fully implement international humanitarian law and human rights, based violence during conflicts.
International criminal law provides means to implement international sanctions for serious violations against customary law , international law and international human rights law Where these crimes are seen as an individual commitment. As noted, the international criminal law tries persons accused of such crimes: genocide, crimes against humanity, crimes of aggression, and war crimes.
As of February 2013, 122 states are parties to the Rome Statues of International Criminal Court, although the Syrian Arab Republic had signed the Rome Statue of International Criminal Court, it has not ratified the treaty yet
According to Article 13 of ICC
(Exercise of jurisdiction)
(b) A situation in which one or more of such crimes appears to have been committed is referred to the Prosecutor by the Security Council acting under Chapter VII of the Charter of the United Nations; or
The Security Council can refer Syrian file to the Prosecutor of ICC for investigation
Syrian Government
First : Unlawful killing:
Documenting the death toll, those killed by the Syrian Government Armed Forces
International Humanitarian Law: Rule 89. Murder is prohibited
SNHR: by our daily monitoring, where over 100 members are deployed in all of the Syrian provinces and their direct connection to the events that took place on the Syrian territory, we have documented the killing of at least 10,913 children by Government Forces. Below, the annex contains our file names, photos, date and place of their martyrdom. Dated 21 August 2013
Among the 10,913 child-victims, there are:
- At least 530 field-executed, either stabbed to death like the victims killed in the Hwola village massacre, Karm Alziton neighborhood massacre, and Rifaai neighborhood massacre in Homs. Finally Raas Alnabaa and Biyda village massacre in Baniyas, or shot as those killed in many places and villages all around Syria;
- 2,305 children as old as 10 years old;
- 76 are infants
Different and multiple ways that children were killed:
1- Shelling;
2- Sniping;
3- Raiding and field executions;
4- Shockingly: there are among at least 194,000 Syrian detainees. More than 9,000 of them are children (under 18), Syrian governorates’ armed forces used extremely violent torture methods against them that barley differ from methods used against adults. They don’t differentiate between children and adults in detention.
Many of those who were released told us that they heard the cries of the screaming children “we want our mother , we want to get out.”
Syrian government armed forces tortured to death at least 87 children that were arrested and tortured in prisons. They even died while they were in the hands of the executioner.
Please find all the above mentioned details, documented carefully in the following annex (it contains information as of 4 June 2013, but the numbers are provided as of 20 May 2013)
https://docs.google.com/file/d/0B9Bj18tlYYKBZ0VEanJ6djR4MGM/edit
Child-victims deployed to all the Syrian Governorates as follows:
1- 2,252 children killed in Aleppo
2- 2,109 children killed in Damascus countryside
3- 1,743 children killed in Homs
4- 1,435 children killed in Idlib
5- 999 children killed in Daraa
6- 697 children killed in Hama
7- 642 children killed in Dier Alzoor
8- 493 children killed in Damascus
9- 176 children killed in Raqqa
10- 63 children killed in Lattakia
11- 75 children killed other nationalities
12- 70 children killed in Hasaka
13- 28 children killed in Qunaitra
14- 46 children killed in Tartous
15- 2 children killed in Swidaa
Examples of children from various Syrian Governorates narrates their own stories of shelling , sniping , and parents killing by Syrian Government Armed Forces
Aleppo Governorate
– Aleppo/Albab road , 13-9-2012 , child tells how Syrian Government Forces warplanes bombed his house
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d7LMpwpKi8E
– Aleppo/Bustan al- Qasr ,20-8-2012, child tells the story of his injury cause Syrian Government Armed Forces shelling
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=knuJRUquKUQ
– Aleppo / Masharqa – 18-4-2013, child tells how he was beaten by Syrian Government Shabiha
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Dier Alzoor Governorate
– Dier Alzoor , 31-7-2012 , child tells how Syrian Government Forces warplanes bombed his house
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hEaGhBVm3RU
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Lattakia Governorate
– Lattakia countryside/Alhafa , child tell how Shabiha killed his mother
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dB8Lhh0bXik
Daraa Governorate
– Daraa/Dael village , 29-4-2012 , child tells the story of his injury by a sniper bullet for Syrian Government Armed Forces
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v3JojTBSAy0
Hama Governorate
– Hama countryside/Latamna , 13-4-2012 , child tells the details of Latamna massacre committed by Shabiha
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Azdk85wtKAM
Damascus countryside Governorate
– Damascus countryside/Doma , 3-3-2013 , child tells how Syrian Government armed forces shelled his house
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GezSqhhBVxM
– Damascus countryside/Kafar Batna , 8-11-2012, wounded child tells the killing of his sister cause of shelling by Syrian Government Armed Forces
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7-6K81VaNqE
– Damascus countryside/Doma , 3-3-2013 , child tells how his twin brother killed cause of Syrian Government Armed Forces shelling
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ymslf_HoU1E
Idlib Governorate
– Idlib/Sahl Alghab ,30-10-2012 , child tells how Syrian Government Armed Forces shelled his house
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DDM-vW_Y58c
Homs Governorate
– Homs/Houla village , 17-1-2013 ,child tells how Syrian Government Armed Forces shelled his house
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rvV_oKyVG0o
– Homs/Karm Alzitoun , 19-3-2012 , child tells how Syrian Government Armed Forces shelled his house
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ISk4GXyxgy8
– Homs/Rastan , 24-7-2012 , child tells the story of his injury cause Syrian Government Armed Forces’ warplane shelling on his house
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jn_RbamqR7Y
Despite the Syrian government’s repeated allegations that it is fighting Al-Qaeda, the Afghan terrorist organization, the attacks are deliberately, systematically and extensively aimed at civilians. This is considered to fall under the definition of war crimes found under Article 8 of the Rome Statue.
Systematic and extensive Syrian armed forces attacks created thousands of child-victims in all of the Syrian governorates, and are therefore tantamount to crimes against humanity according to Article 7 of the Rome Statue.
Second : proportion of the children killed
Civilians make up the largest percentage of victims killed by the Syrian Government Armed Forces. Their proportion is 88% and the proportion of armed rebels killed is less than 12%. This rate exceeded the proportion of civilian victims that were killed in World War I and II, which was 57 %.
The proportion of children killed is 12%, which is a very, very high and scary rate and strict proof that civilians are targeted by the Syrian government’s Armed Forces through systematic shelling by Scud missiles, the deliberate and barbaric random shelling with TNT by warplanes that shell over the heads of civilians without any discrimination.
Third: Arrest and detention of children
Article VII of the International Convention (International Human Rights law) clearly prohibits torture and other cruel, inhumane, or degrading treatment or punishment.
SNHR estimates at least 9,000 children detained in security branches and prisons were arrested during the raids. Many of them were arrested to exert pressure on their relatives to surrender.
Many surviving children told the story of their suffering and how the same cruel torturing methods similar to the ones used against adult men were used against them.
SNHR documented the most common torture methods used against children during their detention in Security Branches or prisons, according to testimonies of children survived from arrest:
1- Using all methods of beating on all body parts by different tools such as stakes and electric cables, colloquially called robai, to beat on the soles and tread of the head.
2- Completely uprooting fingernails.
3- Removing hair from different parts of the body
4- Cutting out flesh with forceps from sensitive organs
5- Cutting out some parts of the detainee’s body; such as finger, flesh, or stabbing their back or stomach
6- burning detainee’s skin using chemical acids or cigarettes.
7- exposing the detainee after forcing them to take off all their clothes off to extremely cold temperatures.
8- completely depriving the detainee of medical care as there is a lack of medical care in a large number of prisons.
9- Preventing the detainee from using the toilet more than once or twice a day, forcing him/her sometimes to urinate on his self/her self. If the detainee is allowed to use toilet, the period may not exceed a minute. The detainee is also prevented from taking showers, or even going out for a breath of fresh air.
10- Pouring cold water over the body after being hit and wounded.
11- Cracking ribs.
12- Insufficient amount of water and food, there is not even enough to feed a quarter of the detainees.
13- Pouring boiling oil or water over legs
14- Cutting the ears using clippers meant to trim trees.
15- Hammering the detainees’ ears and nose with a mallet.
16- Electric shocking, especially in breasts, knees, and elbows.
These torture methods led to the death of more than 87 children documented by name, date, photo, and video.
All those detained children were deprived of education and stopped their study years with another at least 150,000 children because of the destruction, shelling, and damage to almost 3,200 schools. Also, dozens of schools were broken into because of student involvement in anti – government demonstrations. More than 140 teachers were killed by the Syrian Government’s Armed Forces.
Syrian Government starkly violated a number of Customary IHL rules
Rule 90. Torture, cruel or inhuman treatment and outrages upon personal dignity, in particular humiliating and degrading treatment, are prohibited.
Rule 91. Corporal punishment is prohibited.
Rule 120. Children who are deprived of their liberty must be held in quarters separate from those of adults, except where families are accommodated as family units.
Fourth: Sexual Violence
By conducting multiple interviews with sexual violence victims, we found that there are dozens of minors (under 18) were raped. We can’t give accurate statistics, there are many cases that couldn’t be documented, and other concerned persons declined to talk about it, but our estimations refer to more than 400 rapes for minor girls in various Syrian Governorates.
Girls under 15 in Refai, Karm Alzaitoun and Baba Amr neighborhoods in Homs were raped by Syrian government armed forces, many similar cases took place against other minor girls in Damascus countryside, Idlib (precisely Jisr Alshagour), Daraa, Hama, Lattakia, and other areas. They are extensive systematic methods that negatively and terribly reflect on the psyches of those girls since they were still virgins. Some of them never knew what sex was, many of of them collapsed when talking about what happened to them. Most documented rape cases occurred during the raid, others in detentions.
Rule 93. Rape and other forms of sexual violence are prohibited.
Rape and sexual violence associated non – international armed conflict, and can therefore be prosecuted as a war crime committed by the Syrian Government Armed Forces.
The practice of rape and sexual assault formed was one of the torture methods used in formal and informal detention centers, in violation of International Human Rights Law and International Humanitarian Law.
Fifth: Child Recruitment
We didn’t document the Syrian Government Armed Forces’ use of child soldiers in its ranks.
On the other hand, they used children and civilians as human shields during raids.
Rule 97. The use of human shields is prohibited.
Sixth: Refugee Children
SNHR estimates that more than 75% of the refugees in the neighboring countries are women and children. According to the last statistic conducted by SNHR: the number of Syrian refugees is 2,365,000 refugees including 1.1 million children under the age of 18. Most of them suffer under the harsh living and educational conditions, and urgent need for long time psychiatric treatment is required for the horror of massacres, shelling, and destruction that occurred in their towns and villages.
Attachment and annexes contain samples of the extensive systematic violations that took place in all the Syrian governorates against children of the Syrian people.
Homs Governorate:
– Homs, Bab Siba, 28-11-2012 , child lost his eye , many operation conducted to him but in vain
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BJKswurhhVU
– Homs, Rastan, 12-11-2012 , trying to revive a child wounded by shelling
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RxpjcRObdso
– Homs, Rastan, 3-4-2012 , child has serious injury cause of shelling
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C5Ifvk66FfM
– Homs – Ter Mala village, 14-11-2012, child has serious injury cause of shelling
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KOvm10rQ0oQ
– Homs – Khaldiah, 20-5-2012, child injured cause of sniper bullet
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-_TiulgQVn0
Daraa Governorate
– Daraa -Jizzah , 12-7-2012 ,childe shot with three bullets by Syrian Army
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YgqFMgezKOQ
Dier Alzoor Governorate
– Dier Alzoor – Mohasan , 19-9-2012 , child lost his leg cause of shelling on bread bakery while he was trying to get some bread
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fet6x5KJAlQ
Aleppo Governorate:
– Aleppo – Albab , 18-11-2012 , child injured cause of shelling
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H_mlcx31rQE
– Aleppo – Alshaar , 4-11-2012 , child injured cause of shelling
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O6MjvIDFs84
Hama Governorate
– Hama , 18-5-2012 , child injured cause of shelling
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1AtLgu9p1rM
Damascus and countryside
– Damascus countryside – Madaia , 5-8-2012 , child shot by a sniper bullet
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4_4cD2xpR4w
– Damascus countryside – Moazamiat Alsahm , 12-12-2012 , child shot by a sniper bullet
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L_OKRoWCwUc
– Damascus – Hajar Aswad , 13-12-2012 , child injury cause of shelling
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P1GxovcxZSE
Idlib Governorate
– Idlib – Aldana , 26-7-2012 , child with severe injured cause of shelling , doctors trying to help him but in vain
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m-b2b08IMYs
Legal conclusions:
The Syrian government violated both International Human Rights Law and International Humanitarian Law.
According to Article 7 and Article 8 of the Rome Statue, and many other rules of customary IHL (rules No. 89-90-93-97-120-135)
The Syrian Government Armed Forces committed extensive systematic war crimes and other crimes against humanity with its use of unlawful killings, torture, and sexual violence.
Armed Rebels
1- SNHR documented the killing of 22 children, most of them killed during the shelling by armed opposition against areas loyal to the Syrian regime.
https://docs.google.com/file/d/0B9Bj18tlYYKBWnVVdi1EZ3RJM0E/edit
2- Most common violations committed by Armed Rebels is using children under 18 in dangerous non-combat roles (such as: support fighters, medical support, correspondence, espionage, cooking, and other services etc….) , and in some rare conditions, fighting and carrying weapons.
Conclusions:
1- SNHR are watching the use of children in dangerous non-combat roles and other rare cases in combat roles and carrying weapons with concern, although it is not extensive.
2- ICC considers the conscription and enlistment of children under the age of 15 and their use and participation in hostilities a war crime.
3- SNHR didn’t document any case of carrying weapons for children under 15, but there is evidence and documented cases where children participated in non-combat roles.
Condemnation and responsibilities:
Responsibility of states for internationally wrongful acts, similarly, Customary IHL provides that that the state is responsible for all acts committed by a member of its military and security forces. Thus, the state is responsible of wrongful acts committed by its military and security forces including crimes against humanity.
Prohibition of crimes against humanity are among the rules of jus cogens or peremptory, and the punishment of such crimes is compulsory according to the General principles of international law. Moreover, the crimes against humanity are the height violations of basic human rights, such as the right to life and prohibition of torture or other cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment. In accordance with the principles of State responsibility in international law, Syrian Arabic Republic hold responsibility for such crimes and violations, the duty to ensure punishment of the perpetrators individually and the duty to provide compensation to victims.
SNHR holds all violations committed by Syrian Government Armed Forces to the Syrian government and the General Commander of the army and the armed forces, Bashar Al-Assad, and to all the officials of security branches, and to all financial and moral supporters of those forces, with the legal judicial and material consequences to the victims and their families in addition to all the reactions that will come by the families or their friends.
We also condemn violations committed by some armed rebel factions and demand interim government to take its responsibility in this regard.
Recommendations:
Human right council
1- Call upon the security council and relevant organizations to take upon their responsibility towards what’s happening to Syrian children from killing, rape, and displacement.
2- Exert pressure on the Syrian government to stop torturing, demand the release of all children and stop the pressure placed on their parents through their detention and torture.
3- Hold the allies and supporter of the Syrian government: Russia, Iran, China, morally and physically responsible towards what’s happening to the Syrian children.
4- Serious attention of this case and give it a high priority and try to take care of torture-victims’ families.
Security Council:
1- Decision to refer all the criminals and the involved to the ICC
2- Warn the Syrian Government Troops of the repercussions of using brutal methods and systematic killing and send clear messages about the illegality of their use.
Arab League:
1- Demand the Human Rights Council and United Nations to give this serious issue the right attention and follow up
2- Serious attention of this case and give it a high priority, and try to take care of tortured child-victims and mentally, physically, and educationally rehab them.
3- Political and diplomatic pressure on the Syrian Government Troops’ main allies – Russia, Iran, and China – to prevent them from continuous providing cover and international and political protection for all the crimes committed against the Syrian people and hold them morally and physically responsibility for all the excesses of the Syrian Government Troops.
Transitional Government:
1- Media and Political deserved attention of this case, and continuously raised in Syrian Friends Conferences.
2- Demand Human Right Council and United Nations to give this serious issue the right attention and follow up.
3- Form specialized committees to follow up on the conditions of detainees families and care of them financially and morally.
4- Form specialized committees to provide moral and psychological support to rehab children and what’s happening to them from killing , rape , rape and displacement.
5- Condemnation, accounting, and follow up torture committed by opposition armed factions.
