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Period covered:  November 2013
Subject: death toll of civilians and armed rebels in November 2013
Prepared by Syrian Network for Human Rights

Syrian Network for Human Rights is independent of any government and political ideology.  We have more than 100 members, distributed in all Syrian provinces and neighboring countries.

SNHR documents human rights violations and victims killed during the Syria Revolution.

2,583 Syrian citizens were killed; including 663 armed rebels and 1,920 civilians.  Among the civilians, there are 227 children, 194 women, and 123 tortured to death including 2 media activists and 1 child.

In November: the civilian causalities exceeded 100,000 victims, including more than 12,000 children and 11,000 women.

The daily average of killings this month was 92 people a day, 4 people an hour.

The rate of children killed was so high this month: 277 child-victims with an average of 9 children a day, and the proportion of the children killed relative to the death toll is 14%, which is a very high rate and strict evidence that the Government Forces are targeting the civilians.

194 female victims killed at an average of 6 women a day, and the proportion of the women killed to the death toll is 8%, which is a very high rate and strict evidence that the Government Forces are targeting the civilians.

123 victims tortured to death at an average of 7 victims a day tortured to death in formal and informal detention centers.

The proportion of women killed, children, and victims tortured to death is 28%.  This clearly shows the invalidity of the Syrian government’s claims that it is fighting al-Qaeda, extremists and terrorists.  These figures clearly show that they are killing the Syrian people.

SNHR would like to indicate that what we could document by our deployed members in all of the Syrian provinces are classified by names date and place, photo or video.

We couldn’t document many cases of massacres and killing for many reasons, including procedures repeatedly and systematically used by the Syrian Government’s Armed Forces, like communications disconnection and blockading areas for many days. Such acts make the actual number higher than the one provided.  Not to mention that the Syrian government has prevented any of the human rights organizations from performing their duty in its territory.

It should be mentioned that work mechanism of Syrian Network for Human Rights’ Group is based on precise verification and documentation methods, and on our members deployed in the Syrian territory to gather facts and take written testimonies, live images and videos, oral and registered interviews audio, and video interviews so as to complement the efforts exerted to document human rights violations under the restrictions imposed by the Syrian government on the network members or any other Human Rights organization to work on Syrian territory.  The real number may exceed the one provided by dozens, especially in the case of massacres where they imposed blockage and cut communications.

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Legal conclusions

1-     SNHR is assured that the Syrian Government’s Armed Groups and Shabiha violated Previsions of Human Rights International Law which protect the right of life, in addition to dozens of cases considered as a war crimes (murder cases).

Undoubted Evidence of hundreds of eyewitness stories reveal that more than 90% of expanded and individual attacks were directed against civilians, and that’s all contrary to the Syrian Government’s claims that they are fighting Al-Qaeda and terrorists.

2-     SNHR also indicates that the documented events are also crimes against humanity, where the condition of widespread and systematically directed attacks against civilian population groups in most cases of murder was achieved.

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Condemnation and Responsibilities:

Responsibility of states for internationally wrongful acts, similarly, Customary IHL provides that the state is responsible for all acts committed by a member of its military and security forces.  Thus, the state is responsible for wrongful acts committed by its military and security forces, including crimes against humanity.

SNHR holds the Syrian President Commander in Chief of the Syrian army, Bashar al-Assad, responsible for all acts of homicide, torture and massacres perpetrated in Syria as he holds the primary responsibility for giving the orders for these acts.  SNHR considers all Syrian regime members and heads of the security and military bodies directly complicit in those acts.  By the same token, SNHR considers the Iranian government and Hezbullah as direct partners in the acts of homicide who shall legally and judicially be held liable for those acts along with all those funding and supporting the Syrian regime which is systematically committing massacres on a daily basis.  SNHR holds all the above mentioned parties responsible for all consequences and potential reactions from the Syrian people in general and the families of the victims in particular.

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Recommendations:

Human right council

1-    Call upon the Security Council and relevant organizations to take upon their responsibility towards what’s happening to the Syrian children who are and have been affected from the constant killings.

2-    Exert pressure on the Syrian government to stop the random and deliberate shelling of civilians.

3-    Hold the allies and supporters of the Syrian government: Russia, Iran, and China, morally and physically responsible for the killings in Syria.

4-    Serious attention of the disastrous situation and give it a high priority, and try to take care of victims’ children and families.

Security Council:

1-    Decision to refer all the criminals and the involved to the ICC.

2-    Warn and send a clear message to the Syrian Government about the repercussions of using brutal methods and systematic killing.

Arab League:

1-    Demand the Human Rights Council and United Nations to give this serious issue the right attention and follow up.

2-    Political and diplomatic pressure on the Syrian Government Troops’  main allies-Russia, Iran, and China -to prevent them from continuously providing cover and international and political protection for all the crimes committed against the Syrian people, and hold them morally and physically responsible for all the excesses of the Syrian Government Troops.