SOHR’s 18th Anniversary | The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights continues supporting Syrian people through disclosing all violations committed by the autocratic authority, challenging pressure and obstacles
SOHR continues to document the sufferings of Syrian people and disclose violations committed by the tyrannical authority until the achievement of the Syrians’ demands to obtain democracy, freedom, justice and equality.
Monitoring violations with the aim of reaching democracy and defending human rights is the major principle for which SOHR was founded as the first Syrian observatory for defending human rights violations and freedom.
SOHR remains the voice of truth that warlords, who repress Syrians and aborted their peaceful revolution, hate.
SOHR has vowed, even before the onset of the Syrian Revolution, to disclose the risks and unpleasant repercussions of ignoring the peaceful transition of power at a time when Al-Assad’s regime has kept clinging to hereditary rule.
SOHR team and founder, Mr. Rami Abdulrahman, believe in the fact that the rights of justice, freedom, equality, the freedom of public expression and public assembly are all basic human rights, and that every Syrian individual has the right to practice and enjoy them as a human without discrimination or exclusion.
Since the beginning of the Syrian Revolution in March 2011:
SOHR has documented by names the death of 507,567 people.
SOHR has documented the death of over 3,200 fighters of the Kurdistan Workers’ Party while fighting alongside Syrian Democratic Forces.
SOHR has documented the kidnapping of 3,200 civilians and fighters in ISIS prisons.
SOHR has documented the capturing and missing of over 4,100 members of regime forces and proxy militiamen.
SOHR has documented the kidnapping of over 1,800 people by rebel factions, Islamist battalions, ISIS and Hayyaat Tahrir Al-Sham.
SOHR brings to mind all members of SOHR staff who were killed, while covering and documenting events in all zones of influence throughout Syria under difficult and dangerous conditions.
SOHR is proud of being registered as a non-profit organisation and that it is a self-financing institution.
SOHR continues its appeals to politicians, human rights activists, decision makers and the international community to interfere immediately to put an end to the bloodshed in Syria.
On the 18th anniversary of the foundation of the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (SOHR) as an independent human rights organisation and after 18 years of hard work and diligent efforts by SOHR activists on the ground, SOHR reaffirms its commitment to proceed with its mission, although the challenges which SOHR activists face in a country dominated by security forces, gangs and militias. Of course, this mission would not be possible without the diligent efforts which we exert on a daily basis in order to achieve the goals we have devoted ourselves to reach since the beginning of the Syrian Revolution.
The Syrian Observatory had been subjected to many attempts designed to foil its efforts seeking to reach democracy and freedom and defending the Syrian Revolution, mainly smear campaigns by different Syrian and regional parties. The smear campaigns which targeted the director of the Syrian Observatory, Rami Abdulrahman, are unrefuted evidence of attempts to stifle voices which have chosen to stay away evil agendas and the ruling power’s narrow interests.
On many occasions, the founder and director of SOHR was accused of “spying,” but such baseless accusations remains evidence of his credibility regarding his stance against a regime that accepts to stay in power, although the policy of this tyrannical regime has been the major factor behind devastating and dividing Syria.
The Syrian observatory continues to document all human rights violations to be a Syrian public reference and a major and trustworthy source of information for every media agency and all Syrian, Arab, regional and international means of public opinion.
On SOHR’s 18th anniversary, we would like to bring to mind that the Syrian Observatory was founded to monitor all human rights violations at all times and everywhere, especially since SOHR has announced its opposition of the Syrian regime five years before the beginning of the Syrian Revolution in 2011. The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights was founded in Europe in 2006, where its founder and director vowed then to support the issues and causes of Syrian people of different faiths and stances. Today, SOHR has become a top platform highlighting the all human rights violations in Syria and the plight of those people calling for freedom and dignity, who have been arrested by the tyrannical ruling power.
The Syrian Observatory has been all along warning against the dangers of the hereditary rule in a republic country like Syria and an aware people like the Syrian people. SOHR was also the first initiator to call for the release of detainees years before the onset of the Syrian Revolutions, while documenting every possible piece of information about detainees arrested by all conflicting powers and exerting diligent efforts to disclose their fate have topped the priorities of SOHR since the beginning of the Syrian Revolution.
Before the Syrian Revolution, SOHR concentrated on disclosing the risks of ignoring the peaceful transition of power and warned against the unpleasant repercussions of passing the rule from the father to the son. SOHR worked at this time, with cooperation with many national Syrian organisations, on finding a solution putting an end to the hereditary rule in Syria. Accordingly, SOHR was then subjected to significant pressure and considerable financial incentives were offered to SOHR’s director to change his stance or keep silent, but all of those attempts were to no avail.
For 18 years, since the foundation of SOHR, we, the staff of the Syrian Observatory and its founder, have been reassuring in our belief in the fact that the rights of justice, freedom, equality, the freedom of public expression and public assembly are all basic human rights, and that every Syrian individual has the right to practice and enjoy them as a human without discrimination or exclusion.
On the 18th anniversary of SOHR, we reaffirm and reassert the Syrian identity which is based on citizenship to counter all projects designed to devastate Syria’s societal unity and values and efforts by occupying powers, mainly Turkey and Iran, to change the demography of different Syrian areas. As a human rights institution, SOHR has adopted a strict stance to defend the dreams of Syrian people to enjoy the principles of freedom, justice, equality and tolerance in their homeland, so that they can cope with extremism, violence and terrorism.
SOHR documented testimonies by detainees and prisoners of free opinion who endured atrocities in prisons, and we attempted, before, during and after the Syrian Revolution, to disclose all blatant and inhumane violations practiced against Syrians in light of the inclusive polices which led Syria to the current disastrous situation.
The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (SOHR) has documented by names the death of 507,567 people since the onset of the Syrian Revolution in March 2011 out of an overall death toll of 617,910 people whose death has been verified by SOHR in the past 13 years. This statistic does not include the following:
- Over 55,000 civilians who were killed under torture in the detention centers and prisons of Bashar al-Assad’s regime (SOHR obtained information about their death during the period of their detention).
- Over 3,200 fighters of Kurdistan Workers’ Party who were killed while fighting alongside Syrian Democratic Forces.
- Hundreds of members of the Lebanese Hezbollah.
- More than 3,200 abducted civilians and fighters in ISIS prisons.
- More than 4,100 prisoners and missing members of regime forces and their proxy militias.
- Over 1,800 persons who were kidnapped by rebel and Islamist factions, “Islamic State” organisation and Hayyaat Tahrir Al-Sham (former Jabhat Al-Nusra) on charges of “loyalty to the regime.”
The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights estimates that the real and actual number of people who were killed since the beginning of conflict in Syria to be over 54,000, well above the numbers that the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights has been able to document, simply due to the extreme secrecy surrounding the number of casualties by the warring parties; furthermore, the Observatory has been unable to document many civilians deaths due to the difficulty of reaching some remote areas in Syria.
Additionally, the ongoing military operations, shelling, bombardment and various explosions have injured more than 2.1 million Syrian civilians with varying injuries, wounds and permanent disabilities.
About 13,000,000 other civilians, including hundreds of thousands of children and women, have been displaced. Furthermore, infrastructure, hospitals, schools, and private and public property have been substantially damaged or destroyed.
On its 18th anniversary, SOHR brings to mind all members of SOHR’s staff, who were killed while covering and documenting events in all zones of influence throughout Syria, under difficult and dangerous conditions. However, those risks have never hindered SOHR activists to continue monitoring and documenting violations committed in Syrian territory.
Since 2011, SOHR activists have sought only to disclose the reprehensible practices by extremist factions and some opposition parties in order to intimidate Syrian revolutionaries and abort their peaceful revolution.
SOHR documented the social dimension of the war and its unwelcome repercussions, such as dropouts, raping, child labour and kidnapping of children and releasing them for ransoms, and it documented the mechanism of drug business, which badly affects Syrian young people in particular, including the routes used for smuggling illicit drugs and places where narcotics are planted, manufactured and sold.
SOHR’s working mechanism has been based on fact-finding, tracking, monitoring, investigation and documentation, so all reports issued by SOHR have been well received by regional and international bodies and SOHR has become the most major, accurate, comprehensive and credible reference for press agencies and media outlets all around the world regarding the violations committed in Syria. As a result, SOHR pages, accounts and websites on social media have been subjected to scores of hacking attempts. However, the high-security measures left the hackers’ attempts ineffective.
On the other hand, the UK-based Syrian Observatory was able to overcome all challenges it has faced to communicate with activists in different zones of influence in Syrian territory, especially since communications were cut off in all areas experiencing conflicts and battles. The efforts exerted by SOHR to secure required supplies and equipment needed for filming and documenting war crimes have been evidence of SOHR’s seriousness and insistence to neutrally highlight all developments on the ground; this proves that SOHR is a trustworthy platform undertaking the mission of providing all evidence and eyewitnesses proving criminals guilty, in the case that effective trials are carried out. Accordingly, SOHR activists have been present in all zones, disregarding the risks and high tension in areas where they are covering violations and developments, so many activists have sustained various injuries, while other activists were killed.
After SOHR having proven itself as the most credible source monitoring developments on the ground throughout Syria and for its ability to monitor, document and highlight those developments neutrally and professionally, many global human rights organisations provided offers to start partnership with SOHR.
We are so proud that SOHR has been still registered as a non-profit organisation and that it is a self-financing institution. It is worth noting that SOHR’s director refused many offers by states and governmental organisations to fund SOHR, under conditions contravening with the principles of human rights work, in order to serve their agendas.
SOHR accepted only one funding offer provided by the United Nations as a part of a human rights project for supporting correspondents and activists who monitor developments on the ground. It is worth noting that this contract was expired years ago.
We, at Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (SOHR), renew our appeal to the United Nations’ authorities to accelerate procedures and solutions which could probably put an end to the tragic situation in Syria, which, in turn, has badly impacted all Syrian people inside and outside Syria, and we call upon the international community to implement the related international resolutions with the aim of easing off Syrians’ sufferings.
The Syrian Observatory renews its commitment to continue monitoring and documenting all the violations committed by all parties and developments on the ground in Syria until achieving the goals SOHR was founded for.
SOHR calls for respecting the Syrian people’s will to decide its fate and reaffirm that it will continue supporting the Syrian Revolution and its fundamentals whatever it costs.
We also calls upon politicians, human rights activists, decision makers and international community once again to work hard to stop the bloodshed and blatant violations in Syria. The people of Syria have been facing tyranny and oppression in their noble endeavour and cause obtaining justice, democracy, freedom and equality.