Situation of Human Rights in the Syrian Arab Republic

A/HRC/RES/50/19View PDF

Who adopted this document and its mandates?

A Resolution of the Human Rights Council, under agenda item 4 Human rights situations that require the Council's attention, published in 2022.

What else is in this group?

34 documents · 2011–2025

Newer documents in this group exist (latest: 2025).

Year	Symbol	Title	Word length	Text similarity
2025	A/RES/80/224	Situation of human rights in the Syrian Arab Republic	3,420	–
2025	A/HRC/RES/58/25	Situation of human rights in the Syrian Arab Republic	2,313	–
2024	A/RES/79/185	Situation of human rights in the Syrian Arab Republic	9,733	–
2024	A/HRC/RES/57/21	Situation of human rights in the Syrian Arab Republic	2,527	–
2024	A/HRC/RES/55/22	Situation of human rights in the Syrian Arab Republic	3,802	–

This group bundles related documents that are not individually ordered.

What subjects does this mandate have?

7 subjects

Accountability Children in Armed Conflicts Human Rights Human Rights Violations Sex Crimes Syrian Arab Republic Women in Armed Conflicts

What’s in this document?

19 operative paragraphs

Condemns in the strongest of terms all acts of sexual and gender-based violence committed by all parties since the start of the conflict in 2011;

Reaffirms that acts of sexual and gender-based violence, when committed as part of a widespread or systematic attack directed against any civilian population, can constitute crimes against humanity, and that acts of sexual and gender-based violence in situations of armed conflict can constitute war crimes;

Calls upon all parties to the conflict to immediately cease the perpetration of sexual and gender-based violence against all persons in the Syrian Arab Republic;

Urges all parties to immediately respect and protect the full enjoyment by children of all their human rights, and to prevent and protect children from all forms of violence, including killing and maiming, sexual and gender-based violence, exploitation, and violations and abuses, including the unlawful recruitment and use of children in the armed conflict and unlawful attacks on schools and hospitals;

Calls upon all parties to ensure that children affected by the conflict receive appropriate assistance, including access to identity documentation, education, justice and health care, including the provision of mental health and psychosocial support, strongly condemns the use of schools for military purposes, and encourages the Independent International Commission of Inquiry on the Syrian Arab Republic to continue its investigation and documentation of violations and abuses of the rights of the child, in particular their impact on the right to education;

Strongly condemns the continued use of arbitrary detention, torture and ill-treatment, including through sexual and gender-based violence, involuntary or enforced disappearance and summary executions, which the Commission of Inquiry noted had been carried out with consistency, by all parties to the conflict, first and foremost by the Syrian regime, and calls for the immediate cessation of arbitrary detention, as well as torture and other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment, and sexual and gender-based violence;

Also strongly condemns that tens of thousands of individuals have been killed in the custody of the Syrian authorities, and that, in detention centres, rape and sexual and gender-based violence have been used, including against children, as a tool to punish, humiliate and instil fear, and demands in this respect the immediate release of all persons arbitrarily or unlawfully detained by the Syrian regime;

Demands that the Syrian Arab Republic meet its responsibility to protect its population and to respect and protect the human rights of all persons within its jurisdiction, including persons in detention and their families, in particular those who are at risk of sexual and gender-based violence, in a manner consistent with the applicable international law obligations of the Syrian Arab Republic, including those that are relevant to women and children, including under the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women and the Convention on the Rights of the Child;

Condemns the gross systematic abuse of women’s and children’s rights by terrorist groups and armed groups, including so-called ISIL (also known as Da’esh), in particular those involving the killing of women and girls, sexual and gender-based violence including the enslavement and sexual exploitation and abuse of women and girls, and the recruitment, use and abduction of children;

Expresses grave concern at the disproportionate impact on women and children of the dire humanitarian conditions in all parts of the Syrian Arab Republic, reaffirms the need for full, safe and unhindered humanitarian access, and calls for the renewal of the cross-border mechanism by the Security Council in its resolution in July 2022;

Calls for every effort to be made to ensure justice for those who have suffered as a result of such crimes, including accountability and reparations, and urges all parties to the conflict to respect and protect the full enjoyment by women and children of their human rights and to heed the recommendations made by the Commission of Inquiry;

Reaffirms the need to end impunity through the prosecution of perpetrators of sexual and gender-based crimes under national and international law, and stresses the need for the perpetrators of these crimes to be held accountable by national justice systems or, where applicable, international courts and tribunals, and acknowledges in this regard the role of the International Impartial and Independent Mechanism to Assist in the Investigation and Prosecution of Persons Responsible for the Most Serious Crimes under International Law Committed in the Syrian Arab Republic since March 2011 and the International Criminal Court;

Welcomes the progress made on accountability efforts, and in this regard the judgment in January 2022 of a higher regional court in Germany finding a former director of the Syrian intelligence service guilty of crimes against humanity, including rape and sexual abuse, and notes the importance of this verdict and further ongoing proceedings under the principle of universal jurisdiction to bring truth to light and perpetrators to justice, and of the joint initiative taken by Canada and the Netherlands to hold the Syrian Arab Republic responsible for breach of its obligations under the Convention against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment;

Recognizes the need for a coordinated and effective survivor-centred approach in preventing and responding to such violence and abuse, and calls for immediate and non-discriminatory access to services, such as health care and psychosocial support, to be provided to all survivors of such crimes, and underlines the need for effective and gender-sensitive measures to be in place to ensure the safety, confidentiality, privacy and broader protection of survivors and witnesses of sexual violence in accountability processes;

Calls upon all parties to the conflict to adopt a more robust response to sexual and gender-based violence across the whole of the Syrian Arab Republic, including by raising awareness and addressing stigma, and calls for the protection of women human rights defenders and women peacebuilders and for the full, equal and meaningful participation and representation of Syrian women in humanitarian and political decision-making;

Strongly supports the efforts of the Special Envoy of the Secretary-General for Syria to make progress in the political process and to advance further aspects of Security Council resolution 2254 (2015) of 18 December 2015, and particularly the pivotal role of the Women’s Advisory Board and its work to enhance the participation of women in the peace process;

Calls for the lifting of constraints faced by women in the Syrian Arab Republic in their access to economic resources and opportunities, including by ending discrimination against women with respect to access to property or on the grounds of national origin or family, particularly in regime-held areas, in order to promote equal opportunities for the benefit of Syrian society as a whole;

Requests the Commission of Inquiry to consider updating its report on sexual and gender-based violence, taking a victim- and survivor-centred approach, and in particular to look to make recommendations, including on broader efforts to bolster women’s full, equal and meaningful participation in political and public life;

Decides to remain seized of the matter.

Who adopted this document and its mandates?

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