UN Human Rights in Syria

Profile

OHCHR Syria operates with a full mandate to protect and promote human rights:

• monitoring and reporting on the human rights situation in Syria, highlighting emerging human rights concerns and providing early warning analysis.
• providing legal analysis of the complex situation in Syria and supporting victim-centric accountability endeavours
• providing capacity building and technical support to Syrian civil society as well as technical cooperation with Syrian actors
• supporting the humanitarian leadership in each of the Whole of Syria hubs (Damascus, Amman, Gaziantep) to strengthen the integration and mainstreaming of human rights in the UN’s humanitarian response.

The Office supports UN efforts to broker a peace process as stipulated by Security Council Resolution 2254, particularly through closer engagement with the Office of the Special Envoy to Syria, and is committed to the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, with a strong focus on peace/justice/strong institutions and gender equality. All units of OHCHR Syria integrate a gender perspective in shaping the work, and the Office is participating in OHCHR’s Gender Accreditation Programme in 2022/2023.

Type of engagement: Country Office

Year established: 2019 (preceded by a smaller monitoring presence from 2013)

Field offices: Beirut, Lebanon (restricted physical access to Syria)

UN Human Rights Focus Areas

Thematic pillars for 2021 - 2023

• Advance the core human right principle of participation
• Mainstreaming human rights within peace and security
• Advance the core human right principle of accountability

Spotlight populations for 2021 - 2023

• Women
• People with disabilities

Last reviewed: September 2022