UN Commission of Inquiry team visits Syria, welcomes encouraging signs by new authorities to engage on human rights issues, and urges protection of mass graves and evidence

GENEVA - Team members from a United Nations inquiry into human rights abuses in Syria received new information about the former Government’s detention facilities and mass grave sites during their first visit to the country since the Human Rights Council established the probe in 2011.

This first in-country visit marked a potential new beginning for greater cooperation with the Commission as well as with other national and international human rights bodies.

The Commission team visited former prisons and detention centres, including Sednaya prison and Military Intelligence Branch 235 (“Palestine Branch”). It was dismayed to see that much evidence and documentation that could assist families to discover the whereabouts of disappeared loved ones and serve as evidence in future accountability processes had been damaged, taken or destroyed.

In some cases, large storehouses of documents had been set on fire and burned. Families at some of these sites were combing through whatever documentation remained, in the hope of finding any clues as to the fate of their loved ones.

The team also observed large number of documents that were still salvageable, and received information that additional records have been safeguarded in other locations, either in situ by the caretaker government or elsewhere by civil society organizations.

The team also learned exhumation of mass graves has already begun, both by rescue organisations and by private individuals.

The Commission warned that actions taken now, even if well-intentioned, may complicate future efforts to identify the people who were lost and bring closure to their families. Utmost care must be taken to protect mass grave sites and to safeguard all documents and evidence across Syria.

To help in this, the Commission suggested that the new government establish a unit to lead and coordinate the protection and preservation of mass grave sites as well as all relevant documentation, until such time as Syrian and international experts can examine them and forensically exhume bodies and remains, to protect families’ right to truth.

Several national and international human rights and humanitarian entities have offered to aid in this endeavour, to protect documents and locations pertaining to potential crimes - both for future accountability processes as well as for the humanitarian imperative of locating the missing and supporting their families.

Meanwhile, the Commission suggested that the government issue appropriate proclamations at the highest level through public communications channels requiring the public to refrain from disturbing such sites and that any documents or evidence taken be returned, while communicating that this will facilitate the justice and accountability processes to follow in the months and years ahead.

At this critical juncture in Syria’s history, and at a time of great expectations by the Syrian people, the Commission reiterate its full solidarity with the entire Syrian people, and stands ready to support in any capacity it can.

ENDS

Background: The Independent International Commission of Inquiry on the Syrian Arab Republic was established on 22 August 2011 by the Human Rights Council through resolution S-17/1.The mandate of the Commission is to investigate all alleged violations of international human rights law since March 2011 in the Syrian Arab Republic. The Human Rights Council also tasked the Commission with establishing the facts and circumstances that may amount to such violations and of the crimes perpetrated and, where possible, to identify those responsible with a view of ensuring that perpetrators of violations, including those that may constitute crimes against humanity, are held accountable. The Human Rights Council has repeatedly extended the Commission's mandate since then, most recently until 31 March 2025.

More information on the work of the UN Commission of Inquiry on Syria can be found here, and its recent specialized reports on violations committed in detention facilities can be found here and here.

For media requests, please contact: Johan Eriksson, UN Syria Commission of Inquiry Media Adviser, at +41 76 691 0411 / [email protected]; or Todd Pitman, Media Adviser, Investigative Missions, at +41766911761 / [email protected]; Pascal Sim, Human Rights Council Media Officer at +41229179763 / [email protected].