An open letter to President Bashar al-Assad   I write to you while I am still suffering from severe health problems that resulted from my deteriorating health duringto my arrest from the 5th of February till the 15th of February 2011. I am still conducting medical examinations during sick leave.   At this time, I […]

The Syrian government has continued the practice of holding family members hostage to pressure fathers or relatives to turn themselves in or abstain from opposing the Syrian regime. A security patrol arrested Dr. Zeid Al – Aissami, 42 years from his clinic in Damascus on the 9th of January 2008 and held him hostage in […]

Audio, visual and written media have been under the direct control of the regime for the past 45 years. Both the Syrian television and its sister, the Syrian satellite channel, are state – run. The three daily papers, Al – Ba’ath, Al – Thawra, and Tishreen are controlled by the Ba’ath Party and the Syrian […]

Syrian authorities persisted in its policy of opening fire on citizens for the most trivial of reasons. Many Syrians died at the hands of security forces. What follows are some of the cases that have been documented. On the evening of the 20th of March 2008, security forces opened fire on a group of Kurds […]

In 2008, Syrian Authorities resumed a campaign of arrests it had started in 2007 by detaining senior members of the Damascus Declaration for National Democratic Change (DDNDC) who held their conference on the 10th December 2007. The conference demanded peaceful political reforms geared towards introducing the principles of democracy into the Syrian system. On the […]

All detentions in Syria can be classified as random. The Emergency Law allows arrests to be made without legal warrants or any form of organising principles. Even the most junior official could issue a verbal order of arrest, interrogation, torture and abuse. Most random arrests are based on informers’ reports, usually full of falsehoods and […]

Syrian Authorities placed greater restrictions on the work of independent civil society institutions such as sports clubs and civil, social and cooperative societies. These unconstitutional and illegal acts have been spearheaded by the Minister of Awqaf, Mohammed Abdulsattar Al – Sayyed, Minister of Labour and Social Affairs, Diala Al – Hajj Arif and several security […]

Syria is ruled by a tight security hold, and expression of ‎opinion is forbidden unless it is in conformity with the attitudes ‎of the Authority. Such prohibition involves all citizens no matter ‎how high ranks they may occupy. Nevertheless, this has not ‎prevented the civil society activists and those who have their ‎own cases from […]

The Syrian authorities escalated the use of the other measures ‎they practise against the civil society and human rights ‎activists and their opponents, such as prevention from travel, ‎withdrawal of passports, not issuing new passports, ordering ‎them to periodically visit the security apparatuses, which resort ‎to threatening and intimidating them and terrorising them, or ‎winning […]