On the International Day in Support of Victims of Torture, the Syrian Center for Media and Freedom of Expression (SCM) continues to stand with victims, survivors of torture and ill-treatment, and their families, and renews its commitment to continue documenting these violations and supporting efforts aimed at uncovering the truth, achieving justice and accountability, and combating impunity.

For decades, the Assad regime used torture as a tool of repression, punishment, intimidation, and the consolidation of control. After 2011, this practice reached an unprecedented scale, with torture becoming widespread and systematic, resulting in the arbitrary detention, torture, and ill-treatment of tens of thousands of Syrian women and men in detention facilities operated by the security services and other state institutions. The documented patterns and scale of violations over the years demonstrate that torture was not the result of isolated or individual acts, but rather formed a part of a systematic policy aimed at suppressing political opposition and human rights defenders, while entrenching fear and control throughout Syrian society. These practices have left psychological, physical, social, and legal consequences that continue to this day.

Although the fall of the regime marked the end of a period in which torture and ill-treatment were institutionalized and systematically practiced by the state, documentation by the Syrian Center for Media and Freedom of Expression shows that acts of torture and ill-treatment continue to occur in Syria. Since the fall of the regime and up to the date of this statement, the Center has documented 25 cases of torture and ill-treatment committed by the Syrian Transitional Government or affiliated entities, including 9 deaths under torture. The Center has also documented 10 cases of torture and ill-treatment committed by the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), including 7 deaths under torture. This underscores the urgent need to establish effective safeguards to prevent torture and ill-treatment and to ensure respect for the dignity and rights of all persons deprived of their liberty.

In this context, the Syrian Center for Media and Freedom of Expression welcomes the steps initiated by the Syrian Transitional Government in the field of torture prevention, particularly the launch of the process to develop an National Strategy for the Prevention of Torture, in cooperation with the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) and with the participation of Syrian civil society organizations. To date, this process has included a series of consultations and participatory sessions involving the Syrian Center for Media and Freedom of Expression, a number of civil society organizations, victims’ associations, and relevant ministries and national institutions, including the Ministry of Justice, the Ministry of Interior, the Ministry of Social Affairs and Labour, and the Ministry of Higher Education. The objective is to develop a comprehensive national strategy that strengthens the legal and institutional framework prohibiting torture, reinforces prevention, oversight, and accountability mechanisms, and contributes to establishing effective safeguards to prevent torture and ill-treatment and ensure their non-recurrence in the future.

On this day, the Syrian Center for Media and Freedom of Expression calls on the Syrian Transitional Government to fulfill its obligations under the Convention against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment, to which Syria acceded on 19 August 2004, and to take all necessary legislative, institutional, and practical measures to prevent and combat torture and ensure accountability for its commission, including:

• Completing the process of developing, adopting, and implementing the National Strategy for the Prevention of Torture through a participatory approach that ensures the meaningful involvement of victims, survivors, and civil society organizations, and translates its outcomes into tangible legislative, institutional, and procedural reforms.
• Expediting the adoption and implementation of effective legal and institutional safeguards to prevent torture and ill-treatment, including ensuring prompt access to legal counsel, judicial oversight of detention, independent monitoring of places of detention, and access to medical care.
• Acceding to the Optional Protocol to the Convention against Torture (OPCAT) and establishing an independent and effective National Preventive Mechanism (NPM) with the authority and resources necessary to conduct regular visits to all places of detention and deprivation of liberty.
• Conducting prompt, independent, impartial, and effective investigations into all allegations of torture and ill-treatment, regardless of the identity, status, or affiliation of those suspected of responsibility.
• Ensuring accountability for crimes of torture and related violations through independent and fair judicial proceedings consistent with international standards.
• Strengthening the independence, capacity, and oversight role of the judiciary and public prosecution services in investigating crimes of torture and prosecuting those responsible.
• Enabling Syrian civil society organizations and relevant international mechanisms to have regular and unrestricted access to all places of detention.
• Providing specialized and sustainable training programmes for law enforcement personnel, security and military forces, staff working in places of detention, as well as judges and prosecutors, on the absolute prohibition of torture, lawful interrogation methods, and the rights of persons deprived of their liberty.
• Guaranteeing victims’ rights to know the truth, access justice, obtain reparation, receive rehabilitation, and benefit from guarantees of non-recurrence.

In conclusion, the Center affirms that the prohibition of torture, in addition to being an absolute legal obligation that permits no exceptions, is also one of the fundamental pillars of the rule of law. The prohibition of torture is not limited to ending its practice; it also requires addressing its structural causes, ensuring accountability for past and ongoing violations, and reforming the institutions responsible for law enforcement and the administration of places of detention. Such measures are essential to restoring Syrians’ trust in state institutions and ensuring the non-recurrence of violations and crimes in the future.