Joint Submission to the Universal Periodic Review of Syria

The Research Center for Alternative Development submitted a joint stakeholders’ report to the fourth cycle of the Universal Periodic Review of the Syrian Arab Republic, scheduled for the 54th session of the UPR Working Group in January–February 2027.

The submission was prepared in partnership with a coalition of civil society organizations, including the Arab NGO Network for Development (ANND), and evaluates the human rights situation in Syria since January 2022, with particular attention to the transitional period following December 2024.

Grounded in the principle of state continuity under international law, the report affirms that the transitional authorities remain fully bound by Syria’s international human rights obligations. It addresses both ongoing violations and the institutional legacy inherited from the former government.

“The transition must not obscure past violations or permit new abuses; it must establish accountability, protect rights, and place victims at the centre of Syria’s future.”

Life, Liberty, and Protection from Torture

The submission documents continuing patterns of arbitrary detention, enforced disappearance, torture, ill-treatment, and deaths in custody. Although Syria’s governing authority has changed, unrepealed legislation and weak judicial oversight continue to place individuals at risk.

Security campaigns have reportedly lacked clear legal grounds and have involved unidentified detaining authorities, delayed family notification, restricted access to lawyers, and the absence of unified custody records.

The report also highlights the unresolved fate of more than 130,000 missing persons, the absence of a comprehensive framework for protecting mass graves and forensic evidence, and continued identity-based abductions affecting minority communities, women, and girls.

Displacement, Return, and Property Rights

Housing, land, and property violations remain a major obstacle to safe return, restitution, and recovery. The report examines the continued application of legislation that enabled property seizures, expropriation, and discriminatory redevelopment practices.

Refugees, internally displaced persons, widows, and female heads of household face serious barriers in recovering property, proving ownership, renewing civil documentation, and accessing effective legal remedies.

The submission stresses that the conditions required for safe, voluntary, and dignified returns have not yet been met. Returnees continue to face security risks, damaged infrastructure, unexploded remnants of war, limited access to services, and severe socio-economic hardship.

Rule of Law and Judicial Independence

While the suspension of exceptional courts represents an initial positive step, the report identifies continuing threats to judicial independence and fair trial guarantees.

These include executive interference in judicial appointments and dismissals, the continued structural subordination of the judiciary, restricted access to legal representation, prolonged pre-trial detention, and the use of military courts to prosecute civilians.

The report calls for reform of the Judicial Authority Law, transparent appointment and disciplinary procedures, an end to military trials of civilians, and full respect for the right to legal counsel from the moment of arrest.

Hate Speech, Civic Space, and Freedom of Expression

The transitional environment remains affected by identity-based polarization, coordinated hate speech, online harassment, and incitement against minorities, journalists, women human rights defenders, and public figures.

At the same time, civil society organizations, political actors, and peaceful protesters continue to operate under restrictive legal frameworks, including prior authorization requirements for demonstrations and state controls on international funding and cooperation.

The submission recommends legislation that clearly distinguishes incitement to violence from legitimate expression and protects independent journalism, civil society documentation, political participation, and peaceful assembly.

Inclusive Political Participation

The report raises concerns about the concentration of executive power during the transition and the limited participation of communities, civil society, women, and victims in political and constitutional processes.

Women remain significantly underrepresented in the People’s Assembly, government, judiciary, and senior decision-making positions. The submission calls for a mandatory minimum representation of women across public institutions and meaningful participation in national dialogue and transition processes.

Women’s Rights and Gender-Based Violence

The inherited legal framework continues to discriminate against women in matters including marriage, divorce, custody, inheritance, nationality, and political participation.

The report also documents gender- and identity-based violence during the transitional period, including killings, abductions, sexual violence, public incitement, and the targeting of women and girls belonging to minority communities.

It recommends withdrawing Syria’s reservations to key provisions of the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women, reforming personal status and nationality laws, and adopting comprehensive legislation criminalizing all forms of gender-based violence.

Transitional Justice and Accountability

The submission warns that the current transitional justice framework risks creating unequal categories of victims by limiting accountability primarily to violations committed by the former government.

It calls for an independent and non-discriminatory process covering violations committed by all state, non-state, international, and transitional actors, regardless of the identity of the perpetrator or victim.

The report further recommends expanding the temporal scope of transitional justice, ensuring the direct participation of victims and survivors, defining international crimes in domestic law, protecting evidence, and establishing a comprehensive fund for compensation, rehabilitation, and restitution.

Socio-Economic Rights and Social Protection

The report examines the severe deterioration of living conditions in Syria, including widespread poverty, rising food and utility prices, inadequate wages and pensions, unemployment, informal work, food insecurity, and weakened public services.

It raises concerns about subsidy reductions, indirect taxation, unequal wage structures, arbitrary dismissals, private-sector partnerships lacking transparency, and the absence of a universal, rights-based social protection system.

The submission calls for a national social protection law, fair and inflation-adjusted wages and pensions, progressive taxation, labour protections, independent trade unions, food-security measures, and human rights impact assessments for economic reforms.

Key Recommendations

• End arbitrary detention, torture, enforced disappearance, and identity-based abductions.
• Establish unified detainee and missing-person registries and protect archives, mass graves, and forensic evidence.
• Guarantee safe, voluntary, informed, and dignified return for refugees and internally displaced persons.
• Reform property, inheritance, and registration laws and provide effective restitution or compensation.
• Strengthen judicial independence and end the trial of civilians before military courts.
• Protect civic space, peaceful assembly, freedom of expression, and independent civil society work.
• Guarantee women’s equal participation and eliminate discriminatory personal status, nationality, and penal laws.
• Create an inclusive, victim-centred transitional justice framework covering violations by all actors.
• Adopt rights-based social protection, labour, wage, pension, food-security, and taxation policies.

Through this joint submission, the participating organizations call on the Syrian authorities and the international community to ensure that the transition is grounded in human rights, equality, accountability, meaningful public participation, and social justice.