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Syrian Network for Human Rights

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(Redirected from SNHR)
Syrian Network for Human Rights
الشبكة السورية لحقوق الإنسان
AbbreviationSNHR
FoundedJune 2011 (2011-06)
FounderFadel Abdul Ghany[1]
TypeNGO[2]
FocusHuman rights[3]
Websitesnhr.org

The Syrian Network for Human Rights (SNHR, Arabic: الشبكة السورية لحقوق الإنسان) is a UK-based[2][6][7] human rights NGO,[8][9][10] which monitors casualties and has briefed various United Nations agencies.[11] It monitors Syrian casualties of all the parties in the Syrian civil war.[12] The SNHR was founded in June 2011 by Fadel Abdul Ghany, who is the chairman of the board of directors.[13] Members have been detained, and many now live outside Syria.[1]

Its reports have been cited by various news media,[14][2] non-governmental organizations, such as Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch,[15][16] as well as by the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights.[17][18]

Notable reports

[edit]

As of May 2019, according to the SNHR, nearly 128,000 people had never emerged from Bashar al-Assad's secret network of prisons – and nearly 14,000 were killed under torture.[8][9]

SNHR supplied key data for a report done by The Washington Post in June 2019 detailing the reported arrests of around 2,000 Syrian refugees who had been "detained after returning to Syria during the past two years".[19]

SNHR documented six media workers killed in Syria in December 2024, saying five of them were killed by Assad regime forces and one by the SDF.[20]

In January 2025, during the East Aleppo offensive, the Kurdish-led and US-backed Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) accused SNHR of falsely attributing three deaths in Al-Qashla village southeast of Manbij three deaths to the SDF, which the SDF attributed to Turkish mercenaries, alleging that the SNHR's information sharing is directed by Turkey.[21][non-primary source needed] This came after the SNHR published its December 2024 civilian death report, in which it accused the SDF of killing 108 civilians in the month of December while only attributing 8 civilian deaths to all Syrian opposition forces including the SNA, and 9 civilian deaths to Turkey.[22]

In January 2025, the SNHR documented a total of 24 civilians killed by Turkish and SNA forces.[23] The SNHR's January 2025 report documented the killing of 17 protestors in Turkish airstrikes, alleging that their participation in the protest had been coerced by the SDF, who stationed their forces in civilian areas.[23]

Methodology and Independence

[edit]

The SNHR is known to keep one of the most rigorous tallies of Syrian citizens forcibly disappeared throughout the conflict in Syria by all sides. SNHR has been widely cited by journalists at major outlets including The Guardian and The New York Times and recognized as rigorous, independent, and credible.[8][24] Anne Barnard, writing for The New York Times reported that the SNHR's tally, described as the most rigorous, was probably an undercount.[8] Barnard was also asked how the SNHR compiled their figures.[9] She says the reason they were considered the most rigorous and reliably conservative numbers is their numbers were actual counts of reports they received, and they were not extrapolations or estimates.[9] Barnard also said that a death had to be reported by a family member or a direct witness and they did not take third party accounts.[9] She added that they took phone calls and had a form on their website, and then they went through and verified what they could in the detailed report.[9] They also went back and called people listed as possible family members of people who were missing for a long time to find out if they were still missing.[9]

In 2018, The Violations Documentation Center in Syria (VDC) counted nearly 9,500 deaths in detention since 2011, compared to over 13,000 counted by the SNHR.[25] The VDC acknowledged its estimates were more conservative than those of the SNHR and other monitors as its methodology was to only document deaths once information like the name of the victims and the circumstances surrounding their deaths were confirmed.[25]

In 2025, SNHR was criticised by the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) for its methodology and perceived affinity for the former Syrian opposition, Turkey, and the Syrian transitional government led by Ahmed al-Sharaa.[21]

A 2026 investigation published in the crowd-sourced news website Fair Observer concluded that, while the SNHR claims impartiality, it has a history of financial opacity and controversial political affiliation of alleged board members.[26] The investigation, by independent researcher Angie Bittar and Florida-based MintPress/Al Mayadeen journalist Jalyssa Dugrot, came in the aftermath of the Assad regime's overthrow, which saw a series of mass killings targeting Alawites and Druze in March and July of 2025, respectively. The journalists argue that the SNHR's reporting of the March 2025 massacres of Syrian Alawites for example, [27] differs starkly in language and attribution of responsibility than that of other rights organizations. To explain this, Bittar and Dugrot argue that the methodology of SNHR fails to adhere to international standards for casualty recording established by the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) and the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) because it fails to provide adequate definitions for civilian, the main category it explicitly aims to document. The article argues that this leaves room for distinction between civilians and combatant casualties to be opaque.[26] Bittar and Dugrot also report that the SNHR had older methodologies now only accessible through web archives, including one from 2016 that defined the category of civilian in terms that they say deviated from international standards.[28] They argue it also lacks a "standard of proof" and "degree of certainty or confidence" in given data points.[26]

Governance

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SNHR is registered as a non-profit limited liability company in the United Kingdom, and a non-profit organization in the United States.[29] It is governed by a board of directors with five members and its executive director manages seven divisions.[29] As of 2019, it has 27 full-time employees as well as over 70 volunteers.[29]

Fair Observer alleges that unlike other established NGOs, the SNHR doesn't publicly list its staff or board of directors in its current website, which starkly contrasts with organizations like Human Rights Watch or Airwars. The Fair Observer investigation notes that the SNHR's list of board of directors was only searchable through internet archives under a former domain in 2017.[26]

The 2017 list of board members for the SNHR included Burhan Ghalioun, a prominent member of the Syrian National Council (SNC) between 2011 and 2012].[26] It also included Hamza al-Mustafa, who was appointed Syria's Minister of Information by Ahmed al-Sharaa in March 2025.[30] Mustafa also served as the director of Syria TV, a pro-opposition Syrian satellite television outlet part of the Qatari media company Fadaat Media.[26][31]

SNHR chairman Fadel Abdul Ghany has openly advocated for civilian protection by the international community on multiple occasions.[32][33][34]

References

[edit]
  1. 1 2 Specia, Megan (April 13, 2018). "How Syria’s Death Toll Is Lost in the Fog of War" Archived 2019-08-10 at the Wayback Machine The New York Times.
  2. 1 2 3 Tran, Mark (2015-12-03). "Beyond the military jargon: who will monitor airstrikes in Syria?". The Guardian. ISSN 0261-3077. Archived from the original on 2023-01-10. Retrieved 2016-01-18.
  3. ↑ Osborne. Samuel (October 7, 2015). "Syrian government forces responsible for more civilian deaths than Isis, human rights group claims" Archived 2020-01-03 at the Wayback Machine The Independent.
  4. 1 2 3 4 5 "Organizational Structure" (PDF), Syrian Network for Human Rights, archived from the original (PDF) on 2020-07-12, retrieved 2020-08-10
  5. ↑ Al-Khalidi, Suleiman (April 7, 2020). "Syria slow to free prisoners despite coronavirus risk in crowded jails: rights groups" Archived 2020-04-08 at the Wayback Machine Reuters.
  6. ↑ Naylor, Hugh (September 5, 2015). "Islamic State has killed many Syrians, but Assad’s forces have killed more" Archived 2020-06-11 at the Wayback Machine Washington Post.
  7. ↑ "Safe No More: Students and Schools under Attack in Syria" Archived 2020-10-26 at the Wayback Machine Human Rights Watch.
  8. 1 2 3 4 Barnard, Anne (May 11, 2019). "Inside Syria’s Secret Torture Prisons: How Bashar al-Assad Crushed Dissent" Archived 2023-01-10 at the Wayback Machine The New York Times.
  9. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 Chotiner, Isaac (May 13, 2019). "A Times Reporter Documents the Horror of Syria’s Torture Sites" Archived 2020-08-13 at the Wayback Machine The New Yorker.
  10. ↑ Lynch, Colum (January 13, 2016). "The War Over Syria’s War Dead" Archived 2020-04-05 at the Wayback Machine Foreign Policy.
  11. ↑ Al-Khalidi, Suleiman (July 7, 2019). "Russian-led assault in Syria leaves over 500 civilians dead: rights groups, rescuers" Archived 2019-11-02 at the Wayback Machine Reuters.
  12. ↑ Roberts, Rachel (April 3, 2017). "US-led coalition killed more Syrian civilians than Isis or Russia in March, figures show" Archived 2020-03-29 at the Wayback Machine The Independent.
  13. ↑ "About Us" Archived 2023-01-10 at the Wayback Machine Syrian Network for Human Rights.
  14. ↑ Shoumali, Karam; Barnard, Anne (2014-10-01). "ISIS Takes a Kurdish Village in Syria as Car Bombs Kill Dozens in Homs". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Archived from the original on 2014-10-06. Retrieved 2016-01-18.
  15. ↑ "Syria 2019: Everything you need to know about human rights in Syria" Archived 2017-12-28 at the Wayback Machine Amnesty International.
  16. ↑ "World Report 2017: Syria" Archived 2019-06-11 at the Wayback Machine Human Rights Watch.
  17. ↑ "Pillay castigates "paralysis" on Syria, as new UN study indicates over 191,000 people killed". United Nations Human Rights Office of the High Commissioner. 2014-08-22. Archived from the original on 2023-01-10. Retrieved 2018-09-07.
  18. ↑ "Statement to the Security Council by the High Commissioner on Human Rights on Missing Persons" Archived 2023-01-10 at the Wayback Machine OHCHR.
  19. ↑ Loveluck, Louisa; Weil, Julie; Abutaleb, Yasmeen; Bogage, Jacob; Goodwin, Liz; Sotomayor, Marianna; Meyer, Theodoric; Davies, Emily; Stein, Jeff (2019-06-02). "Assad urged Syrian refugees to come home. Many are being welcomed with arrest and interrogation". The Washington Post. ISSN 0190-8286. Retrieved 2025-07-04.
  20. ↑ "503 Civilians Deaths; Including 96 Children and 49 Women, as well as Four Deaths due to Torture, Including One Woman and One Child; Documented in December 2024". SNHR. 2 January 2025. The report documents the killing of six media workers in 2024, all of whom were also killed in December 2024, with five of them killed by Assad regime forces and one by SDF.
  21. 1 2 "Statement on misleading information published by the so-called "Syrian Network for Human Rights"". SDF Press. 1 January 2025. Retrieved 2025-02-13.
  22. ↑ "1,264 Civilian Deaths, Including 242 Children and 118 Women, as well as 86 Deaths due to Torture, Documented in Syria in 2024 | Syrian Network for Human Rights". snhr.org. Retrieved 2025-02-13.
  23. 1 2 "236 Civilian Deaths, Including 32 Children and 18 Women, as well as One Woman's Death due to Torture, Documented in Syria in January 2025, 21 Civilians Were Killed by SDF". SNHR. 1 February 2025.
  24. ↑ Christou, William (7 March 2025). "Syrian security forces execute 125 civilians in battle against Assad loyalists". the Guardian. Retrieved 10 March 2025.
  25. 1 2 "As Assad claims victory in Syrian civil war, families learn fates of disappeared loved ones" Archived 2020-03-29 at the Wayback Machine The Intercept. September 10, 2018.
  26. 1 2 3 4 5 6 Bittar, Angie (2025-08-22). "Human Rights and Organizational Wrongs: Investigating the Malpractice of the Syrian Network for Human Rights". Fair Observer. Retrieved 2026-06-22.
  27. ↑ "803 Individuals Extrajudicially Killed Between March 6-10, 2025 | Syrian Network for Human Rights". snhr.org. Retrieved 2026-08-08.
  28. ↑ "SNHR documenting methodology" (PDF). info@sn4hr.org. 11 April 2014. Retrieved 8 August 2026.
  29. 1 2 3 Owens, K. (2018). "Improving the Odds: Strengthening the Prospects for Accountability in the Syrian Conflict by Regulating the Marketplace for Information on Atrocity Crimes Archived 2023-01-10 at the Wayback Machine." U. Miami Int'l & Comp. L. Rev., 26, 369.
  30. ↑ "حمزة المصطفى | Hamzah Almustafa". تلفزيون سوريا (in Arabic). Archived from the original on 2025-12-07. Retrieved 2026-06-22.
  31. ↑ "President al-Sharaa announces formation of the New Government: We are witnessing the birth of a new phase in our national process". Syrian Arab News Agency. 2025-03-30. Retrieved 2026-06-22.
  32. ↑ Scaturro, Michael (2013-09-05). "Why Human Rights Groups Don't Agree on What to Do About Syria". The Atlantic. Retrieved 2026-06-22.
  33. ↑ "Syrian opposition: UK must join US-led strikes against Assad". Middle East Eye. Retrieved 2026-06-22.
  34. ↑ "The Syrian Regime Uses Chemical Weapons Again in Latakia and the United States, France, Britain and the Civilized Countries of the World Must Fulfill Their Promises | Syrian Network for Human Rights". snhr.org. Retrieved 2026-06-22.
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