UN probe: Syrian minorities face kidnappings, rape, and arbitrary detention

The waves of violence, which included killings, torture, destruction, and the occupation of property, as well as hate speech, created an environment of distrust in authorities, despite the regime’s public promises to hold those involved in the violence accountable.

Last year, women and girls, primarily from the Alawite communities, were abducted primarily from streets and markets during the day. Investigating 21 of these cases, including the cases of four minors, the commission found that the kidnappings were largely carried out by armed actors, organized crime groups, or individual criminals, and, in one case, foreign fighters nominally integrated with government forces under the Syrian Defense Ministry.

The Alawite victims were subjected to sectarian slurs and beatings during their captivity, and at least eight abductees were subjected to sexual violence, including gang rape and forced marriage. Three of the known sexual assault victims were returned to their communities pregnant, and at least five of the victims were interrogated on their knowledge of Islam, forced to carry out religious rites, or to wear niqabs during their abduction. Some of the women were brought by their abductors to Idlib Governorate, while others were smuggled across the border to Lebanon, the report noted.

The commission found state authorities’ response to the abductions ranged from incomplete investigations, which were not followed up on, to authorities actively discouraging families from pursuing a legal case. In three cases, after government forces secured the release of victims, the victims themselves were subsequently arrested and, in two cases, investigated for morality-related crimes by judges in Idlib.

One Alawite woman, who was rescued by state forces after contacting her family for help, was brought to the Criminal Security Department in Harim, Idlib, and accused of adultery by the General Prosecutor in Sarmada, Idlib, alongside her abductor. The Alawite woman was later released.

The commission also found that another victim of abduction and sexual violence was

arrested and detained by government forces and held for 24 days without charges, and was not put before a judge.

In response to the violence, the report warned that some girls and women had stopped pursuing education and were now wearing headscarves to avoid being identified as members of a religious minority group.

In the July attack against the Druze of southern Syria, the commission also documented sexual violence against Druze women, including rape, forced nudity, invasive body searches,

and sexual threats, during incursions and house searches. Eleven Druze women and four female children were also abducted and subsequently released between July and November 2025.

The report noted that there were patterns of violence committed by members of government armed forces, with the victims targeted based on their religious affiliation, ethnicity, age, and gender. Separate from the March attacks on the Alawite community and the July attacks on the Druze villages, the commission noted there were allegations of extrajudicial killings having been carried out throughout the year.

An Alawite woman complained to the commission that in January, masked armed members of the General Security, and men of a different uniform with red and yellow headbands, came to her home and beat her 17-year-old son. After taking the minor outside her home, the woman said they pushed him to the floor, and one security force member placed his foot on the boy’s neck and said: “Die you infidel, die you Alawi.” The boy, along with other men taken

from nearby houses, was forced to crawl on the floor and to bark, she said.  While the boy was not taken by the forces, many men from neighboring homes were arbitrarily detained.

The Commission documented “isolated yet disturbing cases” of some minority groups being denied health care at hospitals in Homs, Hama, Latakia, and Sweida, and or having received discriminatory treatment resulting in some severe cases in death.

of property. In several of these incidents investigated by the commission, teenage boys were beaten and forced to bark, crawl, and drink from puddles.

Those arbitrarily detained were held in both official and unofficial detention facilities, many without judicial warrants, without appearing before a judge or lawyer, and without being told the reason for their arrest. These arrests were also documented at checkpoints in Latakia,

Hama, Homs, and Tartus between December 2024 and July 2025.

One detainee, a former junior member of the Syrian Arab Army interrogated in Hama central prison, was repeatedly beaten with a copper whip, iron pipes and rifle butts and forced to bark like a dog while officials told him, “We want to rape the Alawi girls, your mothers, your sisters, Alawi pigs, we will slaughter you, Alawi infidels," the report noted.

Six Alawite men arbitrarily arrested in Homs in January and February 2025 died violently in custody, the commission noted. Some of the victims’ relatives complained they were not given any information about investigations or accountability efforts, and were unable to recover the bodies of their loved ones or hold burial ceremonies. In two cases, the families were only authorized to bury the detainees on the condition that they did not open the coffin, and, in one case, that they sign a document declaring the detainee had been a member of the Assad regime-era government.

Cases of torture and ill-treatment were documented in eighteen official detention facilities, and twelve makeshift facilities in Aleppo, Dara’a, Homs, Hama, Latakia, Tartus, Idlib, and the Rural Damascus governorates, as well as at checkpoints in Homs and Tartus. Members of the government security forces were said to have used rifle butts, sticks, pipes, bars, cables, and a nail-studded stick to assault detainees. One detainee was subjected to abuse while naked, the commission found, adding that they were also subjected to degrading treatment, sexual violence, and psychological torture, such as mock executions.

An Alawite man, formerly a junior officer under the Assad regime, told the commission that armed members of the Syrian Arab Army arrested him as he attempted to reach Homs, and later drove him to an abandoned farmhouse where they forced him to bury the dead bodies of two people who had sustained gunshot wounds to their heads, chests, and legs. He told the commission that the army personnel told him, “You Alawi pigs deserve to be slaughtered, you killed the innocents.”

Another Alawite former Syrian Arab Army member told the commission that in December 2024, uniformed men beat him with an iron bar and rifle butt, forced him to bark, and told him “Alawites must die” as they placed a knife against his neck.

Two detainees were also said to have had their moustaches shaved off by prison guards, despite facial hair carrying significant religious importance to some of Syria’s ethnic minority groups.

The commission documented 24 cases of detainees being held incommunicado for periods between five days and a year, with eight of the cases ongoing. Some of the families of the detainees asserted that government forces denied holding their loved ones, despite information suggesting they were in government custody, which the report concluded amounts to enforced disappearances.

Syria is still undergoing efforts to disarm, demobilize, and reintegrate hundreds of thousands of members of the former Assad-era security forces, in addition to non-state armed groups, the commission noted.

In December, 2024, the new regime offered amnesty for a large number of Syrian Arab Army soldiers who did not have “blood on their hands,” allowing them to return to the state any weapons in their possession and settle their personal status. This effort reportedly allowed hundreds of former soldiers to disarm, including more than 120,000 in Latakia and Tartus. While seemingly largely successful, the commission noted that many refused to disarm, fearing retribution. Attacks on the Alawite community, including against those who had undergone the settlement procedure, threatened trust in the process, the report noted.

In January, the  Hay'at Tahrir al-Sham-led Military Operations Command confirmed that the former Syrian army and security agencies were dissolved, and many of the personnel, in addition to members of the formerly designated HTS group, were absorbed into a new unified army. The commission noted that this process did not seem to involve human rights vetting, and many individuals sanctioned for human rights abuses were allowed to continue operating within the military.

The report also stressed there were shortcomings in control, coordination, diversification, training, and discipline of the integrated factions, which contributed to the sectarian violence carried out against the Druze in southern Syria. While authorities later implemented training on human rights and humanitarian standards in mid-2025, in cooperation with the Red Cross and the UN, they stressed that additional measures were needed to prevent further violations by the military and law enforcement.

The new regime has taken steps to advance justice and hold officials responsible for crimes committed in the Assad era by creating new national commissions on both transitional justice

and for missing persons, the report celebrated. Several prominent Syrian human rights

defenders, including women, were appointed as initial members of these two bodies.

Despite creating these commissions, the national inquiry into the July violence against the Druze community of Sweida has yet to be granted access to the governorate, the report noted. The role of senior officials and commanders in the attacks has also not yet been clarified, though some perpetrators were arrested.

The new regime has also issued arrest warrants against the former president and former high-level army, intelligence, and security officials, citing human rights violations, abuses, and corruption. As of January, 2026, 6331 former Syrian Arab Army personnel were arrested, though 1158 were subsequently released over an apparent lack of evidence. This, the report noted, is likely an essential step in creating stability, as it would reduce the need for vigilantism, though such attacks have continued to permeate tensions.

Turning attention to the inherited law enforcement system, which under the Assad regime “served as a tool to violate rather than protect” Syrians, the commission found there had been some improvements, though some new areas of concern have developed.

The raising of salaries of judges would allow the officials tto “live with dignity” and act as an additional shield against the deeply entrenched culture of extortion and corruption, the report claimed, adding that judges who had held political roles in the Arab Socialist Ba'ath Party and the People's Assembly were now dismissed, and those who sat on the now dissolved Counter-Terrorism Court were referred for judicial investigation.

Efforts to tackle corruption and bring about an accountable and fair criminal justice system are being undermined by the appointment of heads of courts who lack the necessary law degrees and qualifications for the roles they now occupy. There are concerns that those newly appointed lack clarity on their roles, and this, in turn, could threaten the independence of the judiciary.

Additionally, the new parliament promised after indirect parliamentary elections in early October has not yet been delivered. Elections in Sweida, Hasakah, and Raqqah, which have seen sectarian violence, have not yet been held.

Though some women have been appointed to transitional justice bodies, the report noted that there is a severe lack of women occupying decision-making roles in the new regime. So far, only one woman has been appointed as a minister, and only six women have been elected to parliament.