The Syrian civil war
March 15, 2011 – present

The origin of the conflict

Following the mass protests that shook various countries of the Middle East, particularly Tunisia and Egypt, and gave rise to a movement henceforth known as the Arab Spring, the Syrian people has, since February 2011, also demanded more freedoms from the current regime.

The stakeholders

Led by Bashar al-Assad, President of Syria since 2000, the government and the army initially faced a civilian revolt. But the opposition quickly took up arms and organized itself. Various factions emerged, including the Free Syrian Army, the Syrian Islamic Liberation Front and the Syrian Revolutionaries Front.

The outbreak of the conflict

The first demonstrations to obtain more freedom took place peacefully, but were violently repressed. The Syrian army shot at Syrian citizens with real bullets, employed tanks to block the protests and committed barbaric acts against protesters of all ages, including torture and arbitrary executions. This level of violence exacerbated the people’s anger. Fighting raged in the streets, as the people immediately retaliated with the same excessive force as used by the government.

The more the people demonstrated, the bloodier the crackdowns became, and vice versa. A vicious circle was set in motion and a civil war broke out on all of Syrian territory.

Global position-taking

Syria is no longer just a battlefield between the existing regime and the people raised against Bashar al-Assad; the international community has taken positions on the conflict but is divided on this subject.

The Syrian government has not only benefited from Iranian support, but also diplomatic support from Russia and China, which are both permanent members of the United Nations Security Council. Moreover, no measure on Syria had been adopted only because Moscow and Beijing had exercised the right of veto on several occasions. Venezuela, Algeria and Iraq have also sided with Bashar el-Assad. The Syrian rebellion, in turn, benefits from a broad diplomatic support and military assistance from the League of Arab States and the United States. This coalition not only armed and trained Syrian rebels, but also carried out aerial bombings since September 2014.

Non-State actors have also been drawn into the conflict. Thus, Hezbollah defends the government of Bachar al-Assad, while Ayman al-Zawahiri, the head of Al-Qaida, has shown his support for the Syrian revolution in February 2012. Moreover, the Islamic State has joined the war and is fighting alongside the Syrian opposition. The war raging in Syria has thus produced a symbolic international struggle among several political, but also religious ideologies. This is why no significant external intervention has been possible until now.

The most flagrant human rights violations

An armed conflict entails its own share of atrocities of every kind. However, international humanitarian law, and especially the four Geneva Conventions of 1949, set limits on the level of cruelty permitted to humans in wartime in order to guarantee respect of human rights and, above all, human dignity. Thus, even if every loss of human life is deplorable, the death of soldiers fighting at the front is, for instance, acceptable, or at least understandable, while the killing of civilians who are not involved in the hostilities is, on the contrary, a crime. These practices, which have spread and are being implemented systematically against the civilian population, represent crimes against humanity.

In Syria, much too often, violations of human rights and international humanitarian laws have been perpetrated by Bachar el-Assadregime as well as the revolutionary forces..

In 2011, Human Rights Watch charged the Syrian State with murder, torture, arbitrary imprisonment and forced disappearances. These widespread practices which are systematically used against the civilian population, constitute crimes against humanity. The UN International Independent Investigation Commission, on its part, shed light on the use of hospitals as centers for detention and torture, as well as for the rape, torture and murder of children.

On August 21, 2013, a chemical attack on civilians took place. The Secretary-General of the United Nations Ban Ki-Moon condemned this act, which constituted a war crime and violated several principles of international law.
Moreover, since the beginning of the military maneuvers carried out by the Arab League-United States coalition, civilians have died regularly as a result of aerial bombings.

The Syrian civil war has thus become synonymous with a perpetual violation of the most basic human rights because acts of reprehensible violence are committed daily by both sides.

Child victims

In their innocence, Syrian children are particularly vulnerable as war victims. Without having any understanding of what is happening or why, they are exposed to acts of unimaginable violence on a daily basis. Even if they emerge physically unscathed, the psychological consequences will endure and their future will be compromised. The horrors they witness rob them of the innocence and emotional stability to which they are entitled.

Child deaths

On April 16, 2015, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights counted 220,000 Syrian citizens dead since the start of the war. However, given the uncertainty surrounding the fate of some prisoners and missing persons, the actual total is over 310,000 people. These terrifying numbers correspond to approximately 150 to 200 individuals killed each day.

Among these losses, the Syrian Observatory mourns the death of over 11,000 children. According to the Syrian National Council, they number 14,000, of which 70% are boys. The same source documented causes of death. Two-thirds of the victims succumbed to bombings, but some also died from bullet wounds, sniper shootings, throat slitting or torture.

Child refugees and displaced children

Children who have survived massacres are the ones who are the most profoundly affected, physically and mentally, by the horrors they’ve experienced. After four years of conflict, UNICEF estimates their total at 14 million. These children are often orphaned, saw a loved one die, or have been victims or witnesses of unspeakable violence, as illustrated by the chilling testimonies collected by the organization “Save the Children” in a report entitled Untold Attrocities: the Stories of Syria’s Children. Some of them are part of the nearly 4 million Syrians who fled to neighboring countries like Lebanon, Jordan, Iraq, Egypt and Tunisia without any real hope of finding a better future there. Others, who number 5 ½ million, are still on Syrian territory and remain vulnerable to daily violence. Half of them cannot attend schools or education centers.

Healthcare problems

In March 2014, 60 to 70% of Syrian hospitals and clinics have been destroyed or damaged during bombings and clashes, according to the UNICEF report Under Siege: The devastating impact on children of three years of conflict in Syria. Medical staff partially fled from the conflict.  Safe drinking water systems have also been devastated and food access is becoming increasingly problematic.
This situation results, particularly, in inadequate care of the wounded, dwindling vaccinations and rising rates of children afflicted with dangerous diseases. Polio has reappeared, which, in the absence of appropriate care, threatens the lives of the youngest in the same way as measles, pneumonia and diarrhea.

Child soldiers

In 2014, Human Rights Watch published the report Maybe We Live and Maybe We Die – Recruitment and Use of Children by Armed Groups in Syria. In this document, the NGO reported the use of child soldiers by non-State armed groups, a practice that goes against international law and considered as a war crime.

The exact number of boys referred here, mean age 10 to 16 years, is unknown. However, in May 2014, 200 child soldiers were known to exist in Syria. Recruitment methods vary. While some armed groups openly induce young boys to join their ranks, others simply don’t check identification papers thoroughly. The roles assigned to boys may range from spying or fighting at the front to caring for the wounded or torturing prisoners.

Tragedies in the Mediterranean Sea

While in 2014, over 850,000 petitions for asylum have been filed throughout the world – the highest number in the last twenty years – the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees confirmed that one-fifth of these petitions came from Syrian citizens alone. Turkey, Italy, Germany and Sweden are among the most requested countries. To reach these safe havens, Syrian refugees are most often forced to cross the Mediterranean A profitable and totally illegal trade has therefore emerged, and desperate migrants pay exorbitant prices to criminal smugglers to be able to board on ramshackle and overcrowded boats. As a result, shipwrecks are becoming increasingly common.

Over 2014, attempts to cross the Mediterranean Sea resulted in approximately 3,500 human deaths. In April 2015, half of this macabre figure had already been reached.

Many children have been victims of drowning. Those who survived saw horror and death closely and, sometimes, lost a loved one during the crossing. Once arrived on European soil, their troubles are not over. Without knowing the language and, sometimes, even knowing where they are, they are faced with the European States’ reluctance to give them refuge as well as the inadequacies of certain overpopulated refugee camps.

Child marriage

Some problems that existed well before the conflict have been aggravated. So while the marriage of female minors is not a new phenomenon in Syria, its proportion has doubled in some Jordanian refugee camps, where it now represents 25% of registered unions. In approximately half the cases, little girls marry men who are at least ten years older than them.

Reasons for the increase in Syrian children marriages are diverse. “Save the Children” explains in a report entitled Too Young to Wed that in most cases, these marriages are arranged to protect the young girls from forms of sexual harassment that, unfortunately, are very common in refugee camps. Sometimes, a marriage is celebrated following a rape in order to rehabilitate the victim’s honor. Marrying one’s daughter off also reduces the number of mouths to feed in a family, which, given the circumstances in which Syrian refugees live, is not a minor consideration. Other marriages take place prior to the couple even leaving Syrian territory to increase its chances of being taken in by another country.

Abuse of all kinds

Given the mayhem that reigns in Syria as well as in refugee camps, children, due to their vulnerability and, particularly if they’re orphans or separated from their loved ones, find themselves defenseless against sexual abuse or violence. They are also easy prey for traffickers, who reserve them for forced labor or sexual exploitation.

Information on this subject is lacking, but the testimonies and rumors leaking out only forebode the worst.

Future prospects

Syrian citizens lost everything. The Syria of today is no longer the beloved country where they used to live with their family members, many of whom are dead. All they knew and cherished has disappeared. Forced to flee, they find themselves in precarious situations and are not offered refuge anywhere. Younger children have known nothing in life besides war and destruction and the adolescents, who find themselves at a crossroads in life, have no possibility of building a future. UNICEF mentions the risk of ending up with a lost generation.

However, pessimism is not appropriate yet. Many NGOs and international organizations continue to support Syrian citizens and call for donations to help with their initiatives.

If Syria’s future is uncertain, what is certain is that solidarity is our best weapon to fight the horrors endured by the Syrian people.