Joint Urgent Human Rights Appeal

To Stop Grave Violations Against Syrian Kurds Amounting to Crimes Against Humanity

The undersigned organizations have received, with profound condemnation, reports of terrorist attacks and the inhumane siege imposed on Kobani and areas of Al-Hasakah under the control of the Autonomous Administration. Recent facts indicate a repeated and systematic targeting of the Kurdish people’s existence within a conflict that goes beyond the military dimension and primarily aims at undermining the dignity of Kurdish citizens—men and women—through the cutting off of electricity, water, flour, and medicine.

Since the attacks began on the Sheikh Maqsoud and Ashrafieh neighborhoods in Aleppo, the contours of international arrangements have become apparent, whereby northern Syria has been handed over to Turkish decision-making in exchange for Israel assuming control over the fate of the Golan Heights, under a humiliating agreement signed in Paris by Al-Shaibani on behalf of the de facto government in Damascus with Israeli officials. The residents of these two neighborhoods were the first indicator of a policy of forced displacement and grave violations against Kurds. Subsequently, military operations expanded in Tabqa, Raqqa, and Deir ez-Zor, reaching Al-Shaddadi, targeting not only Kurdish citizens but also Syrians from various components who had been part of the Autonomous Administration, alongside the release of large numbers of ISIS detainees and their families from several prisons and camps.

Grave violations and flagrant breaches of international human rights law and international humanitarian law have been committed, including killing, arbitrary arrest, siege, starvation, forced displacement, demographic change, and the loss of many essential food supplies. These acts were carried out as forces of the interim government, Syrian armed factions, and armed elements of tribal forces took control, under the supervision and complicity of the occupying Turkish forces, with the aim of terrorizing Kurdish civilians, forcing them to flee their ancestral lands, and altering the demographic composition of all historically Kurdish Syrian regions.

The undersigned organizations call on all Syrian parties to work toward removing all obstacles to a culture of tolerance, peace, dialogue, and the right to difference and diversity. They also appeal to the Secretary-General of the United Nations, the permanent members of the Security Council, the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, and all relevant international bodies and institutions concerned with the defense of human rights, to:

- Immediately halt violations against Syrian Kurdish civilians, including mass displacement and exposure to grave humanitarian risks, and end all forms of siege and starvation imposed on Kurdish areas.

- Stop targeting civilians, places of worship, and public and private property; cease looting of agricultural crops; and put an end to the theft and plundering of shops and homes.

- Return to the negotiating table to reach a comprehensive national settlement that protects the rights of all components and preserves civil peace and social harmony.

- Immediately cease all forms of detention, abduction, and enforced disappearance, regardless of the pretexts, and release all abductees and detainees unconditionally.

- End the pursuit, abduction, detention, and disappearance of Syrian citizens without any trace or for the purpose of bargaining.

Work to immediately disclose the fate of the missing, and announce who remains alive and who has been killed or executed for political or other reasons.

- Ensure the return of displaced civilians and those who fled from Aleppo, the north, and the northeast, remove all obstacles to their return to their villages and homes, and secure access routes.

- Defend the values of citizenship and human rights in Syria, and develop safe and sound approaches that contribute to spreading and consolidating the values of peace, citizenship, and tolerance among Syrians of all backgrounds.

- Gradually transition the country through transitional justice from a state of sectarian, ethnic, and national fragmentation to a state based on citizenship, equality in rights, and peaceful coexistence.

- Ensure the neutrality of military, security, and judicial institutions in the new Syria, adopt professional and legal standards in their formation, and prevent their politicization.

- Call on regional and international states to respect Syria’s sovereignty and territorial integrity, and to halt all forms of military, security, or economic intervention.

- Abolish all discriminatory policies against societal components, remove their effects and consequences, and guarantee equal political participation.

- Work toward finding a just and democratic solution to the Kurdish people’s issue in Syria, in accordance with international human rights treaties and covenants, including the right to self-determination by their free will.

Signatories:

1- International Movement for Human and Peoples’ Rights (comprising 21 human rights organizations).

2- Amman Center for Human Rights Studies.

3- Insan Organization for Rights and Freedoms.