War crimes in the Syrian civil war have been numerous and serious. A United Nations report published in August 2014 stated that "the conduct of the warring parties in the Syrian Arab Republic has caused civilians immeasurable suffering". Another UN report released in 2015 stated that the war has been "characterized by a complete lack of adherence to the norms of international law" and that "civilians have borne the brunt of the suffering inflicted by the warring parties". Various countries have prosecuted several war criminals for a limited number of atrocities committed during the Syrian civil war.
The casualties of the Syrian civil war have been vast; UN envoy to Syria Staffan de Mistura stated in April 2016 that 400,000 people had died in the conflict.Syria envoy claims 400,000 have died in Syria conflict , United Nations Radio (22 April 2016). In December 2016, 450,000 Syrians were estimated to have been killed; 4.8 million Syrians fled Syria (becoming refugees), 6.3 million were internally displaced within Syria, and 13.5 million required humanitarian assistance.Jessica Durando, Nearly half a million killed, and Syria civil war isn't over , USA Today (13 December 2016). The war has been marked by "devastation and extreme suffering among civilians" and international aid groups "have long denounced the indiscriminate brutality" that has characterized the conflict.Rick Gladsone & Somini Sengupta, Unrelenting Assault on Aleppo Is Called Worst Yet in Syria's Civil War , New York Times (26 September 2016). In March 2017, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights reported that 465,000 people had died in the conflict, of which 96,000 civilians, and an additional 145,000 civilians were missing.Jack Moore, Syria War Death Toll Hits 321,000 With Further 145,000 Missing: Monitor , Newsweek (13 March 2017).Syrian war monitor says 465,000 killed in six years of fighting , Reuters (13 March 2017). The SOHR attributed 140,000 civilian deaths to the government of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad and its allies, including Russia and Iran; 7,900 to Syrian rebels and allied forces; 4,900 to Islamic State (IS) organization; 2,670 to the U.S.-led coalition; and 1,000 to Turkey.
According to various human rights organizations and the United Nations, human rights violations have been committed by both the government and the rebels, with the "vast majority of the abuses having been committed by the Syrian government". The U.N. commission investigating human rights abuses in Syria confirms at least nine intentional mass killings in the period 2012 to mid-July 2013, identifying the perpetrator as the Syrian government and its supporters in eight cases, and the opposition in one. The United Nations conducted several further studies. The Assad government used chemical weapons (chlorine gas) against civilians and conducted torture and extrajudicial killings. Assad carried out "indiscriminate and disproportionate aerial bombardment and shelling" which "led to mass civilian casualties and spread terror." Brutal repression, human rights abuses, war crimes and crimes against humanity perpetrated by the Assad government throughout the course of the conflict led to international condemnation and widespread calls to convict Bashar al-Assad in the International Criminal Court (ICC).
According to UN report released in February 2014, the Assad government unleashed a widespread "campaign of terror against the civilian population" through its systematic perpetration of forced disappearances. The report stated that pro-Assad forces "continued to perpetrate massacres and conduct widespread attacks on civilians, systematically committing murder, torture, rape and enforced disappearance amounting to crimes against humanity". According to a UN report published in August 2014, the Assad regime was perpetrating indiscriminate bombing of civilian populations, engaging in chemical warfare, torture, forced disapperances, and extrajudicial murder of detainees. It also asserted that some rebel groups were involved in recruiting child soldiers, shelling civilian-populated areas, kidnapping, and hostage-taking. The report also stated that the Islamic State (IS) group was engaged in systematic targeting of members of religious minorities.
Civilian casualties from airstrikes by the US-led coalition fighting IS are considerable; the Syrian Network for Human Rights reported 2,286 civilian deaths since the beginning of the campaign until September 2017, raising concerns that the coalition failed to take necessary precautions to minimize civilian casualties. Unlawful attacks against civilians and civilian structures in Syria have also been made by the Syrian-Russian coalition forces and other parties, in particular the Russian–Syrian hospital bombing campaign, as well as attacks on schools and mosques. According to Amnesty International's 2017/8 report on Syria, "Parties to the armed conflict committed war crimes and other grave violations of international humanitarian law and human rights abuses with impunity."
Effect on children A report from UNICEF estimates that over 5 million children are in need in Syria, and due to the spillover effect, 2.5 million more children are in need in neighbouring countries like Jordan and Iraq. From 2014 through 2019, 5,427 children were killed, averaging out to one child death every 10 hours. 60% of child deaths were due to murders and injuries, with the effect of the use of explosives close behind. The WHO reported that the war resulted in nearly three-quarters of hospitals in Syria being unable to function and instead being used as military bases. The long-term conflict resulted in 60.5% of Syrian students developing one of the following mental health conditions: post-traumatic stress disorder (35.1%), depression (32.0%), and anxiety (29.5%). From January 2019 to June 2019, there were 74 attacks on schools in Syria, resulting in over 2 million children being out of school. With limited resources due to the war, 83% of people live in poverty, which resulted in 49% of children from ages 10 to 16 working. 2020. Syrian Crisis. New York City, NY: UNICEF. Burack, Cristina. 2020. 5 Million Syrian Children in Need Due to War. Germany: DW. Sinha, Priyanka. 2016. Realizing Children's Rights in Syria. Genève, Switzerland: Humanium. Birch, M., Devakumar, D., Osrin, D., Rubenstein, L., Sondorp, E., and Wells, J. 2015. Children Health in Syria: Recognizing the Lasting Effects of Warfare on Health. Bethesda, MD: NCBI. Ajeeb, M., Fadel, L., Perkins, JD., and Saleh, G. 2018. Mental Health in Syrian Children with a Focus on Post-Traumatic Stress: a Cross-Sectional Study from Syrian Schools. Bethesda, MD: NCBI. UNICEF Middle East and North Africa. 2019. Syria Crisis Fast Facts. UNICEF. 2019. The Challenge for Syria's Children. Fairfield, CT: Save the Children. Almir Ali, Nawar. 2018. Stolen Childhood. Damascus, Syria: Entwicklung und Zusammenarveit. In May 2020, following nine years of gruesome war and coronavirus pandemic, inflation in Syria rose to an all-time high since April 2011. The situation resulted in doubling of food prices in just over six months and "children going to bed hungry," Imran Riza, a UN's top official based in Damascus informed.
Syrian Arab Armed Forces and allied forces According to various UN reports released during 2011-12, Syrian Arab Armed Forces and Ba'athist security apparatus were responsible for: unlawful killing, including of children (mostly boys), medical personnel and hospital patients ("In some particularly grave instances, entire families were executed in their homes"); torture, including of children (mostly boys, sometimes to death) and hospital patients, and including sexual and psychological torture; arbitrary arrest "on a massive scale"; deployment of tanks and helicopter gunships in densely populated areas; heavy and indiscriminate shelling of civilian areas; collective punishment; enforced disappearances; widescale and systematic destruction and looting of property; the systematic denial, in some areas, of food and water; and the prevention of medical treatment, including to children – in the period since 15 March 2011. Amnesty International entered the country without government approval in spring 2012 and documented "gross violations of human rights on a massive scale" by the Syrian military and shabiha, "many of which amount to crimes against humanity and war crimes". These were committed against the armed opposition, to punish and intimidate civilian individuals and strongholds perceived to be supporting the opposition, and indiscriminately against individuals who had nothing to do with the opposition. In addition to the crimes listed by the UN above, they noted cases of people being burnt alive; destruction of pharmacies and field hospitals (normal hospitals are out of bounds to those wounded by the military); and that the sometimes lethal torture ("broken bones, missing teeth, deep scars and open wounds from electric shocks, and from severe beatings and lashings with electric cables and other implements") was overwhelmingly directed at men and boys.
Amnesty reported that medical personnel had also been tortured, while the UN said that medical personnel in state hospitals were sometimes complicit in the killing and torture of patients. The execution and torture of children was also documented by Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch. Most of the serious human rights violations documented by the UN have been committed by the Syrian army and security services as part of military or search operations. The pattern of the killing, coupled with interviews with defectors, led the UN to conclude a shoot-to-kill policy was operative. The UN mentioned several reports of security forces killing injured victims by putting them into refrigerated cells in hospital morgues.
The UN reported 10,000 persons arbitrarily detained between mid-March and late-June 2011; a year later that number had more than doubled, though the true number of detainees may have been far higher. At the notorious Seidnaya jail, north of Damascus, 2,500 military officers and lesser ranks were being held after they disobeyed orders or attempted desertion. Human Rights Watch documented more than 20 different methods of torture used against detainees, including: prolonged and severe beatings, often with objects such as batons and wires; painful stress positions; electrocution; burning with car battery acid; sexual assault; pulling out fingernails; mock execution; and sexual violence. Many were held in disgusting and cruelly overcrowded conditions; many who needed medical assistance were denied it, and some consequently died.
Human Rights Watch accused the government and Shabiha of using civilians as human shields when they advanced on opposition-held areas. A UN report confirmed this, saying soldiers had used children as young as eight, detaining and killing children afterwards. The UN added the Syrian Government as one of the worst offenders on its annual "list of shame". In May 2012, Al Arabiya aired leaked footage of a man being tortured in a government detention centre in Kafranbel.
In response to these violations, the UN Human Rights Council passed a condemnatory resolution. It also demanded that Syria cooperate with a UN investigation into the abuses, release all political prisoners, and allow independent monitors to visit detention facilities.
The charity Save the Children conducted interviews in refugee camps with Syrian civilians who had fled the fighting, and released a report in September 2012 containing many accounts of detention, torture and summary execution, as well as other incidents such as the use of civilians as human shields, allegedly including tying children onto advancing tanks so that rebel forces would not fire upon them.