Association
On 1st March 2024, the Gulf Centre for Human Rights (GCHR) reported that on 27th February 2024, women’s rights activist Heba Suhaib Haj Arif was found murdered in her home in the city of Bazaa in the eastern countryside of Aleppo Governorate. Local sources reported that she was hanged, while other reports stated that she was strangled to death.
Haj Arif was a member of the Syrian Women’s Network, and previously worked as a member of the Local Council of the city of Bazaa in May 2023, before she was forced to resign. She was married, a mother of two children, and lived with her husband in the city of Baza’a. Before her murder, she worked as the director of the boys’ department of a school affiliated with the organisation Yeni Adam, which means “the new step” in Arabic.
Sources close to her confirmed that she had received threats two weeks before her murder to resign from working in this organisation, but she submitted her complaint to the town police, which is controlled by gunmen from the Al-Hamza Division.
According to a report by UN OHCHR on 13th February 2024, many Syrians who had fled the war face gross human rights violations and abuses upon their return to Syria. The UN expressed concerns about violations and abuses perpetrated by the Government, de facto authorities and other armed groups across the country. They include arbitrary detention, torture and ill-treatment, sexual and gender-based violence, enforced disappearance and abduction.
On 26th January 2024, GCHR reported that Syrian human rights defender Abdulrahman Al-Nahhas, who is imprisoned in the United Arab Emirates (UAE), is not able to stand or walk or express himself coherently due to a rapid deterioration in his physical and mental health. On 8th September 2021, the State Security Department of the UAE Federal Court issued a 10-year prison sentence against Al-Nahhas, on two charges of allegedly “belonging to a terrorist organisation” and “insulting the prestige of the state.”
On 17th November 2023, Mary Lawlor, Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights defenders, and Tlaleng Mofokeng, Special Rapporteur on the right of everyone to the enjoyment of the highest attainable standard of physical and mental health, sent a letter to authorities in UAE in which they said, “We would like to express concern at the reports of apparent medical negligence Mr. Al-Nahhas has been subjected to, as well as allegations of sexual violence against him. We also would like to express concern that his condition in prison has allegedly led to his attempting suicide.” The letter sought information about him including his physical and mental health, and the allegation of sexual violence, but has received no response as yet.