Assad regime overthrown after 53 years of repression and brutality; pivotal opportunity to establish rule of law and individual rights

NEW YORK (Dec. 9, 2024) — On Sunday, the Assad regime in Syria shattered after militants captured Damascus, causing Bashar Al-Assad and his family to reportedly flee to Moscow, Russia. After 53 years of the Assad regime and 24 years of Bashar Al-Assad’s rule — known to many as “The Butcher” — Syrians, both in the diaspora and in the country, are celebrating the end of the brutal dictatorship.

“The Assad dictatorship has fallen. Corruption, war crimes, and hatred for its own people were the trademarks of the al-Assad family,” said HRF chair Yulia Navalnaya. “It’s no surprise that Putin spent years and billions supporting his friend. All dictators are the same, and their end is always the same as well.”

Assad’s rule has been characterized by arbitrary arrests and detention, torture, extrajudicial killings, enforced disappearances, rape, and mass surveillance. In March 2011, inspired by the Arab Spring’s pro-democracy protests, Syrian schoolchildren in southern Daraa painted anti-regime graffiti on a local school’s wall. They were arrested, held for days, and subjected to torture, sparking local protests calling for their release. Peaceful demonstrations quickly expanded throughout Syria, calling for freedom and dignity and, ultimately, the end of the Assad regime. As demonstrations developed rapidly, the Syrian regime steadily increased its military crackdown on demonstrators, escalating into a full-fledged armed conflict.

Between 2011 and 2021, the Assad regime killed 306,887 civilians, including 27,126 children. The Assad regime deliberately concealed the fate and whereabouts of forcibly disappeared people, with estimates placing the number at upward of 150,000 people. Moreover, over 6.8 million people have fled Syria since 2012, and 7.2 million Syrians remain internally displaced. 

As the conflict persisted, humanitarian conditions in Syria deteriorated. The regime systematically denied the flow of humanitarian aid to millions of Syrians. As of March 2024, 70% of the population is in dire need of humanitarian assistance, and 90% live below the poverty line. 

Assad’s rule should be remembered by his chemical attacks, particularly those in Ghouta and Douma in 2013, which saw more than 1,400 and 43 killed, respectively, a large majority of victims being innocent children. 

Efforts by the international community and Syrian diaspora have sought to hold the Assad regime accountable, resulting in the historic Koblenz trial in Germany that convicted two former officials of Assad’s security apparatus for serious crimes against humanity in Syria under the principle of universal jurisdiction. Most recently, France issued an arrest warrant against Assad himself. Moreover, the Caesar Act was enacted in the United States following the release of the Caesar photos illustrating the unfathomable state of prisons in Syria, including the notorious Sednaya prison. Photos and videos from this past weekend show prisoners leaving Sednaya prison, many of whom had been there for more than a decade.  

“HRF calls on the international community to ensure this moment becomes a gateway to justice, accountability, and freedom for Syria. Decisive action must be taken to support Syrians working to establish democratic institutions that guarantee the rights of all, regardless of faith, ethnicity, or sectarian background. This is a pivotal opportunity to prevent Syria from falling into the clutches of another tyranny or descending further into civil war. The Syrian people have endured enough. Now is the time to honor their sacrifices by standing resolutely with them for a united, democratic, and free Syria,” said Thor Halvorssen, CEO of HRF.

HRF believes that the Syrian people deserve dignity, freedom, and democracy. As expressed by the late Syrian activist and former Oslo Freedom Forum (OFF) speaker Raed Fares on the OFF stage just a year before he was assassinated in Idlib, Syria, by Islamic extremists in the Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) militant group: 

“[W]e are the Syrian people. What we started as a revolution, Assad turned into a war. Assad persists on killing every day. But we persist in our revolution until we realize our dream of a democratic Syria for all. […] There is nothing prettier than a flower that defies death, chaos, and destruction, and instead blooms and radiates hope,” he said.

The Human Rights Foundation (HRF) is a nonpartisan nonprofit organization that promotes and protects human rights globally, with a focus on closed societies.

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