Country report: syria
September, 2026
By: Burit Boonpirom
Syria has long struggled with instability driven by extremism and sectarian violence. From 1970 to 2024, Syria was ruled by a regime dominated by a religious minority group known as the Alawites, an offshoot of Shia Islam. This minority-led regime, run by the dictatorship of Hafez al-Assad and later his son Bashar al-Assad, was characterized by mass killings and repression of the population, laying the groundwork for enduring resentment by Syria’s Sunni majority against the Alawite minority.
When Assad’s government was toppled by the Sunni Islamist rebel group Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) in December 2024, Syria’s long-standing power dynamics were upended, with Syria’s Alawites and other minority groups now under Sunni-led rule. Since then, Syria has been undergoing a fragile state of transition hampered by human rights abuses that threaten its efforts towards stability. The new government is led by President Ahmed al-Sharaa, a former head of Al-Qaeda's Syrian affiliate called the Al-Nusra Front, which later became Hay’at Tahrir al-Sham (HTS). The group has been linked to a history of atrocities and sectarian violence, with similar violations persisting with impunity under a new government that lacks accountability.
In March 2025, forces newly integrated into the Syrian Transitional Government (STG) were mobilized and deployed to the Alawite-majority coastal areas to quell an uprising by pro-Assad insurgents. The operation devolved into mass killings of more than 1,500 people, overwhelmingly perpetrated by STG forces against Alawites. In July 2025, similar identity-based killings were carried out in Syria’s Suwayda region against the Druze by STG forces, leaving over 1,700 dead. Since these massacres, both groups still face cases of abductions, killings, and targeted hate speech.
In January 2026, the status of the Syrian Kurds underwent a dramatic transformation when the STG launched an offensive to capture areas controlled by the Kurdish-led Democratic Autonomous Administration of North and East Syria (DAANES). DAANES and its armed wing, the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), were integrated into the Syrian state, which transformed the security apparatus and school curriculum of the Kurdish-majority region. These changes have led to protests calling for the preservation of the Kurdish language in the region’s institutions and school curriculum.
Due to the ongoing killings and abductions of minority groups and massacres perpetrated by government forces, Genocide Watch considers Syria to be at Stage 5: Organization and Stage 9: Extermination. The rampant hate speech and further alienation of minority groups in society also places Syria at Stage 3: Discrimination, Stage 4: Dehumanization, and Stage 6: Polarization.
Genocide Watch recommends that:
Syria must conduct impartial investigations on the massacres that occurred in Suwayda and the coast and cooperate with international actors to ensure full accountability for violations committed by their own forces against minority groups.
Syria must pursue comprehensive security sector reform and promote inclusivity within its ranks to prevent the future breakdown of discipline and persistence of sectarianism.
Syria must make constitutional amendments to enshrine the rights of all its religious and ethnic groups into the constitution, explicitly naming and recognizing each group.
Syria must criminalize hate speech and openly counter dehumanization and misinformation campaigns aimed at promoting sectarian strife.
Syria must explicitly acknowledge its own responsibility in perpetrating the massacres against Alawites and Druze and pursue dialogue and reconciliation efforts with representatives of the groups.
