The Movement for Human Rights in Syria

Last year, Syria threw hundreds of democratic activists in prisons, where they joined Syrian dissidents associated with the 2005 Damascus Declaration for democratic reform. The Declaration called upon democratic forces to undertake “a salvation task of change that takes the country from being a security state to a civil state.”

Democrats in Syria today face a climate of impunity where government security forces arbitrarily arrest, detain and torture critics of the regime. This diverse and courageous movement struggles to return Syria to the days before the current regime took power in 1963 when the country had free media, an independent parliament, and strong democratic institutions.