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Syria’s Children and Women Cannot Wait: A Humanitarian Call for Justice, Not Impunity

Syria’s transition must not become a new chapter of impunity. Verified United Nations and human-rights reporting documents child recruitment by Hay’at Tahrir al-Sham (HTS), sexual violence against Alawite women and girls, and failures by security institutions to protect victims, while the country’s new leadership faces a profound test: whether it will protect all Syrians equally or reproduce the violence it inherited. UN CAAC

By Khurram Ali RazaFaith & Freedom News

Original appeal by Mohamad Birjawi

Published October 13, 2026

This article is based on the statement of Mr. Mohamad Birjawi, framed as a humanitarian and anti-terrorism appeal, and includes a line by Mr. Khaldalkhyr that Mr. Birjawi has endorsed. It distinguishes documented findings from serious allegations that require independent investigation.

Children recruited into war

The exploitation of children is not a slogan; it is a documented pattern. The UN Secretary-General reported that, from October 2022 through December 2024, it verified 3,343 grave violations against 3,209 Syrian children, with recruitment and use among the most prevalent abuses; HTS was identified among the main perpetrators. UN CAAC

Earlier UN reporting attributed 477 verified cases of child recruitment and use to HTS in 2023 alone, alongside abuses by other armed actors including the Syrian National Army, Syrian Democratic Forces, and former government forces. The UN has also documented children used not only in combat but in support roles such as porters, lookouts, messengers, and ammunition handlers. U.S. State Dept.

Every child handed a weapon is a child denied a future. A credible Syrian state must demobilize and rehabilitate all child recruits, publish the fate of missing minors, and prosecute those who recruit, train, or deploy them.

Sexual violence demands accountability

Reports of abduction and sexual violence against Alawite women and girls are among the most alarming human-rights concerns in post-Assad Syria. The BBC documented accounts from survivors who said armed men identifying themselves as security forces abducted them; Amnesty International reported credible information on at least 36 abducted Alawite women and girls, including children as young as three. BBC

The UN Deputy Special Envoy for Syria also noted recent conflict-related sexual violence against Alawite women during the March coastal violence, including abuses perpetrated by armed elements and some members of government security forces. In one widely reported case, a young woman said men in General Security uniforms assaulted her; Syria’s Interior Ministry acknowledged a rape investigation, but authorities did not conclusively confirm the attackers’ official affiliation. UN Special Envoy briefing

These allegations must be investigated independently, transparently, and without sectarian bias. Survivors need protection, medical care, legal representation, and the certainty that no uniform, rank, or political affiliation places an abuser above the law.

Terrorism has no “permissible” form

Mr. Birjawi’s central moral question is clear: there is no “halal” or “haram” terrorism, no religious or political label that makes the murder, abduction, rape, or recruitment of civilians acceptable. Terrorism against Israelis on October 7, terrorism against Syrians, and sectarian violence against any community must be condemned by the same standard.

Ahmed al-Sharaa, formerly known as Abu Mohammad al-Jolani, founded Jabhat al-Nusra, formerly al-Qaeda’s Syrian affiliate, and later led HTS, whose forces toppled Bashar al-Assad in December 2024. Whatever political transformation has occurred since, legitimacy cannot be claimed through rhetoric alone. It must be proven through disarmament of abusive militias, protection of minorities, independent courts, and an end to child recruitment. Britannica

Dialogue cannot mean silence

Peace talks are not inherently wrong, but dialogue that ignores atrocities risks becoming a platform for rehabilitation without accountability. Mr. Birjawi is right that “peace cannot be built with terrorists” if peace means accepting violence against civilians as a bargaining chip.

A meaningful peace process must include:

• Independent investigation of sexual violence, abductions, and child recruitment.
• Removal from security institutions of personnel credibly implicated in abuses.
• Protection and compensation for survivors and witnesses.
• Inclusion of Syria’s ethnic and religious communities: Arabs, Kurds, Turkmen, Armenians, Assyrians, Alawites, Sunnis, Shiites, Druze, Christians, and others.
• Clear red lines: no amnesty for rape, torture, enforced disappearance, or the recruitment of children.

The standard is humanity

The strongest Syrian identity is not sectarian; it is human. As Mr. Khaldalkhyr writes, in words Mr. Birjawi has publicly endorsed:

“I am not Sunni, not Shiite, not Alawite, not Druze, not Christian, not Jewish… I am Syrian.”Mr. Khaldalkhyr, endorsed by Mohamad Birjawi

That sentiment is the foundation of any durable peace: equal protection for every person, regardless of faith, ethnicity, gender, or political view.

The international community should not turn away. It should demand measurable protections for children, justice for survivors of sexual violence, and an end to impunity, because a peace that abandons innocent blood is not peace at all. UN CAAC

Source statement: Written and reported by Khurram Ali Raza on the basis of the appeal by Mr. Mohamad Birjawi, with documented sourcing from the United Nations, the BBC (including its reporting of Amnesty International’s figures), the U.S. State Department, and Syrian human-rights reporting.