NATIONAL UNION OF SYRIAN STUDENTS

The National Union of Syrian Students (NUSS) long held a surveillance role within Syrian universities. Post-2011, it assumed additional roles to stifle anti-regime sentiment on campuses, including patrolling university grounds for anti-regime activity, violently clamping down against student activism, arresting and torturing students, and handing students over to security services. Through 20 in-depth interviews with former students, professors, and NUSS members, Dar Justice’s investigation reveals the range of crimes committed by the NUSS at the University of Damascus as well as the group’s extensive cooperation and coordination with Syrian State security services.

In August 2012, the Syrian Government and allied forces carried out a brutal military campaign against Daraya, a town southwest of the Syrian capital of Damascus. The attack involved five days of indiscriminate shelling and culminated in 72 hours of door-to-door summary executions of hundreds of civilians. Hundreds more were detained or forcibly disappeared.

Dar Justice conducted a two-year investigation into this attack, including 23 witness interviews, two expert interviews, documentary evidence and open-source investigation. On the 10th anniversary of this attack, Dar Justice published a report detailing its findings regarding the crimes committed, entities responsible, and means through which the attack against Daraya was coordinated and executed.