Amnesty International called on the Syrian government Aug. 29 to undertake concrete measures, including a nationwide search for thousands who disappeared under the Assad regime, to deliver truth, justice and reparations for the victims and their families. A new report published by the human rights organization finds that thousands of individuals are still struggling to uncover the whereabouts of their family members, many of whom are believed to have been subject to torture, murder, and other human rights abuses.

UN human rights experts expressed deep concern Aug. 21 over continuing violence against the Druze population in the Suwayda region of Syria. Since the outbreak of fighting in mid-July, the UN experts said they have received reports of "killings, enforced disappearances, abductions, looting, destruction of property, and sexual and gender-based violence against women and girls." The experts especially emphasized the prevalence of gender-based attacks, reporting that an estimated 105 Druze women and girls have been abducted by armed groups in connection with the Syrian interim authorities.

Hundreds demonstrated Aug. 16 in the southern Syrian city of Suwayda, pressing for the "self-determination" of the Druze people. Protesters demanded full independence from Syria, dismissing ideas of federalism or autonomy as inadequate. Speakers asserted that statehood is needed to guarantee their security, citing last month's episode of violence as evidence that inter-ethnic coexistence under one state is no longer a viable solution.

The UN Syria Commission of Inquiry on Aug. 14 reported that the wave of violent attacks that engulfed coastal and western central Syria in March may constitute war crimes, and urged accountability to restore public confidence in the authorities.

Amnesty International on July 28 called on Syria to investigate abductions of Alawite women and girls, and bring perpetrators to justice.

Agnès Callamard, Amnesty International's secretary general, said that the Syrian authorities must "act swiftly and transparently in locating missing women and girls, bringing perpetrators to justice, and providing affected families with timely, gender-sensitive and credible information and support."

The DC-based Syrian Emergency Task Force condemned the unlawful detention, torture and abuse of Syrian refugees in Lebanon, which it says has resulted in at least 40 deaths. Since 2014, Hezbollah and complicit Lebanese forces have arrested hundreds of Syrian refugees—particularly supporters of the Syrian Revolution—and sentenced them in unfair military trials, despite repatriation efforts by Syria's new government.

The investigation by the Syrian transition government into the March violence against the Alawites in Latakia province has been submitted—but the full findings have not been made public, and it apparently exonerates the government of involvement. Meanwhile southern Suwayda province has seen a perhaps even deadlier eruption of violence—this time pitting Druze against Bedouin, with the role of the government similarly the source of much contestation (and fodder for Internet partisans). And a Damascus protest against the violence and for co-existence was attacked by goons. Amid all this, Israel is militarily intervening, the government looks to Turkey for military aid, and both the US and Russia still have forces on the ground—treating the country as a Great Power chessboard. In Episode 288 of the CounterVortex podcast, Bill Weinberg argues that the Syrian Revolution is poised on a razor's edge, ready to descend into ethno-sectarian war and authoritarianism unless political space can be kept open for the secular-democratic civil resistance that began the revolution 14 years ago.

The Syrian Network for Human Rights (SNHR) on July 20 called on the Syrian government to hold accountable those who attacked peaceful protesters in front of the country's legislature in Damascus two days earlier. The protest had been convened to oppose the escalating violence in the southern province of Suwayda, and to demand the protection of minorities and the promotion of civil peace in the country.