Page 14 - EN-Youth Report

Situation Overview

Seven years have passed since the start of the popular revolution against the Syrian regime,

a revolution that began as a peaceful civil protest movement led by the masses of Syrian
youth aspiring change and moving with their country towards a democratic and
participatory future. Influenced by the “Arab Spring’s” upraisal against totalitarian regimes,
including the Syrian regime, which has been in power in Syria for 40 years, using state

terrorism, corruption, and inheritance of the presidency within the Assad family and
undermining the foundations of the Syrian Republic, this peaceful movement has later
turned into an armed conflict joined by armed factions and foreign militias as well as jihadi

groups, to finally turn into proxy wars between many international and regional actors.
Civilians in Syria continue to face an ongoing protection crisis. Breaches of International
Humanitarian Law (IHL) and International Human Rights Law (IHRL) are continuously being
reported, using barrel bombs and internationally prohibited weapons such cluster and white

phosphorus munition, and chemical agents. The first half of year 2018 has witnessed the
killing of 4,759 civilians by different parties of the conflict, including 1,104 children and 798
women. These indiscriminate armed attacks have caused not only human loss, but also

resulted in major destructions of health facilities, schools, market places and houses,
leaving people with very limited access to basic services and housing facilities.
The scale, severity and complexity of the resulting humanitarian disaster across Syria remains

overwhelming. 13.1 million people are assessed to be in need of humanitarian
assistance including 6.1 million are internally displaced people (IDPs), many
of them displaced multiple times.

14 | MAPPING YOUTH SITUATION IN NORTHWESTERN SYRIA