Human rights in Rojava

According to the Constitution of Rojava, the administration of the de facto autonomous region is committed to international law regarding human rights.

Contradictions with Syrian law

Constitution of Rojava includes the following amendments to Syrian law.

• Equal rights for women and a ban on polygamy

Human rights reports

Syrian opposition militias

According to a Human Rights report, since July 2013, Jabhat Al-Nusra, at times in coordination with other armed groups, carried out a series of killings of Kurdish civilians in Al Youssoufiyah, Qamishli and Al-Asadia (Al-Hasakah). During a raid by the Free Syrian Army, ISIS, the Islamic Front and Jabhat Al-Nusra battalions, fighters killed a Kurdish Yazidi man in Al-Asadia who refused to convert to Islam.

ISIS

In June 2014, after ISIS defeated the Kurdish forces in the border city of Tell Abyad, ISIS fighters made an announcement from the minarets of the local mosques that all Kurds had to leave Tell Abyad on or else be killed. Thousands of civilians, including Turkmen and Arab families fled on 21 July. Its fighters systematically looted and destroyed the property of Kurds, and in some cases, resettled displaced Arab Sunni families from the Qalamoun area (Rif Damascus), Dayr Az-Zawr and Ar-Raqqah in abandoned Kurdish homes.

In June 2015 at least 220 Kurdish civilians were massacred in mass killings by ISIS fighters in their homes or killed by the group's rockets or snipers by an attack on the Syrian Kurdish town of Kobani on the Turkish border, which is one of the worst massacres carried out by ISIS in Syria. Women and children were among the bodies found inside houses and on the streets of Kobane. Also in a nearby village, IS reportedly shot dead at least 20 civilians, including women and children. The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said that ISIS fired at everything that moved.

YPG militia

During the Syrian Civil War, PYD were accused of ethnic cleansing and war crimes against Arab and Turkmen communities. Several intentational sources have accused PYD for human rights abuses which have been taken place in areas under their control. The allegations include kidnappings of suspected persons, executions, torture, ethnic cleansing, and expulsion. However, YPG denied all the accusations and has said that the researchers are welcome to start investigations.

Legally women have equal rights and there are quotas for their political representation. There is affirmative action to give power to minority groups and ethnicities as a guiding principle.

Human Rights Watch who was permitted to visit in early 2014, reported "arbitrary arrests, due process violations, and failed to address unsolved killings and disappearances" and made recommendations for government improvement. However, Fred Abrahams, special advisor to HRW who visited Rojava and drafted the report, noted that the PYD has taken solid steps to addressing the problems and has been receptive to criticism. He notes that they are currently in the process of political transitioning from the Syrian government, training a new police force and creating a new legal system. Arbitrary long term detainment followed by unfair trials lasting minutes with no lawyers for the defendants were reported.

There has also been multiple reports of teenage fighters serving in the YPG military. After criticism from Human Rights Watch when the problem persisted, the YPG pledged publicly to demobilize all fighters under 18 within a month. However the YPG has taken steps to prevent teenage volunteer fighters under the age of 18.

Several reports have accused PYD militias of human right violations. In a story by Mother Jones, Amnesty International reports abuses including forced displacement, demolition of homes, and the seizure and destruction of property.

"In some cases, entire villages have been demolished, apparently in retaliation for the perceived support of their Arab or Turkmen residents for the group that calls itself the Islamic State (IS) or other non-state armed groups."

The leader of the PYD, Salih Muslim Muhammad, warned that the Kurds' future war would be with Arabs who have settled in the Kurdish areas with the help of the Syrian regime. He also added that the situation in Qamishli and Hasakah is particularly explosive and that "if it continues the same way, there will be war between Kurds and Arabs." and "All the villages where they live now belong to the Kurds". He also said that "one day those Arabs who have been brought to the Kurdish areas will have to be expelled." In spring 2015, Syrian sources claimed that the YPG burnt some Arab villages in Al Hasakah Province.

Violations of ethnic minorities

The YPG have been accused of ethnic cleansing against Arabs; which led to the fleeing of thousands and the destruction of several Arab villages — a charge strongly denied by the Kurds. A mission to PYD held areas revealed a wave of forced displacement and home demolitions amounting to war crimes carried out by the YPG, said Amnesty International.

In an interview by Society for Threatened Peoples with the head of the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, Rami Abdulrahman said that all "ethnic cleansing" allegations against YPG were nonsense. He also explained that these allegations were propaganda of Turkish and Syrian National Congress origin, because of their hostility towards Kurds.

On 13 October 2015, Amnesty international accused YPG of demolishing homes of village residents and forcing them out of areas under kurdish control. According to Amnesty International, some displaced people said that the YPG has targeted their villages on the pretext of supporting ISIS; some villagers revealed the existence of a small minority that might have sympathized with the group. The YPG also threatened the villagers with US coalition airstrikes if they failed to leave. The village of Husseiniya was completely razed to the ground leaving 14 out of 225 houses standing.

The YPG released a report denying the accusations made in the Amnesty International report, criticizing the methodology used and the validity of the testimonies given by interviewees. Amnesty International has not responded to the YPG report.

YPG spokesman Redur Xelil said: "Very simply, this is a false allegation." and PYD leader Salih Muslim and YPG spokesman strictly denied the Amnesty International claims.

Assyrian AINA agency claimed that the YPG and PYD have looted and confiscated the property of Assyrians and Armenians who had escaped their villages after they were attacked by ISIS, with the aim of repopulating Assyrian villages with Kurds.

Forcible fighter recruitment

Several incidents of forcible recruitment, including 16-year-old boys, have happened in by YPG forces. The latest of these events happened in Afrin District during which approximately two hundred young men were forcibly recruited. In a previous incident on 12 June 2015, Christian men in Qamishli resisted a forcible kidnapping attempt for recruitment in YPG militia. The situation escalated further with the arrival of vehicles of the regime-affiliated Christian Sootoro militia and one YPG fighter was reportedly seriously injured. In another incident, a 14-year-old girl was forcibly recruited. According to Kurdwatch, local Kurdish residents in Amuda had rallied against forcible recruitment of minors.

Oppression against other political parties

The 2014 report by Human Rights Watch documented the alleged cases of "arbitrary arrests" and "unfair trials" that had occurred since the beginning of the revolution in 2012. PYD and YPG officials claim that the few proven instances of misconduct are isolated incidents and not tolerated. Several incidents allegedly involved assassination, and disappearing of political opponents of PYD militias occurred which the PYD denied but failed to conduct an investigation. In one incident, the Asayiş, the security service of the Democratic Union Party (PYD), expelled two Yekîtî (rival Kurdish party) members from their homes in Rumaylan.