HRW: Syria's Reconstruction Drive Leaves Displaced Residents Without a Say

Rastinews — Human Rights Watch (HRW) said Syria's transitional government has signed multibillion-dollar reconstruction deals without a rights framework to guarantee input from displaced people, fair compensation, and an independent appeals process.

The transitional government unveiled a national recovery plan in March 2026, followed by billions of dollars in international pledges for aid, financing and investment. But the legal frameworks governing reconstruction do not require the government or contractors to consult affected communities — including those still displaced — before projects are approved. The process should also require that compensation terms be negotiated rather than imposed, and that residents have access to an independent mechanism to challenge decisions about their homes and land.

"Syria's reconstruction is moving forward, but without a rights framework many Syrians could end up on the losing side. The legal framework now being finalized will determine whose home gets rebuilt, whose claim gets recognized and whose voice gets heard," said Hiba Zayadin, HRW's senior Middle East researcher.

HRW conducted field research in Syria in May 2026, interviewing residents of Gadfa village in the Idlib countryside who had returned from displacement camps. The group also interviewed an activist, whose identity it withheld for security reasons, who has called for Decree No. 66 to be repealed and for property rights to be restored in Marota City.

HRW reviewed Syrian government statements and documents, including President Ahmed al-Sharaa's March 2026 remarks on reconstruction as published by the Syrian Arab News Agency (SANA), and the Constitutional Declaration of March 2025. It also examined reports and data from the World Bank, the International Rescue Committee (IRC), the International Organization for Migration (IOM), the UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR), the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), the Arab Reform Initiative and The Syria Report.

People returning to their communities are finding their homes destroyed and their villages without running water, electricity or health care. Housing, land and property claims dating back to the Assad era remain unresolved. Reconstruction projects are moving forward without meaningful input from the residents they affect.

According to The Syria Report, about 95 percent of buildings in the Jobar district east of central Damascus have been destroyed. In Gadfa, in the Idlib countryside, residents who had returned from displacement told HRW in May 2026 that they had no running water, no functioning electricity grid, inadequate sewage, no operating schools and no nearby health services.

Syria is emerging from more than a decade of conflict that has devastated cities, homes and infrastructure across much of the country.

The World Bank estimated in October 2025 that physical damage totaled $108 billion, with average reconstruction costs put at $216 billion, within a range of $140 billion to $345 billion. The transitional government moved quickly to attract reconstruction investment, rebuilding diplomatic ties and drawing foreign capital after the United States and European countries lifted the sanctions that had frozen investment for years and impoverished Syrians.

Gulf states have led the investment drive. Saudi Arabia has pledged $6.4 billion for real estate, infrastructure, telecommunications and energy. Together with Qatar, it paid off Syria's $15.5 million debt to the World Bank in April 2025, paving the way for ties to resume after a 14-year suspension. Qatar pledged $4 billion, while the UAE-based DP World secured a 30-year concession to operate the Port of Tartus.

The World Bank has since approved grant-funded projects worth more than $1 billion. The International Monetary Fund (IMF) has launched a technical cooperation program with Damascus. Among European governments, France, Germany and, to a lesser extent, Italy have emerged as the most active bilateral partners.

The European Union, which has pledged 620 million euros (about $713 million) for humanitarian aid and socioeconomic recovery in 2026-2027, has announced it will hold an investment conference on Syria in 2027 and is deepening its political ties with Damascus. EU member states are well placed to set an example and to press other donors to firmly embed human rights frameworks in Syria's reconstruction and recovery.

But as the Global Governance Institute noted in August 2026, pledges and announcements have far outpaced actual investment on the ground; meaningful disbursements from international creditors will only follow once governance and legal frameworks are in place.

More than 3.5 million refugees and internally displaced Syrians have returned to their communities since December 2024, according to a July 2026 report by the International Rescue Committee — though not all these returns have been fully voluntary. Many were forced to return because of worsening conditions in displacement, cuts to aid, uncertain legal status and rents they could no longer afford where they had been living.

Syria is bound by the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights. General Comment No. 4 to the covenant defines the right to adequate housing to include security of tenure, access to services, habitability and location. Syria is also bound by the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, which guarantees the right to an effective remedy. Both treaties require that rights be observed without discrimination on any grounds, including ethnicity and religion.

The UN's Basic Principles and Guidelines on Development-Based Evictions and Displacement set out how consultation, compensation and due process should work before any development-related displacement. The UN Guiding Principles on Internal Displacement and the Pinheiro Principles on housing, land and property restitution likewise lay out clear standards for how states should manage return and reconstruction in a post-conflict setting.

International donors should ensure the funds they provide support a rights-compliant recovery and do not cause or contribute to violations. Companies and investors should conduct human rights due diligence before entering reconstruction deals and throughout implementation.

"The legal frameworks governing Syria's reconstruction are still being written. That's an opportunity, but only if the international community and the transitional government use it to build in protections for affected communities. A durable recovery depends on getting this right," Zayadin said.

Background

The International Organization for Migration found in October 2025 that conditions for Syrians returning to their communities remained fragile. Widespread housing, land and property disputes, limited access to public services and extensive contamination from unexploded ordnance are hampering safe movement and livelihoods.

By mid-2026, less than a third of the UN's humanitarian appeal for Syria had been funded. The World Food Programme has cut emergency food assistance in Syria in half since May, from 1.3 million people to 650,000. About 5.5 million people remain internally displaced, according to UNHCR's March operational update.

The gap between pledges and delivery carries concrete consequences for rights. Affected residents can in principle pursue individual cases through Syrian courts, but the judiciary is under-resourced and inaccessible for most property disputes, while documentation requirements pose a further barrier for many returnees. There is no practical way to challenge reconstruction decisions more broadly, and no dedicated complaints mechanism for reconstruction disputes has yet been established.

Some reconstruction work is moving forward. The Rastan Bridge in Homs, a key economic artery linking many Syrian provinces, reopened in June 2026 after repairs jointly funded by the Syria Humanitarian Fund and the UN Development Programme (UNDP). The Rashid Bridge over the Euphrates in Raqqa went back into service in July 2026 after a four-month reconstruction project. The World Bank also approved a $146 million grant in 2025 to repair the national electricity transmission network.

While these infrastructure projects are significant, the efforts remain small relative to the scale of need, and there is no framework in place to ensure projects respect Syrians' rights as reconstruction proceeds.

Economic, social and cultural rights in reconstruction

Under the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, which Syria joined in 1969, and Article 12 of the March 2025 Constitutional Declaration, the Syrian government is obligated to respect, protect and fulfill economic, social and cultural rights throughout the reconstruction process. These rights cover adequate housing, water and sanitation, electricity, health, education, food and social security. Electricity is also critical to realizing many other rights, including the functioning of water and sewage systems, health facilities, schools and homes. The government must ensure all these rights are guaranteed without discrimination on any grounds, including ethnicity, race or religion.

The conditions HRW documented in return areas put these rights at serious risk. In Gadfa, for instance, residents said they were living without running water, a functioning electricity grid, adequate housing, an operating school or nearby health care. Residents said they had to buy water privately and pool money to pay teachers' salaries, piling the cost of public services onto households already under severe economic strain.

HRW said the government should commit to devoting the maximum available resources to the full realization of economic, social and cultural rights. It should guarantee minimum core levels of these rights. Reconstruction plans and budgets should use transparent, rights-compliant criteria to address the most severe deprivations first.

Syria is also obligated to respect the right to property without discrimination, including property held jointly with others. This right is protected under Article 17 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, Article 5(d)(v) of the International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination, which Syria joined in 1969, and Article 31 of the Arab Charter on Human Rights, which Syria ratified in 2007.

Right to participation

International human rights law requires that communities affected by reconstruction be able to meaningfully contribute to decisions about their homes, land and neighborhoods before those decisions are made. Relevant instruments include Article 11 of the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, which guarantees the right to adequate housing and has been interpreted to require genuine participation in housing-related decisions; the UN's Basic Principles and Guidelines on Development-Based Evictions and Displacement, which require that consultation be meaningful, timely and capable of influencing outcomes; and the UN Guiding Principles on Internal Displacement, which require that displaced people participate in planning and managing their return and reintegration. Syria is not meeting these standards.

President Ahmed al-Sharaa said in March 2026 that in cities where destruction reached 90 to 100 percent, the government could not finance construction alone, and that it was considering an investment-based reconstruction model whose legal frameworks were still being finalized.

But the Arab Reform Initiative, drawing on 45 interviews conducted between July 2024 and May 2026 with residents, civil society representatives, officials, investors and others, found that reconstruction decisions are already being made without community participation, clear compensation standards or accessible complaints mechanisms.

The group documented how this gap is already producing conflict. In Homs, Aleppo and Damascus, projects announced without prior consultation with communities have sparked protests, partial reversals and deepening distrust of public authorities.

In Damascus, Decree No. 66 — issued by the Assad government in 2012 and used to displace thousands of people without due process or adequate compensation — has not been repealed by the transitional government. The governor of Damascus suspended its implementation in October 2025 pending a legal review, but no presidential decree has resolved its legal status, and projects it enabled continue to be marketed to investors.

Law No. 10 of 2018 extended the Decree 66 model nationwide, requiring residents to prove ownership within a short window or lose their rights — a requirement that disproportionately affected people displaced by the conflict.

According to the Arab Reform Initiative, wartime urban redevelopment schemes — including the Marota City and Basilia City projects in Damascus — are being repackaged as investment opportunities for the private sector or other governments, risking the legitimization of past dispossession rather than providing redress. Both projects are run by Damascus Cham Holding, a company established under the Assad government that now operates under the transitional government.

A presidential committee was formed in December 2025 to review Decree 66 procedures, and some compensation rulings were issued in May 2026, but the legal framework governing both projects remains unresolved, leaving affected residents still waiting for a lasting solution.

In Jobar, where about 95 percent of buildings have been destroyed, according to The Syria Report and Al Jazeera, officials have told residents they will not be able to rebuild even at their own expense; a proposed foreign-backed project would give them new housing only 50 percent the size of their former homes' footprint.

Under the plan, former homeowners would receive new housing equal to only 50 percent of their previous home's size as compensation; residents of informal settlements would receive 30 percent of their plot without recognition of structures built on it; and tenants would receive nothing.

Right to safe and dignified return

The UN Guiding Principles on Internal Displacement and the 1951 Refugee Convention require that the return of displaced people and refugees be voluntary, safe and dignified. To be voluntary, the decision to return must not stem from worsening conditions in displacement and must be free and informed. Safety requires adequate housing and public services upon return. Dignity requires that property rights be respected and that residents' claims be acknowledged and fairly adjudicated. Political momentum toward returns is accelerating even as UNHCR says economic conditions in Syria remain dire.

During President Ahmed al-Sharaa's official visit to Berlin in March 2026, he and German Chancellor Friedrich Merz voiced a shared hope that 80 percent of Syrians in Germany would return within three years; Merz later clarified that the figure was an aspiration, not an official target.

A UNHCR survey conducted in September 2025 found that 18 percent of Syrian refugees wanted to return within 12 months; among those considering return, the most commonly cited concerns were the availability of housing, limited job opportunities, lack of financial resources and inadequate access to basic services.

Whether refugees or internally displaced people, most returns are not genuinely voluntary. Funding cuts to camps in northwest Syria — including the near-total collapse of US humanitarian funding in 2025 — have left camp residents with no choice but to return to communities that are not yet able to support them.

The transitional government's "Syria Without Camps" initiative aims to close all displacement camps by 2027. Yet the communities to which displaced people are expected to return often lack the infrastructure and public services needed to guarantee an adequate standard of living.

During its visit to Gadfa, HRW interviewed three residents who had returned from displacement camps and found no running water, electricity or functioning school. Residents said they brought in water by tanker truck privately and pooled money to pay teachers' salaries. Individual solar panels installed on buildings have replaced the non-functioning electricity grid.

Nureddin Osman, head of the Gadfa Local Council, said the village had a population of 8,500 before the war, with at least five schools and a hospital serving the surrounding area. He said the village now has an estimated 13,000 residents, and that only 7 of roughly 1,500 homes have a concrete roof. Many residents have pitched tents on the sites of their former homes or atop damaged structures with no roof.

"I came back after [Assad's] fall and found nothing, not even a room to rest in. So I went back into displacement for another five or six months. In the end, my wife and I came back; we live in a single room with no kitchen or bathroom. We came back hoping that God would send an organization, send someone, to help us [get back on our feet]," Osman said.

Suheyb al-Osman, a Gadfa resident who recently returned with 13 family members, including three children with disabilities, said: "After years of displacement, when I returned home I found it completely in ruins. We lack everything needed for a dignified life: water, sewage, electricity, health care. What's hardest for me is that the nearest functioning health facility is 50 kilometers away, and I don't have a car."

HRW said the transitional government should treat the restoration of public services as an urgent rights obligation, not a later phase of reconstruction.

Right to an effective remedy

The right to an effective remedy, guaranteed under the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, requires accessible, independent and enforceable mechanisms through which people whose rights are violated during reconstruction can seek redress. Syria's reconstruction framework does not yet provide such mechanisms. There is no independent, official channel through which communities facing decisions about their land, homes and neighborhoods can challenge those decisions. Instead, they resort to street protests, social media pressure and political mediation — avenues reportedly used by residents of Jobar, Marota City and Basilia City as well.

An activist who has called for Decree No. 66 to be repealed and for property rights to be restored to residents of Marota City in Damascus told HRW on June 20 that their appeals through official channels had gone unanswered. Officials have repeatedly cited political instability and the absence of a People's Assembly as reasons for the delay. The People's Assembly began work in July.

"We were then shocked to learn that Damascus Cham Holding was offering Gulf investors investment opportunities that included the sale of our land. We met with the justice minister, who promised to refer our case to the presidency. That promise has gone nowhere; no action has been taken," the activist said.

Recommendations

To Syria's transitional government:

• Ensure that rights and freedoms guaranteed under Article 12 of the March 2025 Constitutional Declaration — including all rights under the international human rights treaties Syria has ratified — are fully applied to reconstruction and recovery processes; adopt interim guidance requiring all state institutions involved in reconstruction to comply with these obligations without discrimination based on ethnicity, religion or political opinion.

• Add binding community participation requirements to legal frameworks and planning processes before any reconstruction project is approved, contracted or offered to investors.

• Treat displacement in reconstruction as a last resort, prioritizing restitution and return for everyone displaced; where restitution is not possible, set clear and fair compensation standards reflecting actual use and occupancy for everyone displaced by reconstruction, including informal occupants and tenants.

• Impose a moratorium on demolitions where property and compensation arrangements have not been publicly disclosed and accepted by residents.

• Repeal or independently review Decree No. 66 and Law No. 10 of 2018, which extended its provisions nationwide, and assess what restitution is owed to affected residents.

• Establish accessible and independent complaints mechanisms for all reconstruction projects.

• Ensure reconstruction processes are linked to transitional justice on housing, land and property.

• Treat the restoration of public services — water, sanitation, electricity, schools and health care — in areas of active return as an urgent priority, not a later phase of reconstruction.

To international donors and investors:

• Make rights compliance — including community consultation, protection of property and complaints mechanisms — a binding condition of reconstruction financing.

• Require human rights impact assessments before funding projects in areas with unresolved displacement or disputed property.

• Use the upcoming EU-Syria investment conference to make rights standards a precondition rather than an afterthought, and encourage participating companies to adopt human rights due diligence frameworks.

• Coordinate with other international donors to ensure rights compliance is consistently attached to reconstruction financing across all bilateral and multilateral channels.

• Require that conditions for voluntary, safe and dignified return be met in any political timetable for returns.

• Fund public service delivery alongside capital investment, and sustain humanitarian funding as reconstruction scales up.

To international financial institutions:

• Require prior assessment of the human rights impact of fiscal consolidation, privatization or user fees, to ensure they do not cause discrimination, unjustified retrogression, or deprive anyone of minimum core levels of rights to water, health, housing or other rights.

• Ensure financing and technical assistance programs treat human rights impact assessments and housing, land and property protections as core rather than secondary conditions.

• Support the establishment of an independent property dispute resolution mechanism as part of governance reform programs.

To companies and financial actors:

• Conduct human rights due diligence before entering reconstruction deals, including on the need to resolve disputed property and community opposition.

• Require evidence of community consultation and complaints mechanisms before investing.

• Enter agreements involving land or property only where mechanisms exist to resolve affected communities' land or property claims, including through compensation and, where appropriate, land restitution.