The following is based on a communication written by the UN Special Rapporteur on Human Rights Defenders and other UN experts to the Government of the Syrian Arab Republic on 26 May 2025. The communication remained confidential for 60 days before being made public, giving the Government time to reply. Regrettably, the Government did not reply within this time frame. If a reply is received it will be posted on the UN Special Procedures communications database.
This is a shorter version of the original communication.
BACKGROUND
Topic: the targeting and online defamation of a Syrian woman human rights defender, Hiba Ezzideen Al-Hajji, since April 2025.
Ms. Hiba Ezzideen Al-Hajji is a human rights defender and the chief executive officer of Equity and Empowerment, a Türkiye-based non-governmental organization that supports women’s rights and democracy in Syria, including in the north-western Syrian governorate of Idlib. Together with Syria-based colleagues, Ms. Al-Hajji promotes gender equality, political empowerment and digital security. In July 2023, Ms. Al-Hajji was selected one of the ten faces of democracy by the European Endowment for Democracy (Ten Faces of EED).
Ms. Al-Hajji was the subject of communication AL TUR 7/2023 regarding threats against her on social media, claiming that her work went against Islamic teaching. The communication was sent on 12 September 2023 to the Turkish Government, which had an obligation to protect the human rights of individuals under its jurisdiction, including from threats emanating from regions held by the de facto authorities in north-western Syria. In addition to its obligations under international humanitarian law, the de facto authority in Idlib at the time was responsible for ensuring the human rights of individuals under its effective control, including, but not limited to, the right to life.
ALLEGATIONS
On 19 April 2025, a recording by an unknown source was circulated on social media with Ms. Al-Hajji’s voice in which she appears to criticise the full face covering that some women in Idlib wore. Her alleged comments triggered a wave of defamatory statements against her, her family and the organisation she runs, Equity and Empowerment. At around the same time, Ms. Al-Hajji urged the Syrian government and the Ministry of Interior to investigate alleged cases of abduction of young women.
On 20 April 2025, Ms. Al-Hajji posted an explanatory video on her Facebook page in which she described the recording as being taken out of context, that these were indeed her statements but that they dated to four years prior. Ms. Al-Hajji said that at the time she had asked fully veiled women to uncover their face during all-women training courses for security reasons.
On 22 April 2025, the defamatory campaign against her intensified, some accusing her of being an agent of the previous regime and of spreading false information about a slave market in Idlib – in apparent relation to her statements regarding the abduction of women. She has since received death threats on her Facebook page and on that of Equity and Empowerment and in direct messages to her. Members of her family in Idlib also were threatened physically and online. Sent by unknown users, these messages urged followers to post defamatory content against her and to take violent action and burn down the office of Equity and Empowerment in Idlib.
On 23 April 2025, the governor of Idlib filed a complaint against Ms. Al-Hajji and asked the public prosecutor to file a lawsuit against her for insulting the Islamic veil and for spreading false information about the presence of a slave market in Idlib.
On 24 April 2025, the Idlib police shut down Equity and Empowerment’s office in Kafr Yahmoul without official explanation, its only centre in the region. The office remained closed by the time of writing this communication, and the Idlib authorities have verbally informed the organisation that it was not allowed to operate any longer.
On 6 May 2025, Equity and Empowerment posted on its Facebook page that it was conducting internal procedures to ensure a safe working environment.
On 13 May 2025, two police officers visited her family home in Idlib demanding her presence to face charges against her by the governor of Idlib. They were told that she was in Türkiye. The police did not present an official document. Ms. Al-Hajji is currently wanted on charges of spreading false information about the presence of female slaves and a slave market in Idlib, and of insulting the full-face covering worn by women. She risks arrest and detention should she return to attend her hearing in court, a date for which has not been set so far.
CONCERNS
In the communication, we express serious concern at the reported renewed acts of hate speech, defamation and threats of violence using online platforms against Ms. Al-Hajji, her co-workers and her family members, and at the charges pressed against her in relation to her legitimate human rights work. We are further deeply concerned at the potential consequences for her physical integrity, resulting from the online defamation campaign and its death threats and we call for effective investigations into these allegations to ensure accountability. We are concerned that these acts were taken in retaliation for her work in the defence of women’s rights.
In her report on “Gendered disinformation and its implications for the right to freedom of expression” the Special Rapporteur on freedom of expression and opinion called on States to “take all appropriate measures, including through laws, social policies and programmes, to strengthen gender equality and eliminate gender stereotypes, negative social norms and discriminatory laws, policies, practices and attitudes,” and urged them not to “make, sponsor, encourage or disseminate statements that they know or should reasonably know to be false, nor should they support in any way the dissemination of gendered disinformation.” The Special Rapporteur also emphasized that “all measures to restrict gendered disinformation, hate speech or online gender-based violence should comply fully with international human rights standards, strictly and narrowly construed. (A/78/288, paras. 125, 126 and 127).
We would also like to note that the former Special Rapporteur on freedom of religion or belief has firmly rejected the claim that religious beliefs can be used to justify violence or discrimination against women.
If confirmed, the facts alleged would appear to contravene, among other norms, with the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, to which the Syrian Arab Republic acceded to on 23 March 1976, and which the interim authorities have considered an integral part of its Constitutional Declaration.
