Rights Monitor – Human Rights Monitor Platform in Syria – strongly condemns the grave threat directed against Syrian human rights defender and intellectual Haitham Manna in the Swiss city of Geneva. The incident was documented in a video clip that has circulated publicly, showing an individual affiliated with supporters of the so-called Temporary Authority in Syria, led by Ahmad al-Sharaa (known as al-Jolani).
According to the video monitored by Rights Monitor, the individual directly threatened Haitham Manna from inside his vehicle, using inciting and degrading language, including the statement: “Your reckoning will come later,” following the public utterance of insults. Such conduct constitutes an explicit threat to Manna’s personal safety, a clear violation of the right to freedom of opinion and expression, and an attempt to intimidate independent human rights voices, even beyond Syrian territory.
Rights Monitor views this incident as an extremely dangerous indicator of the escalating rhetoric of incitement and violence against human rights defenders, as well as attempts to export practices of intimidation and exclusion to countries that are supposed to provide legal protection for activists and political refugees.
Haitham Manna is one of the most prominent Syrian human rights defenders. He is known for his long-standing opposition to the Assad regime, both father and son, and for his intellectual and critical contributions regarding jihadist and Salafist movements that have come to power in Syria. He is a university professor holding a PhD in Social Sciences, a Doctorate in Medicine, and a Master’s degree in International Law. He has carried out more than sixty human rights fact-finding missions in various countries worldwide, more than half of them in armed conflict zones, and has trained and contributed to the education of approximately 4,200 students between 2009 and 2022.
Manna is also the editor of the Concise Global Encyclopedia of Human Rights and a recipient of the Human Rights Medal from the National Academy of Sciences in Washington. He has paid a heavy personal price for his human rights work: the Assad family deprived him of seeing his relatives and companions for a quarter of a century due to his rejection of military dictatorship in his country. His brother, the engineer Maen Al-Oudat, was killed, in addition to 34 members of his extended family.
Accordingly, Rights Monitor calls on:
The competent Swiss authorities to open an urgent, transparent investigation into the threat and to hold those responsible accountable in accordance with the law.
Ensuring legal and security protection for human rights defender Haitham Manna, as well as for all human rights defenders residing on Swiss territory.
A clear international condemnation of any attempts at intimidation or threats targeting human rights and intellectual voices, regardless of their source or political cover.
Rights Monitor affirms that targeting human rights defenders will not silence the truth; rather, it exposes the nature of those who resort to violence and threats instead of dialogue and accountability.
Rights Monitor Human Rights Monitor Platform in Syria
