North-West Syria Protection Analysis Update

Access to rights has become increasingly challenging for crisis-affected communities in North-West Syria amidst the on-going conflict and protection crisis which began 12 years ago. The earthquakes in February 2023 further compounded humanitarian needs, while exacerbating existing protection risks, including the access to legal identity and the related intensification of GBV, family separation, trafficking, recruitment, evictions and statelessness.

Due to the instability and uncertainty, particularly since July when confrontations escalated, in security incident reports fear was found to be the most dominant factor influencing the population's consideration of moving to a different place in North-West Syria, with 82% of respondents expressing it as a primary concern. Nearly a third of respondents considered moving beyond Syria's borders. Later on, in the first ten days of September, and as a result of increased military hostilities, 2,776 households (15,264 individuals) were displaced from Gandorah, A’rima and Ariha subdistricts of Aleppo and Idleb governorates. In October, some 68,000 people were newly displaced following the significant escalation of hostilities that impacted more than 1,400 locations across Idleb and western Aleppo.

Protection risks requiring immediate attention in the period covered by this analysis are:

1. Impediments and/or restrictions to access to legal identity, remedies and justice
2. Child and forced family separation
3. Gender-based violence
4. Presence of mine and other explosive ordnance
5. Psychological/emotional abuse or inflicted distress