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The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (also known as SOHR; Template:Lang-ar), founded in May 2006, is an information office documenting human rights abuses in Syria, since 2011 focusing on the Syrian Civil War. The SOHR is frequently quoted by western news media since the beginning of the uprising, such as Voice of America, Reuters, BBC, CNN and National Public Radio, about daily numbers of ISIL/ISIS fighters and civilians killed in airstrikes in Syria.

The United Kingdom-based SOHR is run from his home in Coventry by Rami Abdulrahman, (sometimes referred to as Rami Abdul Rahman) a Syrian Sunni Muslim who also owns a clothes shop. After being imprisoned three times in Syria, Abdulrahman fled to the United Kingdom fearing a fourth jail term and has not returned since. The New York Times in April 2013 described him being on the phone all day every day with contacts in Syria, and checking all information himself. Born Osama Suleiman, he adopted a pseudonym during his years of activism in Syria, and has used it publicly ever since.

In a December 2011 interview with Reuters, Abdulrahman said the observatory has a network of 200 people and that six of his sources had been killed. Abdulrahman reports on events in the Syrian uprising, including the deaths of civilians, rebels and army defectors and government soldiers.

Charlie Skeltom, in a 2012 opinion piece in The Guardian, questioned the wisdom of those who quote a source that amounts to nothing more than a lone clothes seller, living in Coventry, posing as an organization with a "grandiose" name.

SOHR has been accused of selective reporting, covering only violent acts of the government forces against the opposition for the first two years of its existence and reporting militant anti government fighters in dead civilians tolls.

See also

• Raqqa Is Being Slaughtered Silently

References

1. ^ Abbas, Mohammed; Golovnina, Maria (editing) (8 December 2011). "Coventry – an unlikely home to prominent Syria activist". Reuters. Archived from the original on 11 June 2012. Retrieved 11 June 2012. {{cite news}}: Unknown parameter |deadurl= ignored (|url-status= suggested) (help)CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
2. ^ "A Very Busy Man Behind the Syrian Civil War's Casualty Count". New York Times. 9 April 2013. Retrieved 31 May 2013.
3. "26 civilians killed in Syria on Friday: Observatory". The Asian Age. 18 February 2012. Archived from the original on 11 June 2012. Retrieved 11 June 2012. {{cite web}}: Unknown parameter |deadurl= ignored (|url-status= suggested) (help)
4. "Syrian Observatory for Human Rights". Syriahr.com. Retrieved 12 September 2012.
5. The Syrian opposition: who's doing the talking?, The Guardian, 12 July 2012
6. AsiaNews: Massacres by Islamic extremists bolster Bashar al-Assad, 17 June 2013, retrieved 8 July 2013
7. Syria Contextualized. By Musa al-Gharbi Middle East Policy Council Spring 2013, Volume XX, Number 1

External links

• Syrian Observatory for Human Rights – website
• "Human Rights Day – Highlighting Syrian Observatory founder and director Rami Abdurrahman," Support Kurds in Syria (SKS) (supportkurds.org) (10 December 2011). Source: Mohammed Abbas, “Coventry – an unlikely home to prominent Syria activist,” Reuters (8 December 2011) with a SKS comment. Retrieved 6 May 2013.

• 2006 establishments in the United Kingdom
• Organizations of the Syrian Civil War
• Syrian Civil War crimes
• Organizations established in 2006
• 2011 in London
• Organisations based in Coventry