(Washington, DC) – US President Donald Trump’s announcement that the United States will remove longstanding sanctions on Syria is a critical step toward improving Syrians’ access to fundamental economic rights and encouraging efforts to rebuild a country devastated by years of grueling conflict, Human Rights Watch said today. The announcement should be followed by concrete executive or legislative measures that remove financial and other sanctions hampering access to rights, including the right to electricity and an adequate standard of living.
Broad sanctions, which remained in place despite the ouster of the government of Bashar al-Assad in December 2024, have greatly hindered reconstruction efforts and exacerbated the suffering of millions of Syrians. The European Union and the United Kingdom have already taken steps to ease sanctions on Syria, but the EU should go further by lifting other financial sanctions, including those imposed on Syria’s Central Bank.
“Syria’s economic collapse – due, in part, to US sanctions – has pushed millions into poverty. Now there’s a glimmer of hope,” said Sarah Yager, Washington director at Human Rights Watch. “President Trump’s recent statements offer Syrians a sense that rebuilding and recovery might be possible, but only if he backs these words with quick, concrete, meaningful actions.”
Thirteen years of conflict and displacement have left much of Syria’s infrastructure in ruins, with entire towns uninhabitable; schools, hospitals, roads, water facilities, and electrical grids damaged; public services barely functioning; and the economy in freefall. Over 90 percent of Syrians live below the poverty line, with at least 9 million unable to access enough quality food; nationwide, an estimated 16.5 million Syrians require some form of humanitarian aid to meet their basic needs. Human Rights Watch previously found that broad sanctions imposed by the US and other nations hindered aid delivery in Syria, despite humanitarian exemptions.
The United States enforced the most severe measures, prohibiting nearly all trade and financial transactions with Syria.
Now, to ensure that sanctions relief meaningfully improves Syrians’ wellbeing and fundamental economic rights, the US and other governments should take measures to:
- Restore Syria’s access to global financial systems, including removing sanctions imposed on the Syrian Central Bank;
- End trade restrictions on essential goods;
- Remove energy sanctions to ensure access to fuel and electricity.
Additionally, sanctions should be lifted in good faith: relief efforts will fall short if they are conditioned on vague, shifting, or politically motivated demands. The failure to lift sanctions and the continued use of sanctions to pressure Syria into fulfilling unrelated foreign policy goals – such as security cooperation or diplomatic concessions – risk turning economic measures into tools of unlawful coercion. Any remaining conditions for sanctions removal should be narrowly tailored, clearly articulated, and rooted in international legal obligations, especially those related to human rights and humanitarian access.
