The chief executive of a UK children’s charity has criticised its former international federation over media claims it withheld a report relating to its role in child disappearances in Syria, describing the move as “reprehensible”.
Alison Wallace, chief executive of Right to Childhood, which recently changed its name following its departure from SOS Children’s Villages International, said it was “deeply disappointing to learn that so little progress has been made” at the international body.
It comes after reports from the BBC, which claim the international federation was refusing to release a report it commissioned to investigate its role in separating children from their families under the Assad dictatorship in Syria.
SOS Children’s Villages International said recent reporting was “only based on conjectures” and many of the assertions presented a “selective and misleading picture of complex events that occured during a brutal civil war”.
Last year, an investigation by BBC Eye, Lighthouse Reports and five other outlets, built a database of 323 children that were hidden from their relatives in a network of orphanages under the regime.
The investigation found that orphanages run by SOS Children’s Villages International took more children than any other organisation, reports said.
Reports included allegations that the charity received children whose identities it knew had been changed; and that it complied with Syrian intelligence instructions that relatives should be refused permission to visit and should not be granted custody; and that it had forbade staff from showing the children pictures of, or discussing, their family.
SOS Children’s Villages International at the time said “not all decisions made during this time met the high standards to which we hold ourselves” and that it had commissioned two international independent investigations into the matter.
The BBC has since reported that SOS had “acknowledged that more than 140 children had been taken to its childcare facilities by Syrian security forces”.
The international federation has since said that out of these 140 children, 124 have been confirmed as being with their families.
But the charity has been accused of withholding a report from an investigation commissioned by the Norwegian law firm Wiersholm into who was responsible.
According to the BBC, the report was delivered in December and an anonymised version was expected to be made public.
But reports claim that in an email to the BBC in May, the charity’s chair Domenico Parisi told staff that the investigation had been “compromised” and would not be shared internally or released publicly.
The BBC reported that a draft copy of the investigation report showed that SOS Children’s Villages International was not forced to accept the children from security services, and that it was the charity’s international office in Vienna that had ultimate responsibility for the relevant facilities in Syria.
Right to Childhood – formerly SOS Children’s Villages UK – left the international federation shortly after the allegations surfaced, a move the UK charity described as a “values-led decision”.
The federation has also lost member organisations in Norway, Switzerland, Sweden, France and the Netherlands, which have also become fully independent charities.
The UK charity previously expressed horror regarding the allegations relating to SOS Children’s Villages operations in Syria.
But a spokesperson said while these claims were “taken into account” when making the decision to leave the federation, they “were not the driving force behind it”.
Right to Childhood’s Wallace criticised the international federation over the claims it is concealing the investigation report.
She said: “Children must come first. Withholding a report which could help families understand what happened to their children, and hold those who may have played a part in their disappearance accountable, is reprehensible.”
She added that from the moment Right to Childhood was made aware of this issue, its focus was on the children and families who deserve support and answers.
“While we are now a separate charity and not privy to what is going on internally, it is deeply disappointing to learn that so little progress has been made, despite our previous efforts to influence change from within.”
In a statement, SOS Children’s Villages International said: “Recent reporting makes serious assertions about the role and responsibility of SOS CVI in relation to events in Syria, only based on conjectures, and none verified facts or statements.
“We believe that many of these assertions present a selective and misleading picture of complex events that occurred during a brutal civil war.”
The charity said it commissioned its independent investigation to clarify institutional responsibility, but it subsequently sought independent legal advice regarding the investigation. This review remains ongoing, it said, adding that relevant materials are being submitted to judicial authorities.
“It is important that questions of responsibility are determined based on verified evidence relating to the actions of the individuals and organisations concerned,” it said.
“In this context, any allegations should not be presented as established facts while these matters remain under examination.”
The federation said personnel working on the ground sought to provide care and protection to children in Syria under “extraordinarily difficult conditions”.
It said: “All actions of organisations operating in conflict settings must be assessed in the context of these extraordinarily complex circumstances, and on the basis of the legal and factual constraints they face.”
This article was updated on 16 October 2026 to include a statement from SOS Children’s Villages International.