By Matthew Mpoke Bigg
The collapse of the Syrian government has invigorated a longstanding campaign for accountability regarding the atrocities perpetrated by the Assad regime. Finally, there exists an opportunity for human rights organizations to inspect prison facilities, engage with witnesses openly, and swiftly construct legal cases for prosecution.
However, there is a notable sense of frustration, as the ultimate objective of these endeavors is to see former president Bashar Assad face trial, according to rights advocates who discussed their activities on Syria this week.
With Assad reportedly in Russia, as per Moscow officials, the likelihood of that happening seems bleak. Nonetheless, many activists who have dedicated years to this cause remain steadfast.
“We are focusing on the system,” stated Fadel Abdul Ghany, director of the Syrian Network for Human Rights. “The Assad regime encompasses more than just the individual. Our target should be the security forces, the military, and the mechanisms Assad employed to carry out those crimes.”
The Syrian war has marked a significant turning point for human rights advocacy, largely due to the extensive nature of the violations that have occurred. In addition to the over 200,000 reported civilian fatalities, it is believed that at least 15,000 individuals have perished from torture or within the regime’s prison system, with approximately 130,000 still unaccounted for, according to Abdul Ghany’s organization.
Entities like the Commission for International Justice and Accountability and the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights have been crucial in documenting these abuses and crafting a foundation for potential future prosecutions.
This initiative received a significant impetus in its formative years when a former Syrian police photographer, known by the codename Caesar, defected in 2013, bringing with him harrowing images of thousands of detainees who had perished while in custody.
Human rights organizations have indicated that they benefited from the regime’s practice of documenting events within the prison system for administrative reasons. Additionally, they have utilized modern digital tools that were absent in earlier conflicts to systematically record these abuses.
Assad has claimed that anyone incarcerated in Syria has committed a crime, casting doubt on accounts of the maltreatment. However, activists have pointed out that the records allow them to connect the dots between offenders, such as prison guards and policymakers, which is an essential step towards any prosecution of high-ranking officials.
“Even before his downfall, we already possessed sufficient documentation to demonstrate unequivocally his real authority over the apparatus of death utilized by the Syrian state,” remarked Nerma Jelacic of the Commission for International Justice and Accountability.
In conjunction with these efforts, other organizations are compiling a record of the Assad government’s offenses, including a U.N. Syria Commission that has released comprehensive reports, as well as a group established by the U.N. General Assembly. All of this has resulted in several prosecutions of Syrian officials in other countries.
One of the most notable cases commenced last year in The Hague at the International Court of Justice, where a hearing was held following a complaint by Canada and the Netherlands, alleging that violations in Syria had occurred on a “massive scale.”
In the previous year, a German court sentenced a former Syrian intelligence officer to life imprisonment after finding him guilty of crimes against humanity.
French judges issued an international arrest warrant for Assad last year, charging him with complicity in both crimes against humanity and war crimes, subsequent to a probe into chemical attacks in 2013. Furthermore, just this week, the U.S. Justice Department indicted two high-ranking Syrian military officials for war crimes against Americans and others at a prison in Damascus.
Nevertheless, several challenges have hampered the pursuit of accountability. One notable issue is that defections significantly decreased around 2015 when Assad’s regime seemed to have stabilized, which hindered the availability of testimonies relating to abuses. More critically, Syria is not a participant in the International Criminal Court, thus the court lacks jurisdiction over crimes committed within its territory. Russia and China have vetoed a U.N. Security Council resolution to refer Syria to the court, obstructing that path.
With Assad’s departure, one potential route would involve the current rebel leadership accepting the international court’s jurisdiction over Syria, thereby enabling the court’s prosecutor, Karim Khan, to initiate retroactive investigations, as suggested by several experts. This would resemble Ukraine’s situation, which has allowed the court jurisdiction over its territory despite not being a member.
Abdul Ghany, a Syrian national, argued that the nation should also seek membership in the court as part of the effort to re-establish the rule of law.
An alternative option could see national courts pursuing charges based on the principle of universal jurisdiction, permitting any national court to prosecute individuals accused of severe crimes.
While prosecutions occurring outside Syria carry significance, experts believe it is far more crucial to revive the country’s own judicial system and initiate the process of holding officials accountable in domestic courts.
Such prosecutions have had a significant impact in other nations recovering from conflict, allowing citizens to observe justice being served, according to Stephen J. Rapp, a former international prosecutor and former U.S. ambassador at large for global justice, who has been involved with the Syrian situation for over a decade.
“Even with successful international justice efforts, national cases have been more beneficial for facilitating reconciliation,” Rapp noted.
Ahmad al-Sharaa, the leader of the coalition that ousted the government, commonly known by his alias Abu Mohammed al-Golani, indicated on Tuesday that the new leadership will hold “criminals, murderers, and military and security officials” who perpetrated torture accountable — hinting at the priority of commencing a domestic legal process against them.
To support this initiative, one of the most notable Syrian human rights advocates, Mouaz Moustafa, head of the Syrian Emergency Task Force, announced on Monday that he plans to return to the country without delay.
