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(written by Alice Autin)
History is being made in the struggle for justice in Syria – possibly twice in one week!
In one piece of positive news, judges in France yesterday issued unprecedented arrest warrants against Syria’s President Bashar al-Assad and three other senior officials. They are suspected of complicity in crimes against humanity and war crimes over the use of chemical weapons against civilians in 2013.
Syrian lawyer Mazen Darwish hailed the move as a “new victory for the victims, their families and the survivors, and a step on the path to justice and sustainable peace in Syria.”
Syrian organizations like his, the Syrian Centre for Media and Freedom of Expression (SCM), have been at the forefront of this achievement.
As the years have passed in Syria’s conflict, these groups made sure the widespread and systematic use of chemical weapons by the Syrian government - which Human Rights Watch and others have extensively documented - didn’t go unheeded. The arrest warrants are the result a criminal complaint they lodged in France, working with Syrian victims.
But France is not the only place where the wheels of justice are turning.
A second piece of possibly positive news comes from The Hague, where the International Court of Justice (ICJ) is about to announce its first decision on state-sponsored torture in Syria.
Last month, Canada and the Netherlands accused Syria of breaching its obligations under the Torture Convention at the world’s top court. Syria did not even show up to the hearing.
HRW has published many reports documenting widespread torture, starvation, beatings, and disease in Syrian government detention facilities. A recent UN investigation reported that these abuses are continuing.
Today, the ICJ could order Syria to stop acts of torture and other abuses.
The fight for justice is an enduring struggle in many conflicts around the world. For Syria, it has been largely elusive so far, with only a few perpetrators facing justice in the courts of European countries.
Let’s hope today’s ICJ decision builds on yesterday’s news from France. It would mean that, at long last, justice is catching up with Syria’s abuses.
And when people are still missing, detained, and tortured, every day matters.
