Justice in Syria: the immense challenge facing lawyers
For decades, hope for justice for victims of Bashar al-Assad’s regime in Syria could be found neither in Syrian courts nor in international tribunals. The International Criminal Court (ICC) has never been able to address mass crimes committed in Syria, as the country does not recognize the ICC’s jurisdiction. Moreover, any attempt by the United Nations Security Council to refer the Syrian situation to the Court or establish an ad hoc tribunal would have been blocked by Russia’s veto.
Despite these political obstacles, the United Nations has managed to ensure that crimes committed during the Syrian civil war were documented as thoroughly as possible. This was achieved through the creation of the International, Impartial, and Independent Mechanism (IIIM) for Syria, established in December 2016 by a resolution of the UN General Assembly and based in Geneva.
Universal jurisdiction in national courts
Some victims and Syrian lawyers, through their resilience and courage, have gone even further, obtaining justice in court. As it has often been the case in recent years across various contexts, cases have been made possible through national, rather than international, courts—and outside the country where the crimes were committed. Trial International’s database identifies over 50 cases of international crimes committed in Syria, heard in courts in Sweden, the Netherlands, Germany, Austria, Hungary, France, and Spain.
Some of these trials have already made history. For example, in April 2020, a court in Koblenz, Germany, issued the first-ever conviction for systematic torture—classified as a crime against humanity—by a senior member of Assad’s security services, Anwar R. This verdict was even praised by the aforementioned UN evidence-gathering mechanism, which highlighted the collaboration with national courts.
Judicial pressure on former Syrian leaders is likely to intensify. In June 2024, the Paris Court of Appeal upheld an arrest warrant for Bashar al-Assad, while he was still head of state, for the deadly sarin gas attacks of August 2013 that killed hundreds. In December 2024, the U.S. Department of Justice indicted two high-ranking Syrian military officers for war crimes committed against American citizens and others in a Damascus prison during the civil war.
Given the recent developments in Damascus, the question now is whether Syria’s own justice system will be able to impartially and credibly prosecute the war crimes committed over a decade on its own soil.
Lists of perpetrators
Shortly after taking power, rebel leader Ahmed al-Charaa announced on Telegram the imminent release of a “List No. 1,” naming high-ranking members of the former regime involved in acts of torture. The new regime appears intent on prosecuting these individuals while offering amnesty to lower-ranking soldiers. Since this announcement, various “unofficial” lists have been circulating online.
A separate UN commission, distinct from the IIIM and tasked with investigating crimes in Syria since 2011, has reportedly compiled a list of 4,000 individuals responsible for such crimes. According to French media, a UN investigator met with the new regime in Damascus earlier this month.
However, beyond compiling lists of individuals to be prosecuted, no credible justice effort can be implemented in Syria without deep reforms of the judicial system. In this regard, Syrian lawyers have a fundamental role to play, and many of them are fully aware of this responsibility.
Recently, over 400 Syrian citizens, including 130 lawyers from Damascus, Homs, Aleppo, Tartus, Latakia, Sweida, Hama, Daraa, and Quneitra, signed an online petition advocating for the independence of the legal profession in Syria.
The pioneering role of lawyers
The petition recalls the pioneering role Syrian lawyers played between 1978 and 1980, defending the rule of law, opposing the state of emergency, arbitrary arrests, and torture. Notably, they organized a general strike alongside other professional associations in 1980. The regime’s response was brutal: it stormed the lawyers’ chamber in the Justice Palace, arrested the president of the Bar Association, dissolved the Syrian Bar’s structures, repealed its governing law, and replaced it with one designed to turn the Bar into an instrument of control and repression.
One of the petition’s authors, lawyer Abdulhay Sayed—who graduated from the universities of Damascus, Geneva, and Harvard—explained that the new Syrian government has already asked the Assad-era Bar Association leaders to step down.
The petition urges the new authorities and the newly appointed Bar Council to promptly organize free and transparent elections within the Bar’s governing structures. This would ensure the Bar is no longer “subordinate to the arbitrary will of a political leader” and can regain “its legitimate role in public life, enabling its members to defend individual rights […].” The petition asserts that Syrians, including lawyers, “will not accept being crushed once again by the will of the rulers.”
On Tuesday, January 14, some of these lawyers, including Abdulhay Sayed, held a public meeting in Damascus to discuss the independence of the legal profession—without prior authorization from the authorities. This is a significant first since 1981.
By reclaiming their place in public debate, Syrian lawyers aim to influence crucial discussions on the country’s new constitution and, even more importantly, the justice system. They are waiting to see how the transitional regime in Damascus will treat judges. Courts resumed operation on January 6 for the first time since the fall of the previous regime, with Abdulhay Sayed recalling that judicial independence in Syria was real and established before the Assad regime.
The heroic pursuit of justice by victims and their lawyers over the past decade has ensured that the atrocities committed during the civil war have not been forgotten. The challenge now is to achieve justice within Syria, where these crimes were committed. Syrian lawyers are rising to meet this immense challenge and deserve our solidarity.
The article first appeared in French on Le Temps on the 19th of January 2025
Image: Close up Syrian flag in Idlib, Syria. Ahmed Akacha.
