22 September 2022
Syria’s victim groups are concerned that achieving justice for victims of human rights violations in the country will be ignored because their demands are seen as impeding the political transition process. This is according to new research commissioned by Impunity Watch and conducted by Basem Mahmud with assistance from Syrian Truth and Justice Charter groups.
The report titled No-one will speak on our behalf anymore: The experience of Syrian victim groups’ examines the emergence of Syrian victim groups and their joint work.
It gives special attention to the Truth and Justice Charter, established in 2021 by five organisations of Syria’s victims and their families, as an important example of joint work between such groups.
These groups say that justice for victims of arbitrary detentions, enforced disappearances, torture and other abuses in Syria should go beyond court trials and compensation, and include truth-seeking to determine the fate of more than a 100,000 forcibly disappeared and missing.
“The reconstruction process cannot begin before the fate of the disappeared is revealed, and the remains of the dead are handed over. In no way can this process, or any other early recovery processes, take place on the ground under which thousands of Syrian citizens are detained, disappeared, tortured, and buried in mass graves. ”
Truth and Justice Charter – Syria
The research findings and key recommendations will be used to guide policymakers and practitioners to better understand victims’ demands and vision and support the meaningful inclusion and leadership of victims in justice processes in Syria and beyond
Recommendations to international agencies include ensuring the meaningful participation by victims and their associations in any processes that affect them, and supporting the establishment of an international mechanism to reveal the fate of the disappeared and missing in Syria.
The relentless efforts of Syrian victim groups led the UN General Assembly in December 2021 to request (Resolution 76/228) the Secretary-General to conduct a study on missing persons in Syria.
The UNSG released his report on 30 August 2022 and recommends the creation of an international body to search for missing persons in Syria. Read a statement from the Charter here.
Background
Following years of conflict in Syria and massive waves of displacement as well as gross violations of human rights perpetrated by the Assad regime and other parties to the conflict, Syrian victims found themselves scattered across the world, yet determined to seek justice. This prompted some of them – including those without an activist past – to start organising into victim groups. Former detainees and families of the forcibly disappeared, for example, have played a major role in establishing these groups. Motivated by the pursuit of truth and justice, they have been actively advocating for their cause across every possible international platform.
The five Syrian victim groups that formed the Truth and Justice Charter which provided support for this study are: the Association of Detainees and Missing Persons in Sednaya Prison, Caesar Families Association, the Coalition of Families of Persons Kidnapped by ISIS (Massar), Families for Freedom, and Ta’afi Initiative.
This research is part of a broader multi-year comparative research project entitled ‘Promoting access to justice through victim participation: Foregrounding informal processes’, implemented by Impunity Watch and research teams from six countries: the DRC, Colombia, Guatemala, Indonesia, Syria, and Tunisia.
The project was funded by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Netherlands.
Download the report in:
Find out more about our work in Syria.
Image: A large demonstration by the people of Idlib to demand the international community stops the military campaign by the Syrian regime. 7 September 2018. Idlib. © Anas Al Kharboutli/ Picture Alliance via Getty Images