For years, UN human rights our bodies have been documenting, monitoring and publishing experiences on abuses, and bringing Syria’s dire human rights document to the world’s consideration.
The autumn of Bashar al Assad in December 2024 was largely greeted with euphoria by the Syrian individuals, however pictures of lots of of individuals pouring into the infamous Sednaya Jail, desperately trying to find associates or kin, and testimony from former prisoners, recounting the sadism and torture they endured, was a vivid reminder of the atrocities dedicated underneath the previous regime.
Since 2016, the Worldwide Neutral and Unbiased Mechanism (IIIM), has been amassing an unlimited assortment of proof, aiming to make sure that these accountable are finally held accountable.
Within the eight years since, persistently denied entry to Syria, they’ve needed to work from exterior the nation.
Nonetheless, every part modified after the speedy collapse of the regime. Simply days later the top of the IIIM, Robert Petit, was in a position to journey to Syria the place he met members of the de facto authorities. Throughout this historic go to, he made some extent of emphasizing the significance of preserving proof earlier than it is misplaced without end.
UN Information interviewed Mr. Petit from his workplaces in Geneva and commenced by asking him to explain the reactions of the Syrians he met throughout his go to.
This interview has been edited for readability and size.
Robert Petit: It was a sobering and emotional time. I skilled a mixture of hope and pleasure, in addition to worry and nervousness, and lots of unhappiness from the households of prisoners who had been killed.
However there was undoubtedly a way of change throughout the board. It is my private hope that the aspirations of Syrians can be absolutely realized with the assistance of the worldwide neighborhood.
UN Information: What was the aim of your go to, and was it profitable?
Robert Petit: As with a lot of the world, we have been shocked on the velocity with which the regime crumbled, though in hindsight we must always have realized that the foundations have been utterly eroding for years.
We needed to rapidly begin occupied with tackle this new state of affairs: for the primary time in eight years, we have now the prospect to essentially fulfill our mandate.
The principle objective of the go to was to start out participating diplomatically and clarify to the brand new authorities what our position is and what we wish to do and get permission to take action. We discovered them to be receptive.
We formally requested permission to ship groups to work and discharge our mandate in Syria. That was again on December 21. We’re nonetheless ready for the reply. I’ve no motive to consider that we are going to not be granted permission. I believe it is a matter of processes fairly than willingness, and we’re hoping that inside days we’ll get that permission after which we’ll deploy as quickly as we will.
© IIIM Syria
Paperwork are piled up at a courtroom home in Damascus, Syria, which was visited by the top of the IIIM, Robert Petit.
UN Information: How onerous was it to gather proof in the course of the years that you just have been denied entry to the nation?
Robert Petit: Syrian civil society and Syrians basically have, since March 2011, been the very best documenters of their very own victimization. They collected an unlimited amount of proof of crimes, usually at nice threat the price of their very own lives.
Yearly since we have been created, we tried to entry Syria. We couldn’t get permission, however we developed shut relationships with a few of these civil society actors, media stakeholders and people who collected credible proof, as did different establishments.
We collected over 284 terabytes of knowledge through the years to construct instances and help 16 completely different jurisdictions in prosecuting, investigating and prosecuting their very own instances.
Now we doubtlessly have entry to a wealth of contemporary proof of crimes, and we’re hoping to have the ability to exploit that chance very quickly.
UN Information: In the course of the Assad years, although, you had no assure that anybody can be dropped at justice.
Robert Petit: Our mandate has been very clear from the start: put together instances to help present and future jurisdiction. And that is what we have been doing. There was all the time a hope that there was going to be some type of tribunal, or complete justice for the crimes in Syria. In anticipation of that, we have now been constructing instances and we hope to construct a wealth of understanding of the state of affairs and the proof that would help these instances.
On the identical time, we have been supporting 16 jurisdictions everywhere in the world prosecuting these instances, and I am very glad to say that we have now been in a position to help over nearly 250 of these investigations and prosecutions and can proceed to take action.
UN Information: Throughout your journey you stated there is a small window of alternative to safe websites and the fabric they maintain. Why?
Robert Petit: Syria’s state equipment functioned for years, so there can be lots of proof, however issues go lacking, they get destroyed and disappear. So, there’s a time subject.
UN Information: Are the de facto authorities in Syria serving to you to safe proof?
Robert Petit: We had messaging from the caretaker authorities that they have been acutely aware of the significance of preserving all this proof. The very fact is that they’ve been in management for barely six weeks, so there are clearly lots of competing priorities.
I believe the state of affairs in Damascus is comparatively good in that lots of the websites, the principle ones no less than, are secured. Outdoors of Damascus, I believe the state of affairs is much more fluid and doubtless worse.
UN Information: When Volker Türk, the UN Excessive Commissioner for Human Rights, visited Syria in January he known as for truthful, neutral justice within the wake of the tip of the Assad regime. However he additionally stated that the extent of atrocity crimes “beggars perception”. Do you personally assume that justice fairly than revenge, in a spot the place individuals have been so badly brutalized, is feasible or possible?
Robert Petit: That is for the Syrians to reply themselves and hopefully be heard and supported in what they are going to outline as justice for them and for what they’ve suffered.
If individuals are given the hope that there can be in place a system that can deal pretty and transparently with no less than these most liable for the atrocities, it should give them hope and persistence.
I believe it’s doable. I’ve labored in sufficient of those conditions to know that a wide range of issues could be accomplished to handle these very complicated conditions, however it should be Syria-led, they usually should have the help of the worldwide neighborhood.
UN Information: Do you envisage that felony trials would happen in Syria at a nationwide stage or at a global stage, for instance on the Worldwide Prison Court docket?
Robert Petit: Once more, it should rely on what Syrians need. You are speaking about actually 1000’s of perpetrators, and a complete state equipment devoted to the fee of mass atrocities. It’s an unbelievable problem to outline what accountability means.
For my part, these most accountable, the architects of the system, should be held criminally accountability. For everybody else, the methods a post-conflict society tackles the difficulty varies.
Rwanda, for instance, tried to make use of conventional types of dispute decision to attempt 1.2 million perpetrators over a decade. Others, like Cambodia, merely attempt to bury the previous, and fake it by no means occurred.
The perfect resolution is the one which Syrians will determine for themselves.
