For years, UN human rights our bodies have been documenting, monitoring and publishing stories on abuses, and bringing Syria’s dire human rights report to the world’s consideration.
The autumn of Bashar al Assad in December 2024 was largely greeted with euphoria by the Syrian folks, however photographs of a whole bunch of individuals pouring into the infamous Sednaya Jail, desperately trying to find mates or family, 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 Impartial Mechanism (IIIM), has been amassing an unlimited assortment of proof, aiming to make sure that these accountable are ultimately held accountable.
Within the eight years since, constantly denied entry to Syria, they’ve needed to work from exterior the nation.
Nonetheless, the whole lot modified after the speedy collapse of the regime. Simply days later the pinnacle 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 anxiousness, and a whole lot of disappointment 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 will likely be totally realized with the assistance of the worldwide group.
UN Information: What was the aim of your go to, and was it profitable?
Robert Petit: As with many of the world, we have been shocked on the pace with which the regime crumbled, though in hindsight we should always have realized that the foundations have been utterly eroding for years.
We needed to rapidly begin fascinated about tips on how to deal with this new scenario: for the primary time in eight years, we have now the prospect to essentially fulfill our mandate.
The primary function of the go to was to start out partaking diplomatically and clarify to the brand new authorities what our function is and what we want 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 purpose to imagine that we’ll 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 court docket home in Damascus, Syria, which was visited by the pinnacle of the IIIM, Robert Petit.
UN Information: How laborious was it to gather proof in the course of the years that you simply have been denied entry to the nation?
Robert Petit: Syrian civil society and Syrians on the whole have, since March 2011, been the most effective documenters of their very own victimization. They accrued an infinite amount of proof of crimes, usually at nice danger 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 accrued over 284 terabytes of information over time to construct instances and assist 16 totally different jurisdictions in prosecuting, investigating and prosecuting their very own instances.
Now we probably 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 delivered to justice.
Robert Petit: Our mandate has been very clear from the start: put together instances to assist 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 form 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 scenario and the proof that might assist these instances.
On the identical time, we have been supporting 16 jurisdictions everywhere in the world prosecuting these instances, and I am very pleased to say that we have now been in a position to assist over virtually 250 of these investigations and prosecutions and can proceed to take action.
UN Information: Throughout your journey you mentioned 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 will likely be a whole lot 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 actual fact is that they’ve been in management for barely six weeks, so there are clearly a whole lot of competing priorities.
I believe the scenario in Damascus is comparatively good in that a whole lot of the websites, the principle ones not less than, are secured. Exterior of Damascus, I believe the scenario is much more fluid and possibly worse.
UN Information: When Volker Türk, the UN Excessive Commissioner for Human Rights, visited Syria in January he referred to as for honest, neutral justice within the wake of the top of the Assad regime. However he additionally mentioned that the extent of atrocity crimes “beggars perception”. Do you personally suppose that justice fairly than revenge, in a spot the place folks have been so badly brutalized, is feasible or seemingly?
Robert Petit: That is for the Syrians to reply themselves and hopefully be heard and supported in what they’ll outline as justice for them and for what they’ve suffered.
If individuals are given the hope that there will likely be in place a system that can deal pretty and transparently with not less than these most answerable for the atrocities, it’s going to give them hope and persistence.
I believe it’s attainable. I’ve labored in sufficient of those conditions to know that quite a lot of issues could be achieved to deal with these very complicated conditions, however it have to be Syria-led, they usually should have the assist of the worldwide group.
UN Information: Do you envisage that prison trials would happen in Syria at a nationwide stage or at a world stage, for instance on the Worldwide Legal Courtroom?
Robert Petit: Once more, it’s going to rely on what Syrians need. You are speaking about actually hundreds of perpetrators, and an entire 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, have to 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 faux it by no means occurred.
The very best resolution is the one which Syrians will determine for themselves.
