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We have all been watching the carnage in Syria for seven years now. As the UN Commission of Inquiry on Syria, we have also been gathering and analyzing evidence, condemning violations and identifying guilty parties.
But what does justice, outlined in Sustainable Development Goal 16, look like in a context like Syria?
Of course, we call for criminal punishment for perpetrators, to both deter others from following in their footsteps and to protect victims. Perpetrators on all sides in Syria have acted with impunity and total disregard for civilian lives. Referral of Syria to the International Criminal Court remains blocked at the Security Council. We commend the UN General Assembly’s creation of the International, Impartial and Independent Mechanism (IIIM) to vigorously pursue accountability through the courts, including through universal and other jurisdictions.
However, we are also calling for a victim-centered model of justice, one that goes broader than criminal accountability. I believe we have done victims a great injustice by ignoring their justice-based needs and demands. Let me give two practical examples.
“We are calling for a victim-centered model of justice”
(1) Families looking for information on the hundreds of thousands of detained or missing loved ones — a staggering number of them held in secret detention centers run by both state and armed groups — have a right to the truth about what has happened to them. Parties to the conflict should:
(2) Many of the 11 million displaced (internally displaced people and refugees) need protection if they are going to be able to return in safety and dignity to their homes. They risk losing their property through destruction, confiscation or missing property documents; as well as their very identities through unregistered births, marriages and deaths. In some cases, legislation is being drafted that could prevent people who had fled from returning to their homes or regions of origin.
Enable the registration of births (SDG 16.9), wherever they take place, and give access to everybody to gain/regain their legal identities through simplified registration mechanisms at the local and community levels. Legal and recognizable identity is crucial for most fundamental rights.
Ensure revisions and reforms to the existing legal framework guarantee the rights to ownership, possession and security of tenure of the civilians who left their homes under threat or out of necessity.
There will come a time in the future, once the conflict has ended, when we will speak of individual accountability and reparations by the Syrian state for harm done. When this time comes, information that has been compiled over the past seven years by courageous Syrian individuals, groups inside Syria, and independent mechanisms like the UN Commission of Inquiry on Syria will be essential to help achieve justice for survivors. When UN agencies, major donor states and regional organizations come to assist in rebuilding and reconstructing the country, I implore them to apply a victim-centered model of justice to ensure a more peaceful, just and inclusive society.
Hanny Megally is a Senior Fellow at New York University’s Center on International Cooperation and a Commissioner on the UN Commission of Inquiry on Syria.
More than 100 million people around the world are forcibly displaced as a result of conflict, violence, fear of persecution, and human rights violations. Coupled with insights from a previous convening, here are eight key takeaways for those working on access to justice and displacement:
After much back and forth, some of Afghanistan’s frozen reserve funds have been released—sort of. The much anticipated September 14 announcement by the US government of the formation of the USD 3.5 billion “Afghan Fund” that will operate independently of the Taliban was not what the Taliban wanted nor did it completely fulfill the macroeconomic purposes for which reserve funds are intended. But it was potentially a positive step towards bringing Afghanistan’s economy back to life.
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