Syrians hopes for better future, urges justice for disappeared in civil war

By Anjali Sharma

UNITED NATIONS – The founding member of the Caesar Families Association Yasmen Almashan on Wednesday told the Human Rights Council in Geneva that the people of Syria’s painful search for a peaceful future as one leading representative of the families of the forcibly disappeared spoke of the ongoing pain of not knowing their fate.

Yasmen Almashan, a founding member of the Caesar Families Association, lost 5 of her 6 brothers between 2012 and 2014 during the early years of the Syrian civil war, briefed the Council members.

Ms. Almashan advocates for the truth about what happened to Syria’s over 130,000 missing persons.

The quest would be greatly helped by the creation of a national transitional justice policy for Syria, by the country’s caretaker authorities, she told the Human Rights Council in Geneva.

“Participation of victims is key for transition justice programmes to succeed and reinforce a culture of human rights in countries which suffer from dictatorships, or which go through transition periods,” she said.

She insisted “The victims can facilitate contacts between parts of society and assure an environment of peace and justice in Syria,”.

The Assad regime refused to allow an exhibition of photos from the infamous Caesar Files to go ahead on the sidelines of the Human Rights Council, which featured graphic images smuggled out of Syria of prisoners who had been tortured.

Ms. Almashan has explained how her second brother was arrested in March 2012 and then tortured in a detention centre. He was identified in the Caesar Files named after a former Syrian military photographer codenamed Caesar.

It was in part to the Syrian NGO’s persistent lobbying that the UN General Assembly adopted Resolution 77/301 in June 2023, established the Independent Institution for the Missing in Syria and ensuring victim participation in its work.

It renewed calls for transitional justice, UN human rights chief Volker Türk welcomed efforts by Member States to address past atrocities to benefit future generations.

In Guatemala, victim-driven coalitions have secured the conviction of 31 military and paramilitary personnel for crimes against humanity and genocide.

UN High Commissioner for Human Rights stressed the importance of an inclusive approach to transitional justice which should be victim-centered, inclusive, gender-responsive and innovative.

The Council saw the highest number of active conflicts since the Second World War, Mr. Türk also welcomed Colombia’s efforts to resolve animosity between parties formerly involved in the country’s decades-long civil war.

Measures include offering psychosocial support for victims, addressing land distribution problems, promoting rural development and restoring indigenous territories’ ecosystems.

In Kenya, Mr. Volker added, the victims last year in Chad received reparations thanks to the perseverance of civil society groups.

Sofija Todorovic, Programme Director of Serbian NGO Youth Initiative for Human Rights, insisted that young people should not be left out of conversations about building a more just future for their countries.

“It is our duty to stand behind them,” Sofija Todorovic stated

UN human rights deputy chief Nada Al-Nashif warned Member States that international law principles protecting humanity from atrocities were under threat.

“We are living through dangerous times as deep divisions and extreme views feed both conflict and violence” in several regions of the world, Ms. Al-Nashif said.

She said genocide is preceded by “clear patterns of discrimination of exclusion and incitement to hatred based on race, ethnicity, religion or other characteristics,”.

“The global norms that protect us all, starting with the United Nations Charter and the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, are under unprecedented strain,” she said.

She stressed that the UN was set up in the aftermath of the Holocaust to avoid another genocide.

Sofija Todorovic reiterated that arms sales and transfers, the provision of military, logistical or financial support to parties to conflicts violating international law are “obvious examples” of indicators that states may be contributing to such crimes.

“Genocide happens when humanity’s moral compass fails, when hateful ideologies proliferate, and when the dehumanization of an entire group of people is allowed to take root and to spread,” Ms. Al-Nashif said.

“Together, let’s move towards a world in which genocide and other atrocity crimes are inconceivable. Or if all else fails, then they are punished,” she concluded.