Country Context
SYRIA
The uprising in Syria started in March 2011 through peaceful demonstrations, one of a series in the Middle East’s movement for democracy often referred to as the “Arab Spring.”[i] Demonstrators hoped to oust President Bashar al-Assad[1] and hold him and members of his regime accountable for abuses against Syrians.[ii] The government responded with brutal force and by July 2012, isolated armed clashes had turned into a full-blown civil war.[iii] In the intervening years, the war has drawn in regional and international combatants as well. The Russians and Iranians have intervened on the side of the Syrian government, both with formal military assistance and through armed proxies such as Hezbollah and the Wagner Group. Turkish Army forces and the Syrian National Army, composed of various armed groups opposed to Syria’s central government, have taken control of parts of northern Syria at various times since 2017. ISIS and other extremist Islamist groups have operated in parts of Syria at various points in the war, which has brought the United States military into the conflict through air strikes and in other capacities. Israel has also launched periodic attacks into Syria.
Throughout the conflict, civilians have borne the brunt of the impact. The Syrian government has been particularly responsible for atrocities committed against individual and communities it designates as its political enemies. Government forces have conducted direct attacks on civilians and civilian infrastructure, including hospitals and gas facilities, and indiscriminate attacks through aerial bombing and artillery. An estimated one-third of Syria’s housing stock has been destroyed or damaged.[iv] Hostilities have torn families apart and have forced a generation of children to grow up under sieges and bombardments. In addition, much of Syria’s irreplaceable cultural heritage has been looted or destroyed.[v] Individuals have been subjected to extrajudicial killing, arbitrary detention and forcible disappearance, well-documented and widespread use of torture, sexual violence, loss of citizenship, theft of property and deprivation of other human rights.
As a result, the human toll of the Syrian conflict has been devastating. The UN estimates that in the decade between 2011 and 2021, more than 350,000 people were killed, 143,350 of whom were civilians. More than 6.8 million Syrians have fled the country, and nearly 7 million people have been internally displaced, including 3.1 million children.[vi] More than 12 million Syrians are food insecure. Moreover, the Syrian economy continues to spiral downward: approximately 90 percent of the population now lives below the poverty line.[vii]
Memory
The ongoing conflict in Syria does not allow for collective memory initiatives at the national or even regional level. Narratives of the conflict are fragmented and politicized, preventing the expression of common experiences. Despite this, the Syrian conflict is considered to be “the best documented situation since the end of World War II,” thanks to the relentless work of local civil society and Syrian diaspora.[i]
Individual government and civil society actors have undertaken memory and documentation projects, many of which look toward a future truth and justice process. Organizations such as the Syria Justice and Accountability Center[ii] (SJAC), the Violation Documentation Center[iii] and Syrians for Truth and Justice[iv] have been consistently collecting data and evidence on crimes against humanity during the 12-year war in the hope that those responsible will someday be held accountable. The Syrian Archive is a memorializing documentation hub with more than 3 million records.[v] The Syrian Oral History Project collects oral histories from refugees and internally displaced Syrians to ensure that their narratives are represented and incorporated into memorialization processes.[vi]
The Caesar Files are among the best-known records of abuses committed during the war. The 55,000 photographs smuggled out of Syria by a military photographer have been used as evidence in international court of the torture of thousands of detainees and a means of seeking truth for their surviving families.[vii] Exhibits and panels of the traveling Caesar Files Exhibit have been hosted in different influential locations such as the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington DC, the UN Headquarters in New York and the Nobel Peace Center in Norway.[viii]
Documenting the Revolution
CSOs have worked hard not only to document human rights violations that have occurred since the 2011 uprising began, but also to create durable archives of the revolution itself. The Creative Memory of the Syrian Revolution[ix] holds a digital archive of Syrian national intangible heritage and has been able to organize exhibitions outside Syria, such as the “Living Memory of Syria” in Marseille in 2021.[x] Similarly, the Arab Center for Research and Policy Studies finished preparations in 2021 to launch the largest scientific project to chronicle the uprising and archive its events and documents.[xi]
Missing and Disappeared People
In February 2021, a group of organizations focused on missing and disappeared people announced the Truth and Justice Charter.[xii] The Charter is a framework intended to guide the work of victims’ and families’ associations on issues of enforced disappearances and arbitrary detention.[xiii] In August 2022, the report of the UN secretary-general recommended the creation of a new international body to work with victims, survivors, families and civil society to clarify the fate and whereabouts of persons reasonably believed to be missing and provide adequate support to victims.[xiv] The UN General Assembly adopted a resolution welcoming the report in December 2022, supporting its findings, expressing its intent to take further action and requesting the UN secretary-general give an informal briefing in the form of an interactive dialogue before February 28, 2023. It emphasized that survivors and their families should be included throughout the process.
Justice
Efforts to seek justice for the atrocities endured by Syrian individuals and communities have mainly taken place outside Syria, since the Syrian judicial system is controlled by al-Assad’s government.[i] Despite some notable convictions in European criminal proceedings, accountability remains elusive for core international crimes committed in Syria.[ii] In January 2022, the verdict of the Higher Regional Court in Koblenz, Germany, was the first to find a high-ranking official guilty of crimes against humanity.[iii] More must be done to address the impunity gap, including investigating and prosecuting warring party sponsors and enablers who bear some degree of responsibility for perpetuating violations.
The UN General Assembly established the Independent Impartial and International Mechanism to assist investigations on international crimes in Syria in 2016, after the UN Security Council failed to refer Syrian cases to the ICC.[iv] So far, it has collected 2.3 million records of evidence.[v] The UN Human Rights Council’s Independent International Commission of Inquiry of Syria is also investigating and publishing reports and recommendations regarding the situation in Syria.[vi]
Education
The education system in Syria is overstretched, underfunded, fragmented and unable to provide safe, equitable and sustained services to millions of children.[i] Inside Syria, there are more than 2.4 million children out of school (40 percent are girls). Around 33 percent of schools can no longer be used because they have been destroyed or damaged or are being used for military purposes.[ii]
After the 2011 Syrian uprising, the Syrian government modified educational curricula to present pro-democracy and pro-reform protesters as terrorists and agencies of global imperialism.[iii] The government has also used curricula in other explicitly political ways, such as changing the names of certain districts on Syrian maps when the Assad government’s relationships with Turkey improved or deteriorated.[iv]
Recommendations
Syrian organizations engaging in documentation and collective memorialization should aim to acknowledge victims on all sides of the conflict and pursue activities that promote justice, truth and peacebuilding.
Recognizing that international courts are the best hope for accountability for gross human rights violations and international crimes, the UN, international justice actors and the international diplomatic community should renew efforts to refer Syrian cases to the ICC.
International human rights organizations and justice actors should seek opportunities to support memory and education projects among the Syrian diaspora.
Notes
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