The Syrian Coalition is moving to keep pace with a Dutch-Canadian move to hold the Assad regime accountable
The Syrian National Coalition discussed mechanisms to build a joint strategy and an international coalition to hold war criminals in the Assad regime accountable, and to pursue war crimes and human rights violations in Syria.
The person responsible for human rights and detainees’ files, Yasser Al-Farhan, said that a meeting took place between a Canadian envoy and the Syrian Coalition, regarding setting a mechanism to hold the Assad regime accountable for crimes that violate human rights in Syria.
Farhan said that the head of the Syrian coalition, Nasr al-Hariri, received the Canadian envoy, Gregory Gallaghan, at the coalition headquarters, and the meeting was attended by the head of the Foreign Relations Department and the coordinator of the Caesar Act.
The meeting focused on the Canadian government’s recent measures to hold the Assad regime accountable for the Assad regime’s government’s violation of the Convention Against Torture and its breach of international obligations under this convention.
The discussion took place on the subsequent steps that Canada will take with the Netherlands, and presented the timetables that will be part of a full strategic mechanism, accompanied by other paths to achieve justice in Syria.
According to Farhan, “Every day that passes without justice in Syria, there are new victims, and the delay in achieving justice reflects on the victims the possibility that other victims will be exposed to the risks of losing their lives, depriving them of their freedoms and violating their rights, under the rule of the Assad regime.”
In the meeting, economic sanctions and their impact on the Assad regime were presented, and there was an arrangement and understanding on another meeting in two directions, the first to arrange accountability and accountability efforts, and the second to work on coordinating economic sanctions issues that should focus on the leaders of the Assad regime, in a way that serves justice and the political process.
The Canadian Foreign Ministry demanded, in a statement, that formal negotiations be held, on March 4, under the United Nations Convention Against Torture, and that the Assad regime be held accountable for human rights violations.
According to the statement, this procedure came on the basis of a similar request from the Netherlands in September 2020, and it was documented by the “independent international investigation” of the United Nations Human Rights Council on the Syrian issue.
In a statement issued by the Syrian Coalition on Tuesday 9 March, the Syrian Coalition affirmed the need to build an accountability alliance with countries that called for activating accountability of the Syrian regime, such as the Netherlands and Canada, as well as Syrian and international human rights organizations.
The statement stressed the importance of organizing efforts with regard to international sanctions against the regime’s government, and the measures to be taken, to file cases before the competent courts, and to transfer the detainees’ file to the International Court of Justice and the International Criminal Court.
