Syria & intl partners should:
👥Prioritize inclusive justice
🤝Cooperate with intl justice mechanisms
⚖️Advance legal reforms & ICC jurisdiction
🏛️Build political will, partnerships

They should seize the rare chance to deliver justice, restore rule of law & prevent atrocities.

We looked at challenges including the risk of selective justice, judicial independence, intl access, coordination, centering victims/communities, funding.

Achieving justice won’t be simple—it requires close cooperation between Syrian authorities, other states, intl institutions & civil society.

Building on years of documentation, the report outlines a roadmap for credible accountability in Syria. The report
➡️Draws lessons from justice processes, incl across the MENA region
➡️Highlights key challenges to delivering justice
➡️Identifies steps to finally break cycles of impunity & violence

To find out more about the fight for accountability for the worst crimes, check out these resources:

✔️ coalitionfortheicc.org
✔️ makingjusticework.org/en/
✔️ x.com/hrw/status/1...
✔️ hrw.org/topic/intern...
✔️ pic.x.com/kpzeLLHsjW

What can governments do to show up for survivors of the worst crimes?

👉Insist on the global rule-of-law, not a world of might makes right
👉 Step up all support for justice efforts worldwide
👉 Reject double standards + abide by their legal obligations
👉 Protect civic space

In spite of the odds, victims and survivors, activists, communities keep showing up to demand justice.

They do so at high personal cost, because #JusticeMatters. Hope lies in their courage and fortitude.

On #July17 and every day they need governments to show up for them.

Justice for the worst crimes is never easy. But the rules-based international order that helps deliver justice and protect human rights seems more at risk than ever:

➡️US #ICC sanctions
➡️Ignoring court decisions (ICC arrest warrants/#ICJ orders)
➡️💰cuts threatening civic space

Sanctions are meant to put a stop to human rights violations, *not* to punish those seeking justice for the worst crimes.

⚠️ALL ICC member countries should speak out against the US sanctions and make clear they back the court’s independence and critical global mandate

🔴It's high time to formally speak out, condemn the additional sanctions & make clear they won't go unaddressed
🔴Activate the Blocking Statute, just like the ICC, 🇪🇺Parliament, many EU member states & civil society asked, to help ensure that the ICC important work can continue.

To overcome these threats the EU should:
• Condemn US sanctions on the ICC
• Activate the Blocking Statute
• Remind member states of their legal obligations to cooperate w/the ICC

⏰Time take decisive action to reaffirm commitment & protection of the international rule-of-law

US sanctions targeting the ICC are an affront to victims. Most EU member states have condemned the sanctions but🇪🇺 as a whole has yet to express its opposition in an official statement.

Several EU states have also apparently failed to or said they wouldn't uphold ICC obligations.

- incl. annulling a nb of Assad laws, overturning unfair terrorism court rulings, restoring confiscated property, & establishing a transitional justice body to prevent impunity for serious crimes.

... but their effectiveness is uncertain without a strong & independent judiciary.

Though the declaration affirms judicial independence, it lacks clear safeguards to ensure it in practice. It give the President authority for appointment in key judicial bodies without oversight.

www.hrw.org/news/2025/03...

Some provisions seem to promote justice & human rights...

This momentous event sends a message to human rights abusers everywhere that one day they could be held to account. At a time when the ICC itself is under attack, most recently by Trump's decision to sanction the prosecutor, the arrest affirms the court’s relevance & significance.