Caroline Timoney, in her article in The New Arab, lays out the legal possibilities for the prosecution of war criminals in Syria, arguing this must begin now to counter the culture of impunity there.
The veto of Russia and China at the UN Security Council has prevented any attempt to send those who had committed crimes against international humanitarian law in Syria to the ICC.
In March, the UN Commission of Inquiry on Syria stated that prosecution of lower-level perpetrators of war crimes should not wait for peace in Syria, but should occur in foreign jurisdictions.
The writer asks: what system of law would be applicable. In order to answer this one, whether this is an international armed conflict or a non-international armed conflict must be established.
Timoney talks about a report HRW released in 2013 that highlighted the lack of capacity of Assad air force to conduct precise air strikes leading to the deliberate or reckless attacks on civilians.
Both Amnesty International and HRW documented the use of cluster bombs by Assad forces, which are banned internationally, Timoney recalls.
The writer concludes by stating that the UN high commissioner for human rights, which collates conflict death tolls, stopped counting Syria’s dead in mid-2014 which may hamper the prosecution of alleged perpetrators, and there is currently no solution to the conflict in sight. But any attempt at prosecution may help counter the current culture of impunity in Syria.
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