Syria
Syrian President Bashar al-Assad speaks during an interview with AFP at the presidential palace in Damascus on January 20, 2014. Photo: Joseph Eid / AFP
ERBIL, Kurdistan Region — The Netherlands is preparing to launch a case against the Syrian regime at the UN’s highest court should an out of court dispute resolution not be negotiated or arbitrated, announced the government Friday.
“The Assad regime has committed horrific crimes time after time. The evidence is overwhelming. There must be consequences,” said the Dutch Minister of Foreign Affairs Stef Blok in a statement. “The Assad regime has not hesitated to crack down hard on its own population, using torture and chemical weapons, and bombing hospitals.”
The statement says the Netherlands has delivered a diplomatic note to Syria, calling on the government to enter into preliminary negotiations to resolve the dispute. Should an agreement not be reached through negotiations or arbitration, the Dutch government says it will submit the case to the International Court of Justice (ICJ).
The possible case at the Hague is the latest attempt by the international community to hold Bashar al-Assad’s government accountable for crimes against its own people. Russia, a close ally of Syria’s, has blocked several attempts at the UN Security Council to bring a case to the International Criminal Court.
Ahmed Helmy, a former Syrian political prisoner and manager of detention survivor support initiative Taafi, describes the move “a step toward full justice.”
The decision would “mean that the precedent toward accountability goes beyond political decisions,” said Helmy, who describes enduring physical and psychological torture during his three years in nine different Syrian detention facilities.
But full justice for the activist who now lives in Turkey requires a “full package” of transitional justice, he told Rudaw English in a phone interview on Friday. This is “to know that what we have suffered has prevented future Syrians from being tortured,” added Helmy, who stressed that the conflict in Syria is not over and thousands remain in regime prisons.
Syria signed the UN Convention against Torture in 2004.
The London-based lawyers Guernica 37 Chambers said they were helping the Dutch government collect evidence and testimony from Syrian victims.
"The step taken by the Netherlands is of critical importance and could offer victims a realistic prospect of truth, justice and accountability on the international level," the chambers said in a statement.
Human Rights Watch said the Netherlands was "standing for countless victims" of the Syrian regime.
"All those, particularly governments, that have been appalled by the widespread brutality documented in Syria should publicly welcome this step and explore similar ways to assert the rule of law," said Balkees Jarrah, HRW's associate international justice director.
With reporting by AFP
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