The European Union and the United Nations co-chaired the third Brussels Conference on Supporting the future of Syria and the region, on 12-14 March 2019. While the Conference achieved some good results, it overlooked other issues that we believe are very important. 57 countries and more than 20 international organisations and UN agencies came together to participate in an international conference on supporting the future of Syria and the region. On 12-13 March, the 'days of dialogue' brought together more than 1000 participants: civil society representatives from Syria and the region, ministers and decision-makers from countries neighbouring Syria, donor countries, regional organisations, UN agencies, and the Red Cross and Red Crescent Movement. They discussed key themes affecting the Syrian people and the international response to the crisis. The conference renewed its rejection of normalization with the regime, but some European diplomats expressed concern about changing the direction of international aid and directing it to areas of the regime. Part of the funding provided by the European Union and its country members should be used for the reconstruction of Syria, which was devastated during eight years of war, but the head of European diplomacy, Federica Mogherini, warned that these funds "will only be transferred if a credible peace process begins in Geneva Under the auspices of the United Nations ". "The Syrian regime must be present at the negotiating table in Geneva," said Belgian Foreign Minister Didier Reynders. "We hope that in the coming months we can move the political situation. That would allow the start of reconstruction and the return of refugees," he said.
March 18, 2019
Pro-justice
The European Union and the United Nations co-chaired the third Brussels Conference on Supporting the future of Syria and the region, on 12-14 March 2019. While the Conference achieved some good results, it overlooked other issues that we believe are very important.
57 countries and more than 20 international organisations and UN agencies came together to participate in an international conference on supporting the future of Syria and the region.
On 12-13 March, the ‘days of dialogue’ brought together more than 1000 participants: civil society representatives from Syria and the region, ministers and decision-makers from countries neighbouring Syria, donor countries, regional organisations, UN agencies, and the Red Cross and Red Crescent Movement. They discussed key themes affecting the Syrian people and the international response to the crisis.
The conference renewed its rejection of normalization with the regime, but some European diplomats expressed concern about changing the direction of international aid and directing it to areas of the regime.
Part of the funding provided by the European Union and its country members should be used for the reconstruction of Syria, which was devastated during eight years of war, but the head of European diplomacy, Federica Mogherini, warned that these funds “will only be transferred if a credible peace process begins in Geneva Under the auspices of the United Nations “.
“The Syrian regime must be present at the negotiating table in Geneva,” said Belgian Foreign Minister Didier Reynders. “We hope that in the coming months we can move the political situation. That would allow the start of reconstruction and the return of refugees,” he said.
Several European nations, led by Germany and France, have added another requirement to combat impunity for war crimes committed in Syria.
There were, however, points that Syrian civil society had called for, and there was little resonance among the participants. High-level figures from the Syrian security establishment are still making international visits (to Italy recently for example!). People accused by international justice and individuals subject to international sanctions remain at large on their jobs in Syria. At the same time, arrests continue unabated in Syria, where 347 arrests were documented only this February, while tens of thousands of Syrians remain unaccounted for. The death of detainees in Syria (the last recorded incident during the first week of this month – 10 detainees whose death certificates have been handed over to their families in the province of Homs) have not stopped, and all the efforts made have yet to show any progress in this regard.
While the establishment of IIIM is a positive step towards truth, justice and accountability in Syria, the need for an executive authority with an international guarantee is necessary to complete evidence-gathering and fact-finding efforts. There are talks that are going on now, threatening to pass regional political compromises to the parties to the conflict, which compromises any hope for a real, effective accountability process that will consolidate the rule of law in Syria.
Still, the increasing number of cases filed in several European countries against security figures in Syria and the increasing number of arrest warrants, show the interdependence that can no longer be ignored for crimes in Syria, as many victims are in the end citizens of the EU. This is to add to the central and pivotal role of the European countries in pushing for wider paths of justice in their local jurisdictions as well as for an international track that guarantees and oversees the process of justice and accountability for perpetrators of serious human rights violations in Syria.
Moreover, the cases of the disappeared and the ISIS detainees are still without any answer. All parties should provide the example to be followed at least by ensuring, protecting and facilitating the search for missing persons in their areas of control and pressure the rest of the parties to do the same.
We, in the Syrian civil society, have also sent a set of messages that we sent to participating States and organizations. We called on the importance of emphasizing the release of detainees and ensuring their safety, both in secret and public detention centers pf all parties to the conflict, giving priority to search for and documenting efforts on the disappeared, with the participation of specialized organizations, to reveal their fate and support efforts to uncover the truth.
We also called to maintain all sites, evidence and mass graves in order to ensure the best conditions to assist in the search and identification of victims, to preserve all relevant evidence for use in accounting efforts and to support secure and standardized professional documentation methods in accordance with international humanitarian law and international human rights law.
We also called for international observers, such as the International Fact-Finding Commission in Syria, be granted unconditional access to all detained persons and allow them to investigate and monitor conditions in all detention centers. We called for the support of justice efforts for all civilians and accountability for all perpetrators from all sides of the conflict as a basis for building real social peace in the future. We spared no effort to stress the separation of the course of justice and accountability for the political process and the rejection of politicization and to address the attempts of parties to the conflict and negotiations kidnapped the issue of detainees, no state or team should be allowed to use this issue in political disputes. The United Nations as a guarantor and neutral international mediator for negotiations in Syria must remain the main player dealing with the issue of detainees to ensure impartiality and credibility.
We underscored the necessity of exerting pressure on all parties to the conflict as well as the regional and international forces to ensure an end to the crimes of a sexual nature in Syria through the development of clear and binding policies that ensure accountability of the perpetrators of these crimes and ensure the protection and support of the victim.
But these messages have gone with the wind, as the participants’ focus was only on the political and military situation, and threw every other thing behind their back.
