Human Rights Watch Issues a Set of Recommendations to Authorities in Syria

ARK News.. Human Rights Watch has released a new report outlining the steps needed to achieve comprehensive justice in Syria.

The report, published on Monday, 17 November 2025, includes several key recommendations addressed to the authorities in Syria, their international partners, and all states. The most prominent recommendations are:
— Prioritize comprehensive justice: Support independent and fair justice pathways for victims and survivors of international crimes committed during the conflict, regardless of the perpetrators’ identity. This includes involving victims, survivors, civil society, and experts in designing and implementing both domestic and international accountability mechanisms.

— Strengthen cooperation with existing international justice mechanisms: Ensure effective and mutual cooperation between Syrian authorities and international bodies, including UN agencies, the International, Impartial and Independent Mechanism (IIIM), the Independent International Commission of Inquiry on Syria (COI), the International Court of Justice, and the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons and its Investigation and Identification Team, in addition to national authorities in countries undertaking Syria-related cases under universal or other extraterritorial jurisdictions.
— Implement legislative reforms and accede to the International Criminal Court: Undertake timely and comprehensive legal reforms, including improving the detention system and supporting the prosecution of perpetrators of international crimes, alongside Syria’s accession to the International Criminal Court and granting it jurisdiction over past crimes.

— Build political will and justice-focused partnerships: Urge states supporting Syria-specific international mechanisms—such as the IIIM and the Independent Institution for Missing Persons—to hold regular meetings, develop practical options for justice, and coordinate with Syrian authorities, civil society, the United Nations, and other concerned actors.

The organization stressed that the fall of the deposed Bashar al-Assad and the end of more than six decades of Baath Party rule present an unprecedented opportunity to end decades of impunity for grave crimes.

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