Canada, Netherlands Take Syria to UN High Court Over Massive Human Rights Abuses
In a written filing to the UN’s highest court, Canada and the Netherlands accused Syria of myriad atrocities since the start of its brutal civil war in 2011. In opening hearings on Tuesday, the two countries demanded an interim order for the Syrian government to “immediately cease the torture and cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment of its people.”
“Since 2011, Syrians have been tortured, murdered, sexually assaulted, forcibly disappeared, and subjected to chemical weapon attacks on a mass scale. Twelve years on, human rights violations at the hands of the Syrian regime persist,” the Netherlands and Canada wrote in their initial filing in June at the International Court of Justice in The Hague.
In a case likely to take years, Canada and the Netherlands claimed that the regime of Syrian President Bashar Assad breached the United Nations Convention Against Torture. The court’s decisions are legally binding but not always obeyed, as evidenced by orders last year for Russia to halt its violent campaign in Ukraine.
“The case provides an important opportunity to scrutinize Syria’s long-standing heinous torture of countless civilians,” said Balkees Jarrah, associate international justice director at Human Rights Watch. “[The court] should urgently put in place measures to prevent further abuses against Syrians who continue to suffer under nightmarish conditions and whose lives are in serious jeopardy.”
The human rights abuses were listed in the filing as “severe beatings and whippings, including with fists, electric cables, metal and wooden sticks, chains, and rifle butts; administering electric shocks; burning body parts; pulling out nails and teeth; mock executions; simulated drownings.”
Syria’s civil war has so far killed half a million people, wounded hundreds of thousands, and displaced more than half of Syria’s prewar population of 23 million, including 5 million refugees outside of Syria.
