TRANSITIONAL JUSTICE. SYRIA AT THE CROSSROADS.

FROM THE FALL OF THE REGIME TO THE DEMAND FOR TRUTH.

THE OBSTACLES TO JUSTICE: BETWEEN IMPUNITY AND FEAR.

LESSONS FROM CONTEMPORARY CONFLICTS FOR SYRIAN JUSTICE: GAZA, UKRAINE, LEBANON AND SUDAN.

Published on SpectoMedia on December 7th 2025.

Full article: https://spectomedia.org/2025/12/07/la-syrie-a-la-croisee-des-chemins/

https://spectomedia.org/2025/12/07/episode-2-transitional-justice-syria-at-a-crossroads/

https://spectomedia.org/2025/12/07/episode-3-transitional-justice-syria-at-a-crossroads/

FROM THE FALL OF THE REGIME TO THE DEMAND FOR TRUTH

December 8, 2024 marked the fall of Bashar al-Assad’s regime, ending more than thirteen years of devastating civil war. This turning point leaves a deeply ravaged Syria, with a torn society and still gaping scars. The country now faces a monumental task: seeking truth, establishing justice, and reconciling a shaken people. But how to assess the extent of the crimes committed, restore trust between communities and rebuild a social fabric destroyed by years of extreme violence? Transitional justice is emerging as a possible answer. This framework encompasses various mechanisms, judicial, institutional, political and symbolic, aimed at addressing massive human rights violations occurring during conflicts or under authoritarian regimes. However, the Syrian case presents immense challenges related to the unparalleled scale of atrocities, the diversity of armed actors involved and the complete collapse of the state apparatus.

In the first days after the fall of the regime, several initiatives from local communities emerged in the territories taken over by the opposition. Victim committees have been established, testimonies have begun to be collected, and attempts to identify recently unearthed mass graves have been undertaken. These efforts reveal that beyond the abstract process of "transition", it is above all a question of responding to concrete human tragedies: thousands of broken lives that demand reparation.

Any reflection on transitional justice in Syria should be inspired by similar experiences elsewhere. The 1994 Rwandan genocide gave rise to hybrid courts and community-based Gacaca mechanisms, which tried hundreds of thousands of individuals while fueling complex debates. In Bosnia, after the signing of the Dayton Accords, the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY) prosecuted the main perpetrators of war crimes in a still deeply divided society. In Argentina, the trials of the responsible soldiers under the 1980’s dictatorship, followed by various memorial actions, have demonstrated the importance of articulating criminal justice and the preservation of collective memory. Syria seems set to follow a similar path, where reconciliation is based on a difficult but necessary search for the truth. These precedents raise a crucial question: which direction to take to establish a fair justice? International justice through the International Criminal Court (ICC)? Specially constituted hybrid courts? Local commissions focused on truth and reconciliation? Or a combination of these approaches? Iyad Al-Shaarani, a Syrian human rights lawyer I met in Jaramana, on the outskirts of Damascus, stresses the importance of a legitimate process. According to him, it is essential to avoid repeating the mistakes of the past: "Syria needs a justice that is both independent, transparent and focused on the victims. Without it, we will only prepare the ground for further violence.” The task is daunting, but can it meet the expectations of a population that has been overwhelmed by impunity for too long?

THE OBSTACLES TO JUSTICE, BETWEEN IMPUNITY AND FEAR

The fall of the regime marked a historic rupture, but the implementation of genuine transitional justice encounters obstacles that go far beyond institutional questions, memory trauma, community fractures, and sometimes irreconcilable expectations within a society devastated by thirteen years of war. Despite the collapse of central power, key elements of the security apparatus persist. Former intelligence officials and militia members still control certain areas, particularly in rural Latakia or Sweida, where recent massacres have reminded everyone that entrenched brutality continues to survive.

For decades, the Syrian intelligence services mukhabarat were the backbone of Assad’s power, exerting their pervasive influence through constant surveillance, systematic torture, and enforced disappearances. According to Iyad Al Shaarani, as long as these oppressive structures are not dismantled and their leaders brought to justice, Syrians cannot be given any guarantee about their future safety. Michel Ghaith lives this injustice daily. His father, a former prisoner tortured and executed by the regime, haunts his memory while the men responsible for his death walk freely in his neighborhood. “Every day, I see the murderers of my father. The accomplices of the former regime stroll around with complete impunity. The new government must take real measures. Some people think a form of justice has begun. But for all those who suffered all these years, can they really accept this impunity ?” This unresolved legacy places a heavy burden on attempts to establish justice. Victims are afraid to testify, knowing that their tormentors still circulate freely among them. Iyad Al Shaarani summarizes this painful deadlock, “We cannot ask victims to testify freely as long as the perpetrators still walk around in uniform in their neighborhoods.”

The case of Mohammed Hamsho, according to a Reuters investigation published on 24 July 2025, illustrates this persistent impunity. This businessman is accused of having used his metallurgy factory to process metals taken from destroyed residential areas, acting as a front for Maher al Assad, the president’s brother. The latter commanded the Fourth Division of the Syrian army, linked by Western governments to the production and trafficking of Captagon. Returning to Syria in January 2025, Hamsho now lives under state protection in a luxurious penthouse in the wealthy Malki district of Damascus.

The conflict has left behind a deeply divided Syria. The regime systematically instrumentalized communities, Sunnis, Alawites, Kurds, Druze, and Christians, turning them against one another to prevent national solidarity. This strategy of fragmentation has left deep scars in the Syrian social fabric. As activist Wafa Mustafa, whose father disappeared in the regime’s prisons, emphasizes, “Syria will not be able to rebuild as long as we do not have the truth” The Guardian, 2 October 2025. The challenge lies in constructing a national narrative capable of recognizing the suffering of all communities without fueling new divisions. A very real danger looms, that of an imposed amnesia in the name of stability. Certain leaders call for “forgiveness” and forgetting in order to turn the page. But the victims reject this logic firmly. Iyad Al Shaarani speaks plainly, “There is no lasting peace without truth. Any compromise that erases the memory of the victims prepares the next civil war.”

LESSONS FROM CONTEMPORARY CONFLICTS FOR SYRIAN JUSTICE, GAZA, UKRAINE, LEBANON AND SUDAN

Syria today lives in the grip of a painful contradiction. As the country tries to recover, the promise of restoring the rule of law remains a distant horizon, an immense undertaking that extends beyond the alleys of Damascus, the bombed-out districts of Aleppo, or the hills of Sweida. This search for justice does not unfold in isolation. It is rooted in a global landscape where the echoes of other tragedies resonate: Gaza, Ukraine, Lebanon and Sudan. Everywhere, the same harrowing questions return: how to punish the perpetrators? How to honour the memory of the victims? How to weave the fragile threads between transitional justice and international criminal justice?

{…}

The example of these four contemporary crises converges to offer Syria crucial lessons, engraved in the blood and tears of other peoples. From Gaza, Syria must retain the importance of international visibility while being wary of its insidious traps. Documentation must be rigorous, shielded against political instrumentalization, protected from media saturation that numbs consciences. From Ukraine, it can draw inspiration from this remarkable ability to document in real time, to weave networks of international cooperation, to use technology to capture truth before it evaporates. The Ukrainian example proves that justice can be prepared even under the bombs. From Lebanon, Syria can draw these lessons, in a fragmented country with limited judicial space, modular and local transitional justice mechanisms and international criminal justice processes are needed to strengthen the credibility of investigations and support local efforts. On the ethical path, history reminds us that justice must not be instrumentalized, just as one must avoid using a narrative to serve causes that trample human dignity. Transparent and inclusive governance must also be built, so that justice does not become a political instrument nor a key to manipulate identities and memories. From Sudan, it must draw the tragic lesson that impunity is a spreading poison, without rapid and visible justice, cycles of violence never stop, they metastasize. For Syria knows this impotence all too well. As early as 2011, it had become a poignant example of the international community’s failure in the face of mass crimes, even when widely documented. Within the United Nations Security Council, 16 resolutions related to the Syrian conflict were blocked between 2011 and 2023 by the double Russian and Chinese veto. Among these aborted texts were several that aimed to entrust the ICC with the task of investigating crimes committed by all factions. This systematic blocking is not just a diplomatic symbol, it has concrete, deadly consequences. For observers like Iyad Al Shaarani, “each Russian or Chinese veto amounted to an implicit authorization for the Syrian regime to continue its abuses. ” International law existed, certainly, but it remained an empty promise, an unusable legal mirage.

Thus, all these examples converge towards an evidence that can no longer be ignored, transitional justice cannot wait. It cannot patiently sit until hostilities cease or until the country is perfectly stabilized. It must begin immediately, with the available means, relying on existing documentation networks, strengthening witness protection, establishing strategic partnerships with national and international jurisdictions ready to take action. The window of opportunity to preserve evidence and collective memory is not infinite. It closes a little more each day. Each passing day sees witnesses disappear, material evidence fade, international political will weaken. The clock is ticking, relentlessly, and Syria must understand that justice will not come by itself. It must be built, documented, torn from oblivion, now, before it is too late.

Article: Audrey M-G.

Photos: Audrey M-G.

Special Thanks to: Iyad Al-Shaarani, Noura Ghazi, Amani Abboud, Um Mahmoud, Michel Ghaith, Khaldoun al-Mallah, Éléonore P., Nawara EZ., Ahmad K., to Adnan F., to Aïda F.