A Roadmap for Transitional Justice in Syria – September 2025

On May 17, President Al-Sharaa announced the creation of two new, independent commissions, one focused on transitional justice (though only for crimes committed by the Assad government) and one focused specifically on establishing the fates and whereabouts of missing persons. Later that month, SJAC put forth a series of recommendations for initial steps that each Commission should undertake. Now, four months after their creation, SJAC is revisiting these recommendations based on the progress of each commission and broader updates related to transitional justice, issuing an up-to-date roadmap.

Overall, while the National Commission for Missing Persons (NCMP) has made some notable progress, this has been the exception. The National Commission for Transitional Justice (NCTJ) has been slow to act. While the government has issued arrest warrants for four former Assad officials and launched investigations of 87 former counter-terrorism court judges, these efforts appear largely symbolic and unconnected to the NCTJ.

The repercussions of neglecting transitional justice are already clear, as the country sees repeated outbreaks of conflict as well as individual acts of retribution against alleged former Assad affiliates. Pursuing a comprehensive transitional justice process would allow the government to address many of the underlying grievances fueling ongoing violence, establishing the foundation for a peaceful future.

National Commission for Missing Persons

The National Commission for Missing Persons (NCMP) has been the most active justice entity to date, taking steps to lay the foundation for national missing persons investigations. The Commission has appointed an advisory council with a well-qualified slate of experts and has begun conducting meetings with families and civil society organizations. On August 30, at an event to honor the day of Enforced Disappearance, the Commission signed a memorandum of understanding with six civil society organizations (including SJAC) that have agreed to support the national missing persons search.

Despite these successes, SJAC’s short-term recommendations remain largely unfilled, and are repeated below with slight adjustments. The Commission should focus on the preservation of mass grave sites (there have been initial discussions regarding the criminalization of tampering of grave sites, though no law has been passed to date) as well as concrete steps towards the launch of a national registration process.  

Recommendations

• Preserve mass grave sites: Since the fall of Assad, families, journalists, and civil society organizations (CSOs) have conducted ad hoc exhumation of graves in the hopes of identifying remains. These actions damage vital evidence and complicate future identification processes. The NCMP should create and begin the implementation of a plan to preserve mass grave sites. 
  • Centralize exhumations: Draft a law for consideration by parliament to criminalize the tampering of grave sites and clarify one central authority within the MOJ to authorize exhumations. Until a comprehensive strategy is in place, exhumations should only be approved in emergency cases, such as when remains are visible on the surface or need to be removed to allow for urgent reconstruction. 
  • Publicity campaign: Conduct a public campaign urging communities to protect grave sites and educating them on the importance of these sites to identification processes. Members of the NCMP should conduct outreach on local tv and radio channels. The NCMP should also coordinate with families of missing persons to support and participate in such outreach.  
• Registration process: Syrian families across the country should have the opportunity to register their missing loved one in person at offices or mobile clinics. The NCMP should propose a plan for such an effort, including:  
  • Registration form: Develop a standardized form to record the cases of missing persons as well as training materials for those who will conduct interviews with families. The registration process should happen via in person interviews with trained staff rather than via an online form. All cases should be stored within a centralized database.  
  • Outreach plan: Draft a plan to conduct a nation-wide registration process, accompanied by robust outreach to families to encourage them to participate, educate them on the possibilities of missing persons investigations, and assure them that they will not face reprisal for openly discussing their missing loved one. The NCMP should lay out specific plans as to where registration offices and mobile clinics are needed, and how many staff will be required in each area. The NCMP could propose recruiting and training staff or collaborate with the ICRC and existing CSOs able to lend their own personnel to this effort.  
  • Legal status: Draft a law for consideration by parliament which creates a unique legal status for registered missing persons. This would allow families who have completed the registration process to settle inheritance, child custody, and other legal matters while waiting to learn the fate and whereabouts of their loved ones.   

National Commission for Transitional Justice

The National Commission for Transitional Justice (NCTJ) has seen less progress, possibly because of less support from the central government. The Commission issued its first report on August 13, sixty days after it was due, and published the names of the members of the Committee on August 28 in Presidential Decree No. 149. The Committee includes Mr. Abdul Basit Abdul Latif as Chairman (previously appointed by the President) and includes several members of civil society, including Zahra Najib Al-Barazi, (formerly) Research Director at SLDP, as Vice-Chairman and Joumana Seif, associated with ECCHR, as a member. It is a positive step to include former members of civil society within the Commission, particularly if their inclusion is meant to integrate a diversity of viewpoints.

The initial report provides a rough outline of the work of the Commission, which is ambitious. It sets the objectives of the NCTJ including uncovering the truth, documenting violations, justice and accountability, national reconciliation, preserving the national memory, and ensuring non-recurrence. It establishes a long list of specialized committees and offices within the commission with no indication of who will staff these offices, where they will work, and how the resources for this many positions will be obtained. It notes that there is a draft of its internal regulations and organization structure, as well as a code of conduct, but none of these have been disclosed. There are also several ongoing projects which are noted, including the drafting of a transitional justice law with the Damacus University Law Faculty, as well as hiring processes for staff of the Commission and establishment of a victims fund and outreach to Syria’s governorates. The report does not provide adequate detail to fully assess this program, but its sheer breadth suggests that there is a failure to identify initial priorities and to establish a workplan that is achievable in a reasonable timescale.

The government has reactivated the criminal court system, which was put on hold for multiple months after December 8. On July 8, the Ministry of Justice announced that judicial reforms have been completed and the national prosecutor is pursuing war crimes charges of four former Assad officials. The nature of the referenced reforms was not further publicized. Considering the extremely short timeline, any reforms to date could not reasonably have met the level necessary to ensure that Syria’s justice system meets fair trial guarantees. Even if meaningful reforms have taken place, these will not be effective if they are not shared publicly and understood by the Syrian people, who will need to accept the judgements of the courts.

Furthermore, there was no reasoning provided as to how the first four arrest warrants were chosen. The fact that this announcement was not made by or with the NCTJ creates further confusion about what role the Commission is playing in designing accountability and other justice processes. Providing such an overarching strategy regarding who will be prioritized for accountability and why should be a leading role of the Commission. As it is, the system is opaque and threatens to leave Syrians feel disconnected from any justice processes.

As above, SJAC’s recommendations remain largely unimplemented, and hence unchanged:

• Building the capacity of the Syrian justice system: The Syrian Government has expressed a strong preference for Syrian-led justice processes. However, this will require Syria to conduct extensive reforms of its existing system as well as invest in the capacity of legal professionals in the country. The Ministry of Justice (MOJ) should take the following steps:  
  • Inventory of legal personnel: Conduct an inventory of legal expertise within the country. This could be conducted partially via surveys of existing bar associations and should assess the number of qualified lawyers within the country, including those with specific experience, such as criminal prosecution and defense. The ministry should likewise create a registry of current judges.  
  • Vetting and lustration: Draft a plan to assess the fitness of current judges to continue in their roles. This should include a vetting and lustration process. Additionally, the MOJ should appoint a group of legal experts to draft a ‘bench book’ for Syrian judges to delineate the practical details and relevant jurisprudence that are not in the procedural codes. This would help to standardize processes within the country and could also explain new provisions relevant to international crimes. All judges who pass vetting and choose to continue in their roles should be required to undergo onboarding training on the new bench book before returning to their positions.  
  • Fair trial guarantees: The Constitutional Declaration provides that: “All rights and freedoms stipulated in international human rights treaties, charters and agreements ratified by the Syrian Arab Republic are considered an integral part of this Constitutional Declaration.” Syria is a state party to the ICCPR and the MOJ should review the Syrian penal code to ensure that all provisions align with the ICCPR, particularly Art. 14 re: fair trial guarantees. The penal code should also be amended to criminalize international crimes. 

These tasks are intended for the near term only. In the medium term, the NCTJ and MOJ should also address other justice concerns, including: 

• Develop proposals to address property restitution, other forms of reparations, and institutional reforms (including vetting and lustration of former regime officials outside of the judiciary and prison systems).  
• Preserve the civil registry and appoint an official to update it based on agreed upon standards.  
• Create a standardized system for national IDs, including the issuance of new IDs when necessary.  
• Preserve existing property deeds and create a property court system to resolve conflicting claims to title.  

Finally, with claims of abuses emerging about the current government’s prison system, SJAC’s recommendations to end enforced disappearance, improve prison conditions, and reform the prison system remain unheeded. They are repeated below:  

• End enforced disappearances and improve current conditions: There are reports that new arrestees, including former Assad government officials, are being held incommunicado. The Syrian government should work with the ICRC to ensure that the conditions of current prisoners are monitored and that they are able to maintain contact with loved ones. Family and lawyer visits are fundamental rights owed to all detainees. The MOJ should maintain lists of detainees and make these publicly available.  
• Vetting and lustration: The MOJ should create an up-to-date registry of all prisons and staff. Prisons associated with the most serious crimes of the Assad government should be permanently closed, with Sednaya prison preserved to be turned into a public museum. The MOJ should propose a transparent vetting and lustration procedure for all continuing prison staff, as well as develop a standardized set of procedures for prison operations, with required onboarding training.   

While many of the justice processes that SJAC supports will require years of effort to implement, there are concrete steps that the government, and specifically the NCMP and NCTJ, can take today. SJAC will continue to check in on the progress of the Commissions, and the government at large, in the coming months and years as transitional justice processes move forward.

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