Inside the Anwar Raslan Trial: Raslan speaks (through his lawyer)

TRIAL OF ANWAR RASLAN and EYAD AL GHARIB Higher Regional Court – Koblenz, Germany Trial Monitoring Report 2 Hearing dates of May 18 & 19, 2020   Highlights Trial Day 5 Four witnesses from the German government, including a translator, testified about their interviews with Eyad Al-Gharib. Anwar Raslan’s defence counsel read his statement to […]

Turkey Has Opened the Door to the European Court of Human Rights for Syrian Victims

As most readers will be aware, Syrian victims of the nine-year conflict in their country have scant opportunities for justice. Russia has repeatedly vetoed efforts to refer the situation to the International Criminal Court (ICC) and we are left with a patchwork of trials in Europe under universal jurisdiction. To date, those trials have focused […]

Letter to the Committee on Detainees and Kidnapped Persons in Syria

20 May 2020 To:     Syrians for Detainees and Abductees Syrian Democratic Council In a press release on 5 April 2020, the Syrian Democratic Council announced the formation of a committee to follow-up on the file of detainees and kidnapped persons in Syria, calling on the parties to the conflict in Syria to abide by international […]

Makhlouf’s demise is deserved, but not enough

The long-rumored falling out between Bashar Al-Assad and his cousin Rami Makhlouf, the most prominent businessman in Syria and once close confidant of the president, publicly unraveled last week in two videos posted on Makhlouf’s Facebook page. In them, Makhlouf decried the government’s crackdown on his companies and outstanding order to collect approximately SYP 130 […]

Inside the Anwar Raslan trial: the first four days

TRIAL OF ANWAR RASLAN and EYAD AL GHARIB Higher Regional Court – Koblenz, Germany Trial Monitoring Report 1 Hearing dates of April 23, 24, 27, 28 & 29, 2020 Highlights Trial Day 1 Anwar Raslan and Eyad Al-Gharib appeared in court for the first time. The charges of the indictment were read out in court, […]

Syrians in Lebanon face discriminatory measures amid Coronavirus lockdown

With the spread of the coronavirus, human rights advocates and humanitarian workers have raised the alarm about the potential dangers of outbreaks in refugee communities. Many refugees are struggling to practice social distancing in their crowded living conditions and lack proper sanitation and hygiene products. With lockdowns implemented in Lebanon, Jordan, and Iraq, groups are […]

Driven by poverty, Syrians are paying the ultimate price in Libya

  Late last month, the government in Tripoli raised alarms on a potential source of COVID 19 in the country: hundreds of Syrian fighters arriving to fight for the opposition forces of Khalifa Hafter on Syria’s national airline, Cham Wings. The warnings highlighted the internationalization of the Syrian and Libyan wars, which have also become […]

UN Fails to Acknowledge Own Failures in Hospital Attacks Inquiry

On April 6, 2020, UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres released a summary of the report issued by the Board of Inquiry (BOI) which he created to investigate seven attacks against hospitals and schools in Idlib since 2018. The BOI found it highly probable that “the Government of Syria and/or its allies” conducted most of the attacks, […]

As COVID-19 bears down on Syria, should sanctions be lifted?

As the coronavirus pandemic continues to create unprecedented difficulties across the world, calls have mounted for economic sanctions to be lifted in response to pressing humanitarian and medical concerns. On March 26, eight countries, including Syria, Iran, Russia, China, North Korea, Cuba, Nicaragua and Venezuela, requested the lifting of sanctions imposed on them on the […]