Amnesty calls for prosecution of alleged Syrian war criminals

Amnesty International has launched a new campaign calling for world leaders to back the prosecution of alleged Syrian war criminals.

The Justice for Syria campaign calls on governments to support and fund the investigative mechanism on Syria voted for by the UN General Assembly in December.

It also calls on countries to enforce the principle of “universal jurisdiction” to investigate and prosecute suspected perpetrators of war crimes and crimes against humanity in Syria in their own courts.

The campaign has been launched to coincide with the sixth anniversary of the start of the civil uprising that led into the Syrian civil war.

Amnesty says all parties to the conflict in Syria have committed widely-documented crimes against humanity and war crimes.

These alleged crimes include extrajudicial executions, torture and deliberate attacks on civilians, homes, medical facilities and civilian infrastructure, as well as indiscriminate and disproportionate attacks, enforced disappearances, extermination, and hostage-taking.

Samah Hadid, campaigns director at Amnesty International’s Beirut office, said: “Six harrowing years on, there is no excuse for allowing the horrific crimes under international law that are being committed in Syria to go unpunished.

“Governments already have the legal tools at their disposal to end the impunity that has allowed hundreds of thousands of Syrians to be killed and millions more displaced. It is time to put those tools into action.”