Transitional justice takes a holistic approach and operates through several interconnected components, each playing a role in fostering accountability, healing, and societal transformation. Transitional justice mechanisms may involve several pillars, depending on their viability in each context:
- Truth-Seeking: Truth-seeking initiatives aim to uncover and acknowledge the full extent of past human rights violations. Through truth commissions, public hearings, or historical documentation, these efforts give victims a voice, ensure their experiences are recorded, and help society confront its history honestly. This process both provides closure for survivors and establishes a factual record to counter denial and revisionism.
- Accountability: Holding perpetrators accountable is often seen as a cornerstone of transitional justice. This can be achieved through national courts, international tribunals, or hybrid justice mechanisms that combine local and international legal expertise. Accountability ensures that those responsible face justice and signals a broader societal commitment to ending impunity and upholding the rule of law.
- Reparations: Reparations seek to address the harm suffered by victims and their families. These measures can take many forms, including financial compensation, restitution of property, access to medical or psychological support, or symbolic gestures such as public apologies and memorials. By recognizing victims’ suffering, reparations restore dignity and help rebuild trust between citizens and the state.
- Institutional Reform: Transitional justice works to reform institutions that may have facilitated or failed to prevent abuses, such as the judiciary, police, or military. Institutional reforms aim to rebuild trust in public systems by promoting transparency, accountability, and adherence to human rights standards. These changes are essential to preventing future violations and ensuring a more just and equitable society.
- Reconciliation: Reconciliation initiatives focus on healing fractured communities by fostering dialogue, understanding, and mutual respect. These efforts often include community-building activities, interfaith dialogues, or educational programs designed to address prejudice and build empathy. Reconciliation is critical for transforming deep-seated animosities into shared commitment to coexistence and peace.
The Syrian conflict has resulted in an estimated 620,000 deaths, more than 7 million internally displaced, around 6 million living as refugees, and widespread destruction of the country’s cultural heritage. State, non-state, and international actors (particularly Russia and Iran) have been implicated in war crimes, including torture, chemical weapons attacks, and targeted violence against civilians. These atrocities have left a profound scar on the Syrian people, with many demanding justice and accountability as prerequisites for peace.
Transitional justice in Syria faces unique challenges. The conflict has deepened existing sectarian divides leading to a highly fragmented society, which complicates the consensus-building necessary for the adaptation of transitional justice mechanisms. Also, hostilities continue in parts of Syria with unclear outcomes. The decades of Assad rule and atrocities have manifested a complete lack of trust in judicial and governance structures. The involvement of malevolent foreign powers and proxies hinders accountability efforts. Finally, there remain questions over the ability of the de facto Syrian leadership to ensure that transitional justice mechanisms are inclusive of marginalized and minority group, although there is cautious optimism with the historic appointment of women to high-ranking positions, including the first female governor of Syria’s Central Bank last month.
Despite these challenges, there are several pathways towards justice and accountability in Syria:
International Accountability Mechanisms: In December 2016, the United Nations General Assembly adopted a resolution that established the International, Impartial and Independent Mechanism to assist in the investigation and prosecution of persons responsible for the most serious crimes under international law committed in Syria since March 2011. More commonly referred to as the IIIM, this mechanism will continue to collect and preserve evidence of serious violations of international law and support future justice and accountability for Syrians. In addition, bodies like the International Criminal Court (ICC) or ad hoc tribunals can play a critical role in prosecuting those responsible for the most egregious crimes. Lawyers representing Syrian survivors have called on the ICC to urgently issue arrest warrants for former President Assad and other perpetrators. The recent use of universal jurisdiction by European courts to try Syrian officials for war crimes also provides a promising precedent for accountability. for accountability.
Syrian-led Initiatives: Syrian-led groups have been and should continue to be at the heart of transitional justice efforts. Syrian civil society organizations have been at the forefront of documenting atrocities, advocating for justice, and supporting victims. Groups like the Syrian Network for Human Rights and the Caesar Files initiative have collected critical evidence that could be used in future trials. Empowering these organizations is essential for a robust transitional justice process. Syrian-led initiatives will help foster healing at the local and national levels, ensuring they are grounded in the lived reality of Syrian communities that will lend legitimacy to transitional justice efforts. Support to these initiatives is in line with principles of people-centered justice and recognizes victims’ rights to participate in decision-making and governance.
Institutional Reforms: Rebuilding trust in governance requires comprehensive reforms in the judiciary, security forces, and public administration. Transparent and accountable institutions are essential to support ongoing transitional justice efforts and prevent future abuses. Sustained political, financial, and technical support from international actors is vital to advance institutional reforms - including financial and technical assistance to bridge capacity gaps through the sharing of expertise and training.
Transitional justice in Syria will not be quick or easy. It requires navigating deeply entrenched grievances, geopolitical interests, and ongoing violence. Yet, examples from other post-conflict societies—such as Rwanda, South Africa, and the former Yugoslavia—show that accountability and reconciliation, while challenging, are achievable with sustained effort and commitment. Over the past 10 years, the ABA has worked with Syrian civil society to support documentation efforts in preparation for future justice and accountability efforts. For Syria, transitional justice is more than a pathway to address past wrongs, it is a cornerstone for building a peaceful and inclusive future. Whether through its Rule of Law Initiative or Center for Human Rights, the ABA is ready and able to apply lessons learned from its work with Syrian civil society and transitional justice programming in other contexts to support peacebuilding that is both inclusive and sustainable. By acknowledging the pain of its people and ensuring that justice is served, Syria can begin to heal and rebuild society with strong roots in dignity, rights, and mutual respect.