Is the world letting Syrian President Bashar al-Assad get away with the murders of his own people? Canada and the Netherlands are working to ensure his victims are remembered and that Syria is dissuaded from committing more atrocities. In an opinion piece for Al Jazeera, Mark Kersten, a fellow at the Munk School of Global Affairs & Public Policy in the Faculty of Arts & Science, lamented the international community’s hesitancy to throw al-Assad before a tribunal to answer for his war crimes.
“China, Russia and, initially, the United States all thwarted efforts to allow the International Criminal Court (ICC), which has jurisdiction over war crimes, crimes against humanity and genocide, to investigate atrocities in Syria,” wrote Kersten, a consultant at the Wayamo Foundation based in Berlin.
“Canada, for its part, has pointedly refused to do the same — neglecting to prosecute even its own citizens who joined the Islamic State in Syria for their alleged participation in war crimes and crimes against humanity.”
Canada and the Netherlands have started legal action against Syria at the International Court of Justice as Ottawa intends to hold Syria accountable for countless human rights violations since 2011.
“Legal hearings are likely to begin later this summer and offer some hope that the thousands of Syrians brutalised, maimed and murdered by the Assad regime will not be forgotten,” wrote Kersten.
Read the article:
The ICJ can slow down Assad’s normalisation drive
July 2, 2023 | Al Jazeera