Commission on Transitional Justice Documents Assad’s Atrocities

Today, The Syrian Commission on Transitional Justice held a consultative meeting on the development of the central database for documenting human rights violations that was established in February. The Commission’s head, Radwan Ziadeh, said that “the central database for documenting human rights violations in Syria is a national project that needs the collective efforts of all those working in this field. We must develop a computer system that meets the needs of the transitional stage and provides accurate and reliable information to the relevant authorities to bring to account the perpetrators of human rights violations and provide assistance to the victims. Moreover, the goal behind the development of this database is to provide the necessary evidence for criminal courts and determine compensation for the victims of the atrocities committed by the Assad regime.” The database documents cases of extrajudicial killings, arbitrary arrests and forced disappearances suffered by Syrian citizens since the early days of the Syrian revolution. “The specialists and national experts who manage the database must reach out to activists inside Syria to feed this electronic database with reliable and accurate information in a way that serves to keep the database up-to-date.” Ammar Tabab, who is in charge of the file of the forced disappearances in Syria, said that this file has more to do with humane aspects than with politics, and that “knowing the fate of the missing is both a moral and legal duty. While the detainees represent the unknown soldiers of the Syrian Revolution, the forcibly disappeared are considered the unknown soldier of the detainees themselves.” (Source: Syrian Coalition)