On 15 April, the Syrian National Coalition Representative to the Benelux and the EU, Mouaffaq Nyrabia, addressed the European Parliament’s Subcommittee on Human Rights with a letter setting out the need for accountability and justice as paramount for a future political transition process.
The letter highlights the key role the European Union can play to make a political solution of the crisis in Syria viable, including the need for the implementation of a no-fly zone to protect human rights and moderate civilian structures, and create spaces inside Syria into which refugees can return. In particular, the letter asks the European Union to support the accountability track by:
- Encouraging the UN Commission of Inquiry to make public the names of alleged war crimes perpetrators, and to deliver those names to the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights and to national jurisdictions;
- Drawing on and making practical use of the impartial depository of evidence gathered by the UN team for further sanctions against the perpetrators of human rights crimes; and;
- Supporting the work of the Caesar Report ‘Inside Syrian Authorities Prisons’ – including to host the photographic exhibition at the European Parliament – so it is used for a future accountability process.
