Mansour al-Omari

The success of transitional justice is measured not by the measures taken, but by the extent to which they can achieve justice for victims and promote long-term stability, human rights advocate Mansour al-Omari writes. 

With the war over, Syrians face a new struggle: addressing past harms and building a peaceful future together. With everything at stake, civil peace and transitional justice are both essential and inseparable, human rights advocate Mansour al-Omari writes.

As the Universal Declaration of Human Rights turns 75, Syrian human rights activist and legal researcher Mansour al-Omari calls on the United Nations to take action against a “pandemic” of impunity, including appointing a Special Rapporteur on Impunity for international crimes.

“We want the detainees” is the most chanted and long-standing slogan in recent Syrian history, and should be a central focus of US policy towards Syria, writes Mansour Omari.

Asma al-Assad’s publicized video call with an injured child exposed her and her parents to psychological and physical risks, in violation of the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child and Syrian law protecting children from abuse.

The first-ever US Strategy to Anticipate, Prevent and Respond to Atrocities could be a “significant advance” in protection efforts, but requires international collaboration and political will to be effective, writes Mansour Omari. 

Producing coerced confession videos under torture or the threat of torture is one way repressive regimes “keep themselves in power and tighten their control over the people,” writes Mansour al-Omari. 

There are multiple steps that German police must take to help the families of possible victims of the Tadamon massacre identify their loved ones while avoiding unnecessary trauma, writes Mansour Omari.

Full access to videos and images of mass atrocities in Syria is the “absolute right” of those whose missing loved ones may appear in them, writes @MansourOmari. He proposes 8 guidelines for organizations and media to follow.