As Raqqa embarks on a future without the SDF, the northeastern Syrian city faces the delicate work of reintegrating former fighters and repairing social fractures left by years of shifting rule.
As Syrians mark the first anniversary of the fall of Assad on December 8, 2024, women who survived regime detention warn their ordeal did not end when they were released. For many, society remains a second prison.
The first trial of hundreds of suspects accused of involvement in killings in Alawite-majority areas of the Syrian coast marks the start of a closely watched and unprecedented accountability process.
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 transitional justice remains out of reach, hundreds of extrajudicial killings—predominantly of Alawites—have taken place in central Syria since the start of the year, with state security forces accused of involvement in some cases.
A photo of Syrian Minister of Justice Mazhar al-Wais shaking hands with Judge Ammar Bilal—the former chief prosecutor at the Assad regime’s infamous Counter-Terrorism Court—ignited a firestorm on Syrian social media last week.
Dealing with the legacy of Syria’s prisons and security branches as atrocity sites is a collective moral responsibility and part of the fight for memory, “the last bulwark against repeating the past,” Nour al-Khateeb writes.
As the Trump administration slashes foreign aid, Syrian civil society is left reeling at a time when it is most needed.
In the pursuit of accountability, should legal efforts focus on leadership, or go after every cog in the machine?
