SNC President: Our goal is a program for justice

25 April 2024

The Syrian Negotiation Commission (SNC), supported by the UK government, held a consultative meeting on the issues of reparations for survivors of detention and enforced disappearance and truth commissions and their role in transitional justice in Gaziantep on Thursday. Many human rights activists, legal experts and civil society members took part in the meeting which aimed at promoting participation and exchanging views with experts and professionals.
The SNC President, Dr. Bader Jamous, and SNC members, Tarek al-Kurdi and Alise Mofrej, participated in the meeting which was facilitated by lawyer Yaser al-Farhan of Mizan for Legal Studies and Human Rights, brigadier general Abdulbaset Abdullatif, head of the legal office in the National Coalition, and justice Fakhr al-Aryan, manager of the documentation department in the Syrian Interim Government.
During the opening session, the SNC President reiterated the importance of partnering with Syrian experts and legal professionals as well as with families of victims and missing persons and survivors in order to put together a program for transitional justice and reparations which reflect the demands and views of those affected and then share them with active international parties, which is what the SNC endeavors to do.
Dr. Jamous concentrated on the issue of detainees and missing persons as a fundamental humanitarian issue to be prioritized. He said no political solution may be accepted unless this issue is addressed stressing the importance of factoring in the demands of victims and their families particularly that this is provided for in UNSCR 2254 in the framework of points which must be worked out to reach a political solution through the implementation of UNSCR 2254. He clarified that the SNC would not overlook this issue in all its work and that it seeks to share the work and vision with the broadest level of Syrian civil society and legal and human rights organizations.
The head of the SNC’s legal office, lawyer Tarek al-Kurdi, made a short presentation on truth commissions and their role in transitional justice. The head of the SNC’s detainees committee, Ms. Alise Mofrej, on her part, made a brief presentation around the latest issues related to reparations of victims of arbitrary detention and enforced disappearance.
The workshop was enriched by the in-depth and lively discussions which reflected a clear vision and extensive knowledge of the details of this issue and showed the improvement of Syrian expertise and skills in civil society organizations making it possible to come up with proposals appropriate to their conditions to address their problems based on international standards and guidelines.
This workshop comes as another step in a series of workshops and meetings held by the SNC inside Syria and neighboring countries and paves the way for other similar upcoming meetings with international parties in Geneva in order to draft a living paper on the abovementioned issues.