This month
- Western accountability for war crimes
- Factfinding reports on Syria
Western accountability for war crimes
United Kingdom to seek immunity?
On 5 October 2020 UN human rights experts called upon the UK parliament not to pass the Overseas Operations Bill. This bill would give British soldiers immunity for war crimes and crimes against humanity. As such it violates international humanitarian law, human rights law and international criminal law by protecting British soldiers from charges for serious international crimes.
“The universal prohibition against torture is absolute and non-derogable – it is considered so important that it cannot be limited or suspended under any circumstances. Governments cannot lawfully grant impunity or otherwise decline to investigate and prosecute such crimes.”
The bill undermines this absolute and non-derogable nature of the prohibition of torture, while it also limits the accountability for enforced disappearance. A continuing offence as long as the perpetrators continue to conceal the fate and the whereabouts of persons who have disappeared and these facts remain unclarified. It is essential that domestic laws comply with international obligations.
Experts are not convinces by the assertions by the Britisch government that the bill does not effectively prevent future prosecutions.
Only in 2018 a parliamentary report found evidence that British Defence personnel had been involved in enforced disappearances, torture and ill-treatment of suspects as part of the U.S. detention and rendition programme. It also said the military had been intentionally negligent in investigating complaints of torture and ill-treatment during overseas deployments.
“Failing to investigate and prosecute the most serious crimes, including unlawful killing and torture, further deprives victims of their right to obtain justice and redress. The government must not limit the time victims have to apply for remedy.”
Australia’s report on war crimes by its Special Forces
Media reports suggest that the inquiry is nearing conclusion. On 30 October 2020 Afghan and Australian human rights groups have therefore urged the Australian government to release publicly the inquiry into allegations of war crimes committed by its special forces in Afghanistan in the periode 2005-2016.
The inquiry started in 2016 and covers:
• the conduct of SAS forces in over 55 incidents of alleged unlawful killings, including of children, and the cruel treatment of civilians, and captured combatants; and
• incidents that are relevant to the organisational, operational and cultural environment which enabled these violations of IHL.
The inquiry is an important part of the accountability process and fulfills Australia’s obligations to ensure respect for international humanitarian law. It will also provide an important form of truth and accountability to the defence force and the Australian people about the conduct of its forces in Afghanistan. As it will also represent a first step towards the accountability sought by Afghan victims and their families.
Factfinding in Syria
Three new report shed lights on perpetrators and mechanisms behind grave breaches of international humanitarian law and other serious human rights abuses in Syria.
Factfinding mission OPCW
On 2 October 2020 the Fact-Finding Mission (FFM) of the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW), issued two reports on the investigation regarding separate incidents of alleged use of toxic chemicals as a weapon in Aleppo, Syrian Arab Republic, on 24 November 2018 and in Saraqib, Syrian Arab Republic, on 1 August 2016.
- With regard to Aleppo, the information obtained and analysed did not allow the FFM to establish whether or not chemicals were used;
- With regard to Saraqib, the results of the analysis of all available data obtained did not allow the FFM to establish whether or not chemicals were used.
Targeting life in Idlib
On 15 October 2020 Human Rights Watch published “Targeting life in Idlib.” This report represents the results of a study into the military offensive to retake Idlib by the Syrian government and its ally Russia. It examined a total of 46 ground and air attacks, only a very tiny a fraction of the total number of attacks. Over the course of 11 months, the Syrian-Russian alliance showed disregard for the lives of the roughly 3 million civilians in the area, many of them people displaced by the fighting in other parts of the country.
Key findings:
- the alliance launched dozens of attacks on civilian objects and infrastructure in violation of the laws of war: striking homes, schools, healthcare facilities, and markets;
- they used cluster munitions, incendiary weapons, and improvised “barrel bombs” in populated areas;
- at least 1,600 civilians were killed and some 1.4 million people were forcebly displaced;
- no one in Syria or Russia has been held to account;
- Syria and Russia have actively hindered humanitarian aid from reaching civilians in need;
- the report names 10 senior Syrian and Russian civilian and military officials that might be held accountable.
Inside Syria’s chemical weapons program
On 20 October 2020 Syrian Archive and Open Society Justice Initiative published “Syria’s Scientific Studies and Research Center“. The report examines and sheds lights on this organisation at the heart of the Syrian chemical weapons program.
“The report provides new information on the SSRC’s structure and operations, its personnel and chains of command, and its role in the execution of chemical weapons attacks.”
Following chemical weapons attacks in Eastern and Western Ghouta on 21 August 2013, Syria was forced to accede to the Chemical Weapons Convention, and the OPCW oversaw the destruction of Syria’s chemical weapons arsenal, chemical stockpiles, and production facilities. By January 2016, the OPCW confirmed that all declared chemical weapons in Syria had been destroyed. The OPCW confirmed that all of the chemical weapons production facilities declared by the Syrian government had been destroyed in July 2018.
But insider witnesses tell a different story. Many SSRC sites were dismantled and relocated elsewhere. Some strikes on SSRC sites only impacted administrative buildings. Ultimately, secret chemical branches remained intact. Without fully destroying Syria’s chemical weapons program, the international community allows the Syrian government to continue to terrorize civilian populations, in systematic and flagrant violation of international law. Impunity for the use of chemical weapons – a declared red-line – undermines the potency of international agreements, and thwarts prospects for a sustainable, equitable and just end to the conflict.
