Arab Reform Initiative مبادرة الإصلاح العربي - 28d ago

Seventeen months after the fall of Bashar al-Assad's regime in December 2024, Syria stands at an inflection point in its pursuit of accountability. In recent months, two arrests and one trial crystallized, for many Syrians, the tension at the heart of the transitional justice process: the spectacle of a regime insider finally on trial, and the persistent anxiety that the infrastructure of justice is not yet ready to deliver what survivors have waited decades to see. The trial of Atef Najib, a brigadier general, a cousin of Bashar al-Assad, and the former head of Political Security in Daraa, opened on 26 April 2026. Two days before the trial opened, the Interior Ministry announced the arrest of Amjad Youssef, filmed in 2013 personally executing civilians at the edge of a mass grave in the Tadamon neighborhood of Damascus. These developments produced genuine emotion among survivors, families, and advocates. But they also produced, notably amongst experts, genuine unease. Syria has not yet passed a transitional justice law. Parliament has not convened. Syrian criminal law contains no provisions for crimes against humanity or war crimes. The National Commission for Transitional Justice, established by Presidential Decree, limits its mandate to crimes committed by the Assad government. The central question this webinar sets out to examine is what kind of justice will we see, through what institutions, at whose pace, and toward what ultimate goal. Is Syria building a transitional justice process that can carry the weight of what happened; the enforced disappearances, the industrial torture, the barrel bombs, the mass graves, or is it staging justice in a way that manages public expectations without resolving the structural conditions that produced impunity in the first place? This webinar, part of ARI’s work on Syria’s transition, brings together Zahra Al-Barazi, Deputy Chair of the Syrian National Commission for Transitional Justice; Mustafa Haid, Syrian transitional justice expert; and Hiba Zayadin, from Human Rights Watch, in conversation with Nadim Houry to examine the promises, risks, and next steps for transitional justice in Syria. Webinar Agenda: Introduction Round 1 — (30 Minutes) - The national strategy: promise, priorities, and critique Round 2 — (30 Minutes) - Recent trials: accountability, symbolism, and due process Round 3 — (30 Minutes) - First step or pressure valve? Audience Q&A Final Remarks