Berlin/London/Gaziantep – It is long overdue for
sexual and gender-based violence in Syrian detention facilities to be
investigated and prosecuted as a crime against humanity. This demand is
at the core of a criminal complaint submitted on 17 June to the German federal public prosecutor
on behalf of seven Syrian survivors of President Bashar al-Assad’s
torture regime. It was drafted by the European Center for Constitutional
and Human Rights (ECCHR), and filed jointly with the Syrian Women’s Network and Urnammu.
The
accusations – crimes against humanity, including various sexual and
gender-based crimes – are directed against nine high-ranking officials
of the Syrian government and Air Force Intelligence Service, including
Jamil Hassan, its former head. This criminal complaint expands on a
November 2017 complaint by ECCHR and its partners, which resulted in an arrest warrant against Hassan for crimes against humanity.
The
June 2020 complainants – women and men who were held in four Syrian Air
Force Intelligence prisons between April 2011 and October 2013 –
survived or witnessed various forms of sexual and gender-based violence
including rape or its threat, sexual harassment, electrical shocks to
the genitals, as well as forced nudity and forced abortion.
“I
want the international community and judicial authorities to know what
we went through just because we are women. We have suffered all kinds of
torture, and verbal and physical abuse,” said one witness. “My greatest
motivation to participate in this complaint is my faith in Germany’s
impartial judiciary.”
The world’s first criminal trial on state torture in Syria
began in Koblenz, Germany, in April 2020. Along with the arrest warrant
against Jamil Hassan, this has been an important step for those
affected. “Yet, when it comes to recognizing the gender-specific harm of
international crimes, particularly sexual violence, the German justice
system fails to explicitly charge suspects with crimes against humanity –
which these crimes are,” said Alexandra Lily Kather, legal advisor at
ECCHR, on behalf of the human rights organizations that filed the
complaint.
The complaint aims to amend the charges in the arrest
warrant against Jamil Hassan to include sexual and gender-based violence
as a crime against humanity under German Code of Crimes against
International Law (CCAIL) Section 7(1) Number 6, as well as to encourage
the German justice system to open investigations and issue arrest
warrants against the other eight suspects. It clarifies that these
sexual crimes are not isolated incidents. Sexual and gender-based
violence in Syrian detention facilities were and continue to be part of a
widespread and systematic attack against the civilian population.
Assad’s government targets women, men and LGBTQI people because of their
gender and sexual orientation.
“The physical, psychological,
social and economic impact of these crimes destabilize civil society as a
whole. Sexual violence often results in further discrimination against
survivors. After women are released from detention, the majority face
isolation and rejection from their family and wider community due to the
occurrence of, or perception of, sexual violence against them,” said
Joumana Seif, research fellow at ECCHR.
This complaint is part of ECCHR’s work on Syria,
which includes seven other criminal complaints in Germany, Austria,
Sweden and Norway. It is also part of a series of legal actions
challenging sexual and gender-based violence in Chechnya, Chile, Colombia, DRC, the Philippines and Sri Lanka.
Contact:
ECCHR, Anabel Bermejo, + 49 30 6981 9797 / + 49 172 587 0087 / bermejo@ecchr.eu
Syrian Women’s Network, Karima Al-Saed, +905397412092 / media.s.w.n@gmail.com
Urnammu, Sema Nasser, +44 757 6700 067 / media@urnammu.org
for Justice and Human Rights