ONTARIO — Canada and the Netherlands have officially filed a case against the Syrian state at the International Court of Justice (ICJ) over allegations of torture and cruel, inhumane and degrading treatment and punishment of the Syrian people, initiating precedence of holding the Syrian state accountable at the ICJ for grave human rights violations.
The two countries announced last week through a joint statement that they have proceeded with the legal measures at the ICJ to hold Syria accountable for human rights violations that have been taking place since 2011, namely torture, murder, sexual assault and forced disappearance. The two countries also requested for the Syrian state to be subjected to provisional measures to cease those violations.
For a state that ratified the Convention against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman, or Degrading Treatment or Punishment, the Syrian regime’s record of human rights abuses has led Canada and the Netherlands to build a case that calls out the Syrian state for breaching the terms of the convention. Syria ratified the convention in 2004.
While ideally disputes between the convention’s state parties follow a pathway of negotiations, the two countries expressed that there were no fruitful results with the Syrian state in that avenue. Consequently, the two states referred the dispute to the ICJ as per Article 30 of the convention.
