International organizations criticize Syrian Ba’ath regime’s law criminalizing torture

Amnesty International issued a statement in which it indicated that a law issued by Syrian President Bashar al-Assad a few days ago aims to “polish decades of human rights violations,” and does not provide redress to former victims of torture, nor does it include any protection measures for witnesses or torture victims.

The statement added that the law does not specify whether the families of torture victims will receive compensation in the event of their death. More importantly, it does not include any measures that could be taken to prevent torture in detention centers and prisons in the future.

The organization called for the urgent need to allow independent monitors access to notorious detention centers where widespread torture and death have occurred for years, as a first step to indicate any real intent to curb the practice of torture by state officials.

Human Rights Watch also referenced the new law in a report on Friday, saying, ” This is not an April Fools’ joke. Syria, where torture is routine and pervasive, has passed a law criminalizing the practice.”

The organization indicated that it is difficult to determine the regime’s goals of issuing the law, and it believes that the motives for issuing the law may be related to the attempt by some countries to levy criminal charges against the regime, stating:  

“While it is hard to attribute intent to a government defined by arbitrariness, the passage of the law could be a response to ongoing efforts to prosecute the use of torture by Syria officials in the conflict, including an effort by some states to hold the Syrian government accountable for torture under the United Nations Convention Against Torture.”

It added:

“It is hard to take something like this seriously, given how pervasive the use of torture is by Syrian state authorities. As Human Rights Watch and others have extensively documented, Syria has arbitrarily detained and tortured tens of thousands of people in what amount to crimes against humanity.”