Mansour al-Omari – LLM in Transitional Justice

An open letter to the Syrian authorities, organizations, and concerned parties. 

Detention facilities, headquarters of Syrian security agencies, and mass graves are essential and irreplaceable sources for accountability and justice, including discovering the truth, compensating victims, and documenting the historical narrative for future generations. 

However, these significant goals require substantial efforts, numerous implementing bodies, and years, perhaps even decades, to achieve. Therefore, given the urgent nature of some steps that must be implemented as soon as possible, an urgent plan should be developed and implemented to protect detention facilities and mass grave sites in Syria and preserve them until work on them begins by the relevant authorities. 

 This plan includes: 

1. Mass Graves: Although the decomposition process begins within minutes of death, complete decomposition may take years or more, depending on many variables. Several factors affect the speed and extent of decomposition, and their impact and the decomposition period vary depending on several factors, including weather conditions, such as temperature, humidity, and oxygen availability, as well as the type of soil, the presence of insects, how the body is buried and the depth of burial, whether the body is clothed or not, whether the bodies are touching or not, whether the body has open wounds, and others.

Limiting the decomposition of bodies – as an urgent and necessary emergency measure can be achieved by: 

• creating roofs over mass graves to reduce rain as much as possible, and later, the heat of the sun. 

• securing graves against the entry of animals that may disturb the bodies. 

1. Security measures to prevent unauthorized access, digging, destruction of the site, or damaging it in any way, may include:

• Installing fences and signs to clearly define the site boundaries. 

• Regular monitoring of the site to detect any disturbances or security breaches. 

• Assigning security personnel: for guarding and preventing unauthorized access, and training them to deal with visitors. 

• Guards should not talk to the press or others, and leave the matter of statements and providing information to official spokespersons. 

• Installing permanent surveillance cameras for the site perimeter and entrance, among other places. 

III. Visits: The possibility of visits depends on the nature of the site in general, and some suitable sites should be open to various parties, provided that these visits are organized and take into account the serenity and fragility of these sites: 

• In some selected sites, the visit should be open and organized for professional and responsible media, local and international organizations, relevant legal bodies, and politicians. 

• A single walkway should be designated for visitors and covered with a suitable surface, ensuring that the movement of visitors does not affect the site and its contents. 

• Emergency treatment of scattered, wet, burned, torn, disfigured, or dirty documents should be carried out in accordance with the standards for preserving legal evidence, and collectible documents should be collected by a legal team to carry out the collection process in accordance with the conditions for preserving evidence. 

• Improve ventilation conditions in enclosed spaces. 

• Periodic expert visits to inspect the conditions of the facility. 

• Raising awareness among the public of the need to protect the sites and documents to protect their rights. 

1. Urgent Documentation: Full visual documentation should be carried out by legal professionals, including videoing all the features of the site from the surroundings to the entrance, then the ceilings, floors, and contents as they are.

* Mansour Al-Omari: Syrian human rights defender and legal researcher. He holds a master’s degree in transitional justice and conflict from the University of East London. Al-Omari works with international and Syrian human rights organizations to hold perpetrators of international crimes in Syria accountable. In 2012, Al-Omari was arrested and tortured by the Syrian government for 356 days for documenting its atrocities while working with the Syrian Center for Media and Freedom of Expression as a supervisor of the detainees’ documentation office.