Torture in Syria: The path to justice leads through Austria

PRESS CONFERENCE on 29 Mai 2018 at 10 am

Café Landtmann
Universitätsring 4, 1010 Vienna

The Syrian government led by president Bashar al-Assad is responsible for systematic and widespread torture targeting opponents and activists. There are currently no international avenues for prosecuting crimes against international law committed in Syria. However, the principle of universal jurisdiction enables domestic courts to initiate judicial proceedings and to hold perpetrators of all ranks accountable.

Austria should follow Germany, Sweden, and France and open investigations into torture in Syria. To this end, survivors of torture in Syria together with the Syrian Center for Legal Studies and Research (SCLSR), the Syrian Center for Media and Freedom of Speech (SCM), the Center for the Enforcement of Human Rights International (CEHRI) and the European Center for Constitutional and Human Rights (ECCHR) will file a criminal complaint with the federal prosecutor in Vienna. The criminal complaint focuses on torture as a crime against humanity and war crime committed inside government-run detention facilities in Syria.

Detailed information concerning the criminal complaint will be given by:

Anwar al-Bunni, Syrian Center for Legal Studies and Research
Mazen Darwish, Syrian Center for Media and Freedom of Speech
Wolfgang Kaleck, European Center for Constitutional and Human Rights
Tatiana Urdaneta Wittek, Center for the Enforcement of Human Rights International

Moderated by Wolfgang Petritsch

To counter injustice with legal interventions – this is the aim and daily work of the European Center for Constitutional and Human Rights.

ECCHR is an independent, non-profit legal and educational organization dedicated to enforcing civil and human rights worldwide. It was founded in 2007 by Wolfgang Kaleck and other international human rights lawyers to protect and enforce the rights guaranteed by the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, as well as other human rights declarations and national constitutions, through legal means.

Together with those affected and partners worldwide, ECCHR uses legal means to end impunity for those responsible for torture, war crimes, sexual and gender-based violence, corporate exploitation and fortressed borders.

Maria Bause
T: +49 30 69819797
M: presse@ecchr.eu

Philipp Jedamzik
T: +49 30 29680591
M: presse@ecchr.eu