Canada and the Netherlands denounce Syria before the ICJ for the commission of torture

June 12 (EUROPA PRESS) –

Canada and the Netherlands have filed a joint complaint against Syria with the International Court of Justice (ICJ) for alleged violations of the Convention Against Torture, alleging that Bashar al-Assad’s regime has committed “countless” abuses since at least 2011. , date of the outbreak of the civil war in the Arab country.

The complainants have put on the table the alleged commission of mistreatment of detainees, forced disappearances, sexual violence or violence against children, among other charges that would derive from the repression exercised against voices critical of the Government. The list of abuses would also be completed with the use of chemical weapons, “a particularly atrocious practice to intimidate and punish the civilian population.”

Canada and the Netherlands justify the filing of the complaint in that they are, like Syria, signatories of the convention to which they are now challenging. It is the same argument that has already been used by more than thirty countries, including Spain, which have allied with Ukraine to try to bring Russia before the ICJ for violating the treaty on genocide.

The complaint also includes, in the case of Syria, an express request to the UN court to order precautionary measures, with a view to “protecting the lives and physical and mental integrity” of Syrian citizens who already suffer or are at risk of suffering cruel and degrading treatment or punishment, amounting to torture, according to a court statement.

The ICJ usually takes years to deliberate on these types of cases, although it can rule in a matter of weeks if it sees the need to establish some kind of provisional measure, as it already did with Russia shortly after launching its military offensive on Ukraine. In any case, it does not have the capacity for these orders to be applied in practice if the aforementioned countries do not comply with them.