This individual is a guest contributor. MEI is not able to assist with contact requests.
Reem Salahi is a senior advisor to the International Commission on Missing Person’s (ICMP) Syria/MENA program and previously served as a technical advisor to Adam Smith International’s Syria governance project. Between 2015 and 2017, Reem acted as a Chief of Party for the Public International Law & Policy Group (PILPG), a U.S.-based legal nonprofit organization, where she worked closely with Syrian civil society actors and groups on human rights and transitional justice matters. She also supported PILPG’s Syria negotiation work in Astana. Since 2017, Reem has been a freelance consultant and researcher working on a variety of issues including missing persons, governance, civil society engagement, religious minorities, and housing, land and property (HLP) rights in Syria.
Reem is a U.S.-certified lawyer and formerly, a civil rights litigator at the ACLU of Southern California and Hadsell Stormer Richardson & Renick, LLP (currently, Hadsell Stormer Renick & Dai, LLP). She was a Fulbright Fellow in Jordan in 2004.
Using the Convention against Torture to hold Syria to account
Last month, the Netherlands announced its intent to hold Syria responsible for gross human rights violations and torture under the U.N. Convention against Torture (CAT). With only one other case — Belgium v. Senegal — brought to the International Court of Justice (ICJ) under the CAT, the Netherlands is entering relatively uncharted waters. Indeed, it would be the first country to litigate the substance of Article 1 of the Convention. While it is unlikely that the Netherlands’ claims will reach the ICJ for another year or more, its announcement serves as an important step in the push for broader accountability in Syria.
The road to accountability in Syria will undoubtedly be long, difficult, and imperfect. However, in recent years and even months, there have been tangible steps taken toward criminal accountability, particularly in Europe.
Syrians respond to COVID-19 with renewed volunteer and community efforts
With an economy already on the brink of collapse and a shocking devaluation of the Syrian pound — hitting 3,175 pounds to the dollar earlier this month — the COVID-19 pandemic has come at an exceptionally dangerous time in Syria.
