Kenneth Roth, who was executive director of Human Rights Watch from 1993 to 2022, tells us that Syria "needs" the International Criminal Court, which holds its sessions at The Hague. His 'explanation' is more an insult and display of ignorance than an explanation.
A few comments.
First:
Syria's justice system is not, as Roth proclaims, "a shambles". Assad's justice system was a shambles. The transition government is far along in the process of replacing it.
Second:
There is no reason to believe that placing Syrians under the tutelage of pompous international jurists will in the end produce better outcomes than what Syrians are producing themselves. The quality of justice isn't measured entirely or even predominately by lovely procedures. It is measured, most of all, by outcomes.
Syrians are bringing hundreds among the many thousands of Assad's criminal henchmen to justice right now. In most of these cases, the facts are not in dispute - to the Syrians who have suffered through their tortures, yet prevailed. Indeed these facts are not disputed by most of the accused, who proudly or shame-facedly admit to their acts, often recorded by cellphones. No doubt some innocents are punished and no doubt that would not be the case were they all placed in the hands of nice Western Europeans and their well-behaved acolytes. No doubt as well that the International Court would bring at most %1 of these criminals to justice (that's a really generous estimate), after years and years. Indeed the majestic sluggishness of International Court procedures are the main reason that, time after time after time, the criminals get away, and for good.
Third:
Yes, no doubt The World won't trust the Syrians' will and competence to mete out justice. It's unclear why Syrians should care.
They have accomplished more in the cause of human rights than the rest of the world put together.
Fourth:
Roth's comparison with Iraq is embarrassing. The US-installed Iraqi government consisted primarily of horribly oppressed Shia taking clearly unbridled and understandable revenge on Sunnis rightly or wrongly associated with Saddam Hussein. They had little use for canons of evidence.
Nothing remotely similar is happening in Syria, where cellphones recorded so much of what occurred. What's more these cellphone videos and images are now vetted meticulously, by Syrian experts , by open source intel experts, and also by experts among the mainstream media. But sure, for Western Europeans, these bearded rebels look untrustworthy. They probably don't even know what evidence is.
Let Syrians govern as they have fought and died for. The idea that Western guidance would produce better results runs counter to the virtually the entire historical record. Better that Western saviours review that past.
