Remarks by H.E. Annalena Baerbock
President of the 80th Session of the United Nations General Assembly
at the GA meeting under the agenda item “Prevention of armed conflict”, as established in A/RES/73/182, paragraph 31, and subsequent GA resolutions:
“Prevention of armed conflict: International, Impartial and Independent Mechanism to Assist in the Investigation and Prosecution of Persons Responsible for the Most Serious Crimes under International Law Committed in the Syrian Arab Republic since March 2011”
Wednesday, 15 April 2026?
General Assembly Hall
Excellencies,
Distinguished delegates
Allow me to extend a warm welcome to the Head of the International, Impartial and Independent Mechanism, Mr. Robert Petit.
And allow me to commend the work undertaken by the Mechanism to assist the investigation and prosecution of those responsible for the most serious crimes committed in the Syrian Arab Republic since March 2011.
During years of conflict and decades of authoritarian rule of the Assad regime, the Syrian people have suffered some of the gravest crimes known to international law.
I personally will never forget walking through the torture chambers in Sednaya prison, just four weeks after the fall of the Assad regime, where as many as 13,000 were killed since 2011, and so many others tortured.
When we were walking through it, I saw the worst things a human being can do to another human being—using an iron press to break humans alive, electrocution, systematic rape.
And these horrors were committed at more than 100 other detention facilities run by the Assad regime, where ordinary people, teenagers, were imprisoned for simply speaking out against the regime, speaking out for their freedoms.
Human rights violations continued outside prison walls, as citizens were subjected to enforced disappearance, rape, torture, systematic denial of food and water, and even extrajudicial killings, mainly perpetrated by the Assad regime but also by other groups.
And we know of these violations because of the work of for example, the White Helmets, and other civil society and human rights organisations, who risked their lives to gather evidence in the hope that justice would one day be served.
In this context, the IIIM was established by this Assembly in 2016 based on a simple conviction:
That even in the darkest hours, evidence must be preserved, truth must be protected, and impunity must end.
Because without accountability for victims and survivors, there can be no justice.
And without justice there can be no lasting peace.
So, for a new Syria, cooperation with the IIIM instead of obstruction of justice is essential.
In this context, I welcome the participation of Foreign Minister Asaad Al-Shaibani at last year’s session, and his recognition that without accountability, future conflict in Syria cannot be prevented.
However, justice will not be secured in a single courtroom or a single verdict.
It is a cumulative process, a deliberate journey requiring truth-telling, reparations, institutional reform, and above all, political will.
Because without genuine commitment from those in power to bring justice to everyone regardless of their ethnicity, religion, or gender, even the best-designed mechanisms will fall short of their promise.
Against this backdrop, we find ourselves at a moment of cautious hope, one that demands clarity of purpose, and clarity from all of us, commitment to justice.
In this regard, I have two calls to make.
First, to the Syrian government: a new chapter brings not only hope to millions of Syrians, but also a responsibility to confront the past and build a future grounded in justice for all.
That means justice for everyone, and justice for all crimes.
A victim is a victim no matter the perpetrator, and no matter the scale of the crime.
Second, to the international community and this Assembly: the support for the Mechanism must not waver.
Our engagement must remain principled, consistent, and anchored in the rights and dignity of every Syrian, no matter which religion, no matter which ethnicity, or identity, no matter Sunni, Alawites, Christians, Druze, Kurds, and all others, no matter if a man or a woman.
At the same time, justice must be Syrian-led and Syrian-owned, supported internationally but grounded locally.
But while justice starts with evidence and investigation, it will remain meaningless if prosecutions do not follow.
Accountability for crimes against humanity and an end to impunity are top of our task, and I’m saying this not only because the Secretary-General, myself, and the President of the Security Council are traveling to The Hague this Friday for the 80th anniversary of the ICJ and visiting the ICC, but I’m saying this because history will judge us not simply by how we responded to war, but by how we stood for the peace that follows and what we did to achieve justice and accountability.
Thank you.
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