Can Syria’s new leadership establish a legal system to ensure fair trials?

Syria’s new administration is pledging accountability for crimes committed during the al-Assad family’s rule.

About 150,000 people were detained and forcibly disappeared since the crackdown on pro-democracy rallies in 2011 that set off the war.

Many are believed to have been killed. Those who survived bear physical or psychological scars.

Now, families of the victims are demanding justice. There is no shortage of evidence.

But can Syria’s new leadership establish a sound legal system to ensure fair trials? And what can the international community and the United Nations do to help?

Presenter: Bernard Smith

Guests:

Ibrahim Olabi – Barrister and board member of the Syrian British Consortium. He’s researched and advised extensively on international legal cases related to the conflict in Syria.

Roger Lu Phillips – Legal director of the Syria Justice and Accountability Centre, which documents violations of human rights and international law in Syria.

Kholoud Helmi – Syrian journalist and human rights activist. She’s a member of Families for Freedom, a movement of women whose relatives were detained and disappeared by the Assad regime.