Dear HRVP Kallas,
Dear Commissioner Šuica,
We are writing ahead of the 11 May EU-Syria High Level Political Dialogue, which comes at a critical juncture for Syrians who, less than a year-and-a-half ago, broke with years of repression and civil conflict.
The European Union has continued its long-standing commitment to human rights for all Syrians as well as to justice and accountability for serious crimes – through its statements following the collapse of the Assad government, in the 2025 FAC conclusions, and in its support for the renewal of the mandate of the UN Commission of Inquiry on Syria.
However, with the risk that Syrian transitional authorities’ commitments to reforms that break with past abusive practices are losing momentum, and in an international and regional context marked by growing instability and risks of human rights violations, the EU should use its leverage and adopt a “more-for-more” approach to tie closer relationships between the EU and Syria to genuine human rights progress. In this regard, we are concerned that the Commission’s statement on its proposed full resumption of EU-Syria Cooperation Agreement did not include references to the need to address Syria’s challenges on human rights and accountability.
We call on the European Commission and the Council to ensure that EU’s public and private messages to Syria’s transitional authorities, at the upcoming High Level Political Dialogue and beyond, insist on the need for demonstrated progress on the following key areas.
Justice and Accountability:
- Establish impartial, independent, and meaningful justice processes for victims and survivors of serious international crimes committed by all perpetrators during the Syrian conflict and since the end of the conflict. This should include explicitly expanding the written mandate to the National Commission for Transitional Justice to cover crimes by all parties;
- Provide unhindered access and cooperation to international investigative bodies, including the UN International, Impartial and Independent Mechanism (IIIM) and UN Independent International Commission of Inquiry (CoI), as well as to the Independent Institution on Missing Persons (IIMP);
- Accede to the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court;
- Adopt a comprehensive reform of Syria’s criminal justice system that ensures compliance with human rights and fair trial standards, including the abolition of the death penalty. When it comes to accountability for serious international crimes, this should include incorporating these crimes into domestic law, providing for relevant modes of liability including command responsibility to allow for effective prosecutions, and ensuring witness protection and victim participation;
- Ensure accountability efforts for serious international crimes address victims’ rights and needs. Victims, affected communities, and experts should have genuine, ongoing opportunities to contribute to accountability processes, from design to implementation.
Security Sector Reform:
- Ensure impartial investigations into the atrocities in March and July 2025 in the coastal regions and in Sweida governorate; hold those responsible for abuses on all sides accountable, including by appropriately prosecuting military commanders and senior officials who ordered abuses or are liable as a matter of command responsibility for war crimes;
- Implement a comprehensive security sector reform that aligns with international human rights standards, ensuring civilian oversight, command responsibility, and implementing rigorous vetting to remove individuals responsible for abuses.
The EU should seek to provide technical and financial assistance to ensure that the new security forces protect civilians and observe the rule of law. This should also include supporting an independent judiciary that can ensure the legality of detention and lawful treatment of all detainees.
Inclusive participation in transition and guarantees for fundamental rights:
- Ensure that all sectors of Syrian society are involved in shaping the country’s future;
- Lift barriers to civil society engagement, including reforming onerous registration requirements, and guaranteeing security and non-retaliation for organizations with critical views of the government;
- Adopt and operationalize human rights standards related to fundamental rights and freedoms for all, freedom from discrimination, including by guaranteeing freedom of movement, assembly, and expression, refraining from arbitrary arrests or any other form of repression.
Reconstruction and recovery:
The EU should continue to provide both financial and technical support as Syria rebuilds its economy, while maintaining zero tolerance toward abuses and discrimination. To that end, EU support to Syrian authorities should come with effective safeguards to ensure that it is not used in a discriminatory manner and does not facilitate discrimination by the authorities in the fulfillment of social and economic rights.
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The Israeli government’s April 2026 plan to transfer thousands more Israeli civilians into the occupied Syrian Golan Heights is a clear statement of intent to commit further war crimes. The EU should also take measures to pressure Israeli authorities to cancel those plans and dismantle existing settlements, halt abuses in areas of southern Syria occupied by its forces, including forced displacement of residents, homes seizures and demolitions, denial of access to livelihoods, and unlawful transfer of Syrian detainees to Israel. The EU should adopt targeted sanctions on officials responsible for abuses and ban trade and business with illegal Israeli settlements, including those in the occupied Golan Heights; its member states should suspend any military support to Israel that could facilitate human rights abuses and violations of international law in southern Syria and elsewhere.
Finally, we urge EU leaders to refrain from engaging in areas of cooperation that do not meet human rights standards or from downplaying Syria’s continued economic, security and human rights challenges to justify or prematurely promote or facilitate the return of Syrians. Obstacles to safe, dignified, and sustainable returns and reintegration, including voluntary returns, include ongoing security concerns in Syria, with a significant and unpredictable risk of renewed violence and that parts of the country ravished by war remain uninhabitable.
We thank you for your attention and we stand ready to discuss these issues with you.
Yours sincerely,
Balkees Jarrah, Acting Director, Middle East and North Africa Division, Human Rights Watch
Philippe Dam, Director, EU Advocacy, Human Rights Watch
