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The Hague, Netherlands — Syria faces allegations at the UN top court Tuesday that it maintains a “pervasive” system of torture that has killed tens of thousands of people.
Prisoners currently languishing in Syrian prisons are at “imminent risk of death or severe physical or mental harm,” Canada and the Netherlands wrote in their submission to the court. Canada and the Netherlands asked the ICJ to “urgently” demand Syria stop all torture and arbitrary detention, open prisons to outside inspectors and provide information to families about the fate of their loved ones.
Balkees Jarrah, from Human Rights Watch, said the ICJ needed to act “to prevent further abuses against Syrians, who continue to suffer under nightmarish conditions and whose lives are in serious jeopardy.” The International Criminal Court , a war crimes court which like the ICJ is based in The Hague, has been unable to deal with Syria as it never ratified the Rome Statute, the tribunal’s founding treaty.
Describing the hearings as a “watershed” case, Human Rights Watch hoped the ICJ proceedings would shine a spotlight on Assad’s return from isolation.
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