Fighting impunity: should the international community create an ad hoc criminal tribunal to prosecute violations of international law in Syria?

Abstract

Within the complex and contemporary Syrian armed conflict, the aim of this thesis will be to understand the possibilities to establish a juridical mechanism in order to prosecute responsible for international violations and crimes committed since the beginning in 2011. This issue will be analysed through an analytical path. Starting from a brief examination of the main events and main actors involved, a classification of the non-international Syrian armed conflict will be provided. Afterwards, through investigations of international crimes by the United Nations Mechanisms, namely, the Commission of Inquiry on the Syrian Arab Republic (COI) and the International, Impartial and Independent Mechanism (IIIM), an evaluation of the contemporary juridical and quasi-juridical instruments will be reported. The Syrian armed conflict case is characterised by the interplay relations among diplomatic, economic, international and political affairs that affect the possibility to fight against impunity through juridical apparatus in order to deal with those responsible for atrocities committed.