The papers will be used in a macro-international trial just as soon as China and Russia stop boycotting the investigation into war crimes committed in Syria. But it will also be used to bolster current cases. An increasing number of the perpetrators are settling in Europe, masquerading as refugees. CIJA is offering evidence to the dozen countries trying to take them to court.

At the end of 2016, the UN General Assembly set up a framework for the Independent Investigation in Syria, also designed to analyze evidence of crimes and human rights abuses and to prepare judicial dossiers to support cases that are underway in national courts of justice.

They survived torture and detention in Syria and fled to Europe, where they now hope to obtain justice. Austrian authorities should follow the example set in Germany, Sweden and France and initiate investigations into systematic torture under Syrian president Bashar al-Assad. To help achieve this goal, on 29 May 2018, 16 women and men from Syria filed a criminal complaint with the prosecutor in Vienna. The group of torture survivors – which include an Austrian citizen and several people who were detained while still minors, and who have lived in Austria and Germany for some time – are filing the complaint together with ECCHR, the Syrian lawyer Anwar al-Bunni (Syrian Center for Legal Research and Studies) and Mazen Darwish (Syrian Center for Media and Freedom of Expression) as well as the Center for the Enforcement of Human Rights International (CEHRI) in Vienna.