Legal Office
The Legal Office was established with the formation of the Syrian Negotiation Commission in 2016, with the aim of providing technical legal support to the negotiating delegation on various issues, in addition to support for the committees affiliated with the Commission, such as the Committee on Detainees and the Elections Committee.
The Legal Office is currently headed by lawyer Tarek Al-Kurdi, and includes specialized members of the Commission and advisory teams from Syrian legal figures, as well as several Syrian civil society organizations.
Among the main tasks of the Legal Office is to work on the accountability and responsibility file in order to ensure accountability for those responsible for violations in the Syrian regime. Therefore, it works on communicating with countries that are filing cases against the regime in international courts, such as the Netherlands and Canada. It also connects with civil society organizations that are filing lawsuits against the Syrian regime in European courts.
The Legal Office has a working group specifically focused on transitional justice, which has produced a paper on the constitutional aspects of transitional justice, emphasizing the need to ensure its application and obligate any government to adhere to it. This is done in collaboration with the International Center for Transitional Justice in The Hague and several concerned Syrian civil society organizations.
The Legal Office follows up with all relevant UN and international committees concerning the legal situation in Syria, including the International Red Cross Committee and the Special Investigation Committee, and works closely with the office of the international envoy responsible for human rights. It also monitors the Syrian file on a legal level with the Refugee Commission and the Human Rights Commission.