At the request of a network of associations and institutions representing the Kurdish people of Rojava, the Tribunal met in Brussels on 5–6 February 2025. The session examined the alleged crimes of aggression, war crimes and crimes against humanity committed by senior Turkish officials in north-eastern Syria from 2018 to the present. It concluded with a preliminary statement, followed by the final judgement, which was presented to the European Parliament on 26 March 2025, to the United Nations Human Rights Council in Geneva on 19 June 2025, and to the Senate of the Italian Republic on the 18h of the same month. In its judgement, the PPT established that the documented human rights violations primarily and originally stemmed from the crime of aggression committed by Turkey against the will of the Syrian authorities and the autonomous administration of Rojava in Syria between 2018 and 2024. Under international law, all military acts of aggression directed against civilian targets, such as hospitals and schools, clearly constitute war crimes. The judgement also stated that the intentional destruction of cultural heritage constitutes the dolus specialis for genocide, while the forced displacement of the Kurdish population and ethnic engineering through the resettlement of Syrians constitute crimes against humanity. According to the judgement, “the adjective “systematic” indicates the organised nature of the violent acts and their improbability as accidental occurrences. The non-accidental repetition of similar criminal behaviour on a regular basis is a common expression of such systematicity”. Furthermore, in the case of Rojava, violence against women and the intentional killing of prominent Kurdish women clearly constitute femicide.
- Committee for Justice and Law and the Department of Foreign Relations of the Democratic Autonomous Administration of North and East Syria (DAANES)
- Research and Protection Centre for Women’s Rights
- Human Rights Organizations in Al-Jazira and Afrin
- MAF-DAD e.V (Association for Democracy and International Law)
- ELDH (European Association of Lawyers for Democracy & World Human Rights)
- IADL (International Association of Democratic Lawyers)
- KNK (Kurdistan National Congress), Kurdish Institute of Brussels
- Free University of Brussels (VUB).
Documentation:
- Indictment
- Preliminary statement
- Judgement in english and italian
- Multimedia