The judgment of the 54th session of the Permanent Peoples’ Tribunal (PPT) on Rojava vs. Turkey was presented to the European Parliament in Brussels on 26 March 2025. In addition to the judges and the General Secretary of the PPT, representatives of the prosecution, the Nobel Peace Prize Laureates, Shirin Ebadi and Jody Williams, and Members of the European Parliament made interventions and contributed to the debate. This judgment followed the session held in Brussels on 5-6 February 2025, where experts and witnesses collected and presented evidence of international crimes and systematic violations of human and peoples’ rights committed by Turkey against the peoples of Rojava and the Democratic Autonomous Administration in Northern and Eastern Syria (DAANES).
[download the full judgment in English]
[watch the event: https://www.youtube.com/live/JtD38sy-e80]
In its judgment – which includes, among other things, a detailed analysis of the procedures followed, the facts and the mechanisms that made them possible, the responsibilities of Turkey and the defendants, and the recommendations -, the PPT recognises that the consistent and compelling picture of widespread, pervasive and systematic violations of human rights is equivalent to the punishment of a people for being Kurdish and for creating a society based on the principles of gender equality, inclusion, justice and solidarity. The aim of the punishment is to eradicate Kurdish identity, presence and culture. These systematic human rights violations have their first and original cause in the CRIME OF AGGRESSION committed by Turkey in Syria between 2018 and 2024, and against the will of the Syrian authorities and the Rojava autonomous administration. According to the international law, all military actions of aggression documented, when directed against civilian targets such as hospitals and schools, clearly constitute WAR CRIMES. The judgement also stated that intentionally destroying cultural heritage constitutes the dolus specialis for GENOCIDE, while forced displacement of the Kurdish population and ethnic engineering by resettling Syrians from elsewhere constitute CRIMES AGAINST HUMANITY. According to the judgment, “‘the adjective systematic signifies the organised nature of the acts of violence and the improbability of their random occurrence. Patterns of crimes – that is the non-accidental repetition of similar criminal conduct on a regular basis – are a common expression of such systematic occurrence”. Moreover, in the case of Rojava, violence against women and gender-based intentional killings of prominent Rojava Kurdish women clearly constitute FEMICIDE.
In accordance with the functions set out in its Statute, the PPT Judges have formulated a list of comprehensive recommendations addressed to the Government of Turkey, the Government of Syria, the United Nations, the European Council, the Council of Europe and its Member States, and the international community. During the Brussel event it was emphasised that the recommendations should be understood as an action plan to ensure that the various institutions under consideration provide answers to the demand for justice and guarantee of the existence of the peoples of Rojava and the project of self-government. The high complexity of the situation and the evolving interplay of direct and indirect actors responsible for the crimes and for their impunity underline the risks of delay in remedying the severe suffering of the affected peoples and implementing reparative political and juridical measures. In their conclusion, the president of the panel of judges, Frances Webber, and the PPT secretary general, Gianni Tognoni, stressed the absolute priority of this ruling at a time when there is a lack of real paths to justice and spaces for political debate capable of recognising the “Rojava model” as a “window on the future” of peoples’ rights and the credibility of international law. They also recalled that the PPT sees in recent events the first signs of a possible, difficult and urgent peace process. At the same time they stated that the recent desicions adopted by Turkey require that all the recommendations of this Tribunal be implemented without any further delay.
Nobel Peace Prize laureate Shirin Ebadi stated the following in her speech after the final judgement’s presentation: “How long is this crime going to continue why is no one putting and end to it? Let’s don’t forget that these crimes are not only committed against Kurds in Rojava but in Turkey, Iran and Iraq. I hope the world will not turn a blind eye to the situation of the Kurds, human rights activist and journalist be more active!”
Further information can be found at: https://rojavapeoplestribunal.org/