HRW Associate Director: “International community must support ISIS trials”

Letta Tayler, associate director in the crisis and conflict division of Human Rights Watch (HRW), urges the international community in a tweet to back the trials of ISIS detainees in northern and eastern Syria. Following the announcement of the decision by the Autonomous Administration of Northern and Eastern Syria (AANES) to try detained foreign ISIS militants in accordance with international law, Tayler stressed that the decision was justified and should be supported.

Tayler’s tweet, posted shortly after the AANES announcement, begins with these lines: “The authorities in NE Syria are absolutely right to insist on fair trials for these detainees, who have been held for more than four years in indefinite, unlawful detention. International law requires due process even in wartime. Same for the women and children held in camps. It’s shocking that none of the detainees’ countries of origin have been willing to fund trials inside northeast Syria, while most refuse to repatriate these men for prosecutions back home. They appear content to let them languish indefinitely in prison and throw away the key.”

She calls on the US-led coalition against ISIS, the United Nations (UN), and detainees’ countries of origin to support fair trials in NE Syria, in home countries or a third country, adding: “Anything less is not only a violation of these detainees’ rights to due process. It’s also an injustice to ISIS victims.” Tayler also stresses that women and children in locked camps need due process as well: “These children in particular are being collectively punished for the suspected crimes of their parents, and many women are victims, too, as HRW has reported many times.” One of the reports she refers to is HRW’s December 2022 statement that foreign ISIS detainees in camps and prisons in northeastern Syria remain abandoned by their countries.

In the report, Tayler said: “Turkey’s attacks highlight the urgent need for all governments to help end the unlawful detention of their nationals in northeast Syria, allowing all to come home and prosecuting adults as warranted.” HRW stressed that countries should repatriate or assist in the repatriation of detainees, prioritizing children and their mothers. In March this year, General Michael Kurilla, head of the US military’s Central Command, also expressed the urgency of repatriating ISIS members after visiting several prisons in northeastern Syria. He urged the repatriation, rehabilitation and reintegration of detainees into their countries and communities of origin, adding: “We absolutely cannot allow a resurgence of ISIS.”