International rights group chief says Syria’s reforms are promising but democracy is still lacking

Amnesty International’s Secretary General has acknowledged Syria’s post-Assad government is taking steps toward reform while highlighting significant democratic shortcomings, following her visit to Damascus this week.

Agnes Callamard noted several positive developments in the year since President Bashar Assad’s government fell, including legal reform plans before parliament, transitional justice committees, and the country’s newfound openness to international rights groups and experts.

“All of those things are very good signs but they are not very deep,” Callamard told The Associated Press in an interview. The comments come as Syria continues to navigate a fragile transition following Assad’s ouster in an offensive led by the Islamist Hayat Tahrir al-Sham, which brought interim President Ahmad al-Sharaa to power.

The country remains deeply unstable, with forces loyal to the former government implicated in sectarian violence against minority communities. Earlier this year, attacks against Druze and Alawite populations in coastal regions and the southern province of Sweida resulted in hundreds of casualties. The new government has formed investigative committees in response, and trials for suspects in the coastal violence began last week.

In the year since the regime change, numerous Assad-era officials have been detained and await trial on human rights violations charges. Callamard said Syrian officials, including the Justice Minister, informed her that hundreds of detainees are being held “in relation to abuses by the former regime.”

“There is seemingly a process whereby charges will be drafted very soon,” she said, though she raised concerns about the grounds for arrests and the nature of the judicial proceedings. She emphasized that Syria’s legal framework requires “urgent reform because some of the most gruesome crimes under international law have not been domesticated.”

During her visit, Callamard met with members of the National Commission on Transitional Justice and the National Commission for the Missing, which are collecting evidence from Assad-era prisons. She described this as “a long process and slow” that lacks the international support seen in other conflict zones.

“Unlike Ukraine, where some European countries established teams of experts to support Ukrainian authorities in their investigation into atrocities, nothing like that is happening in Syria. Nothing. So that needs to change,” Callamard stated.

The Amnesty chief expressed frustration with the international community’s approach to Syria’s transition. “My impression after that very short visit, arguably, is that for the international community, Syria is a problem that must be contained,” she said. “It seems to me that very few countries are prepared to do the leap of faith into that.”

She warned that without stronger international backing, the current reform efforts may not be sustainable. Small civil society organizations are currently shouldering most of the burden of evidence collection and documentation of past abuses.

Syria held its first post-Assad parliamentary elections last month, but the process fell short of direct democratic representation. Two-thirds of the 210-member assembly seats were elected through province-based electoral colleges, with the remaining third appointed directly by interim President al-Sharaa. The new parliament will serve a 30-month term while preparing for future elections.

The limited democratic nature of these elections underscores Callamard’s assessment that despite some positive signs, Syria still lacks fundamental democratic structures and processes. The country faces enormous challenges in addressing past human rights violations while establishing new governance systems that can prevent their recurrence.

Syrian officials did not immediately respond to requests for comment on Callamard’s observations.