On December 14, the United Nations General Assembly voted to renew the funding of a key committee investigating atrocities in Syria.

The UNGA approved the funding for the “International, Impartial and Independent Mechanism to assist in the investigation and prosecution of persons responsible for the most serious crimes under International Law committed in the Syrian Arab Republic since March 2011,” commonly referred to as the IIIM, at a session designated to the proposed program budget for the Fifth Committee of 2024.

The renewal of the funding result was a new defeat for Russia, which had proposed a draft resolution, backed by 12 countries including China, Iran, North Korea and Venezuela as well as the Syrian regime, attempting to halt the financing of the mechanism. In the end, its proposal won the support of only 19 out of the UNGA’s 193 members.

The IIIM had been set up in December 2016, under UNGA resolution A/71/248. Its financing was initially made up of donations by member states, but the question of financing was to be reviewed with a view to making it part of the UN’s main budget as soon as possible. The General Assembly approved that arrangement in in December 2019, and the mechanism was now financed from the regular budget as of January 1, 2020. The mechanism also continued to receive additional donations from outside the main budget, to help it implement its mandate.

Since then, Russia has repeatedly presented the same draft resolution in opposition to the mechanism’s financing, but failed to get it passed.

The challenges facing the IIIM go far beyond efforts to cut its financing. The regime has consistently obstructed the work of international investigative committees, preventing them from entering the country and refusing to recognise their mandates, deal with them, respond to their questions and requests or recognise their reports.

The renewal of the mechanism’s financing therefore sends a strong message that the regime’s human rights violations must continue to be documented, to that ensure that their perpetrators are prosecuted and to protect the rights of the victims.

It also helps provide national courts in European countries with the files and evidence necessary to press criminal charges against people responsible for atrocities in Syria.

The continued financing of the IIIM also indicates that the international community’s position towards the Syrian regime remains unchanged, despite steps made towards normalization with it, particularly in 2023. The UNGA’s move also sends a message that regime reforms such as amnesty decrees, which Damascus has tried to present as part of a reciprocal, step-by-step normalization process, are deceptive and should not be rewarded by any change in the international community’s position.

The only thing that should change that position is serious and genuine reform on human rights and issues around the political process, in accordance with international resolutions.