The Assad regime were world leaders in torture. Its survivors will determine Syria's future

EPA / Reuters

The horrors and many of the darkest secrets of Sednaya prison – and the network of other torture centres across Syria – are being revealed just days after the fall of the regime in Damascus. Video footage of prisoners including children being released from cells by rebels went viral around the world as the unthinkable cruelty of the Assad regime, and its endemic use of torture, was laid bare. Prepare yourself for many more revelations in the days and weeks ahead.

We will hear about the beatings, the insults and the humiliation. We will see the physical marks that survivors carry and that were left behind by fists, electric shocks and bullets. There will be stories of human depravity: individuals who were forced to stand on one leg, blindfolded with their arms in the air as they were attacked and insulted. There will be stories of those who were sexually violated and raped. There will be stories of the medical and psychological legacy for the thousands who have experienced torture or have witnessed others being tortured.

The physical infrastructure and implements of torture will likely be left behind, such as the improvised metal and wooden racks, which victims of Syrian torture have reported to me. There will also be many stories of lives snuffed out in the most of brutal of circumstances that can only be told by the people they left behind – by their families and communities.

Whatever group – or collection of groups – takes power will have great responsibilities, especially to the survivors of torture and their families. In these early euphoric days, Syria’s new leaders must remember their responsibilities: Syria is party to the UN Convention Against Torture, a treaty with clear obligations that continue regardless of who is in power.

There is a need for an independent and impartial body to investigate and prosecute those who have committed torture since the civil war began in 2011, and even earlier. The recently established UN Independent Institution on Missing Persons in the Syrian Arab Republic should play a role in this reckoning.

Victims must receive the care they need, and the physical and psychological rehabilitation that they are entitled to, as well as the compensation international law allows for. Victims and survivors must be given roles as co-designers of what a future Syria looks like. It is for them to tell us – not the other way around – what their rehabilitation should look like. A peaceful and stable future where arbitrary rule no longer prevails would be a fundamental step in their recovery.

The successive Assad regimes were world leaders in torture. For more than five decades their rule was secured through fear, which was instilled by enforced disappearances and endemic torture. The use of torture has been especially pronounced since the start of the civil war in 2011. Many thousands of Syrian men, women and children – yes, children – were tortured by the former regime.

Many more have simply disappeared. The International Commission on Missing Persons estimates that around 17,000 individuals are missing from the period of Hafez Al Assad’s rule, and at least 130,000 persons are missing from the more recent civil war. All trace of many has long since been erased, especially given the presence of on-site crematoria at places like Sednaya prison.

The investigations and prosecutions apply to both the Assad regime and rebel groups. None are exempt. The apparently victorious faction Hayat Tahrir Al Sham has faced credible allegations of torture, too, including against human rights defenders who were monitoring their abuses in Idlib. ISIS, which no longer has territory but remains a force in the country, has one of the worst human rights records of any armed group in recent times. Their catalogue of rights abuses includes widespread sexual torture and enslavement.

The new government will remain bound by the International Court of Justice’s provisional order to “take all measures within its power to prevent acts of torture and other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment”.

This moment of apparent joyful liberation for the generations of Syrians who have known nothing but Assad rule will also be marked by extraordinary sadness for all the abuses and pain that these proud and brave people have endured.

This is also a moment of peril for the future human rights of Syrians. Whatever group or groups come to power must not seek revenge but instead come together in national unity. This will require true reconciliation, which is the least that Syria’s people, and especially Syrian torture survivors deserve. True reconciliation can only happen with an acknowledgement and atonement for the crimes of the past.