The Syrian Future Movement commends the bold legal step taken by the Presidency’s General Secretariat Committee for Cabinet Affairs, in the presence of Deputy Secretary-General Engineer Ali Kaddah, to hold a special meeting on Monday, July 28, 2025, bringing together a select group of judges and legal experts to discuss the abolition of exceptional laws that violate human rights.
We view this initiative as an indicator that the country has entered a new phase of institutional thinking, moving beyond the era of authoritarianism and isolation, and opening the door to building a state of rights and citizenship.
The Syrian Future Movement welcomes the precise definition of exceptional laws, describing them as tools formulated for political motives far removed from the public interest and lacking the minimum standards of a fair trial.
A correct identification of these laws is the cornerstone of the process of restoring legal legitimacy and repositioning the judiciary as an independent authority, not a tool for subjugation and revenge.
The Syrian Future Movement calls for institutionalizing this reformist approach by adopting a national framework for transitional justice that ensures clarity and legislative consistency and prevents the reproduction of tools of repression under legal cover. We recommend the formation of an independent, multidisciplinary body, comprising judges, lawyers, human rights activists, and representatives of civil society, tasked with reviewing the entire Syrian legal system in line with international human rights standards and the rule of law.
The Syrian Future Movement emphasizes that legal steps, while important, will not be sufficient unless they are accompanied by an explicit and declared political will to break once and for all with the authoritarian structure that formed the core of the Assad regime, including the systematic politicization of the judiciary, the dominance of the security services, and the marginalization of popular participation in decision-making.
The new Syria we aspire to is not built by embellishing the past, but rather by re-creating it on the basis of justice, accountability, and societal reconciliation.
The Syrian Future Movement believes that the periodic report the committee will prepare on draft amendments or repeals of laws represents a historic opportunity to launch a transparent public dialogue on the form of the state, the pattern of authority, and the constitutional values that should govern the relationship between citizens and institutions.
We also demand that these reports be made public and subject to open discussion within the legal and political community, as a first step in restoring lost trust between the people and the state.
The Syrian Future Movement believes that reformulating the Syrian social contract must be based on the principles of human dignity, freedom of expression, accountability, the separation of powers, and the guarantee of individual and collective rights.
This cannot be achieved without dismantling the system of legal exception that has entrenched the logic of absolute power for decades.
We, in the Syrian Future Movement, affirm that justice does not mean revenge, but rather building a future in which there is no place for oppression, fear, or forced loyalty.
The Syrian Future Movement is committed to continuing to defend human rights and to providing legal and political proposals that advance this path. We are ready to cooperate with all national, civil, and international forces that desire to build a free, pluralistic, and democratic Syria based on law and institutions, not narrow loyalties and affiliations.
