Syria’s Permanent Representative to the United Nations, Ibrahim Olabi, announced that Syria was elected by acclamation as Vice Chair of the Bureau of the first Preparatory Committee for the United Nations Conference of Plenipotentiaries on the Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of Crimes Against Humanity.
Olabi said the step reflects the consensus of UN member states and their confidence in Syria’s role in international forums.
In remarks to the state-run news agency SANA on 29 January, Olabi said the election resulted from member states’ agreement and confidence in Syria’s contribution.
He added that this confidence has been evident in recent months, in the context of what he described as the legacy Syria carries because of crimes committed on its territory during the former regime’s rule.
Olabi said Syria’s election as Vice Chair of the Preparatory Committee Bureau represents a qualitative shift within Syria’s strategy to build an active and advanced diplomacy on the international stage, moving beyond files related to Syria’s internal affairs toward playing an effective role in global issues, based on what he described as Syrian experience and expertise.
What is the committee?
The election comes within the work of the Preparatory Committee for the UN Conference of Plenipotentiaries, a temporary body established by the UN General Assembly to handle the legal and procedural preparations for an international conference expected to adopt a new international convention on preventing and punishing crimes against humanity, according to the UN Office of Legal Affairs.
According to the United Nations, the committee discusses the conference’s organizational issues, including drafting rules of procedure, preparing the agenda, and arranging working mechanisms. It also manages consultations among member states on the proposed draft convention, ahead of forwarding it to the Conference of Plenipotentiaries for final adoption or amendment, as referenced in UN General Assembly documents.
This committee is considered the main stage where the expected convention’s legal and political contours are drawn.
Within the committee, discussions cover definitions of crimes against humanity, states’ obligations to prevent and punish them, and mechanisms for international judicial cooperation, before moving to official negotiations and a vote at the Conference of Plenipotentiaries.
The UN General Assembly had previously agreed to move forward with convening an international Conference of Plenipotentiaries on crimes against humanity after years of debate within its legal committee.
In this context, international rights groups, including Human Rights Watch, say the negotiating track aims to close a legal gap in the international justice system.
They also argue it would strengthen accountability tools and help prevent impunity for large-scale crimes by creating an international legal framework that is binding on states.
According to the organizations, crimes against humanity include genocide, enslavement, rape, forced pregnancy, persecution, enforced disappearance, and apartheid.
The organizations believe that when these acts are committed as part of a widespread or systematic attack directed against a civilian population, they are among the gravest crimes under international law, and the prohibition against them is a peremptory norm that no state may violate.
The Preparatory Committee opened its first session on 19 January at UN headquarters, as part of the preliminary track toward adopting a new international convention on this issue.
The conference, scheduled for 2028 and 2029, aims to draft an international convention on preventing crimes against humanity and defining mechanisms to punish them, as part of UN efforts to close an existing legal gap in the international legal system.
Under the rules of procedure adopted by the UN General Assembly, the UN Legal Counsel proposed forming a bureau for the Preparatory Committee composed of five members, each representing one of the UN’s five regional groups, to ensure geographic balance in managing the committee’s work.
The first session is scheduled to continue until 30 January, with additional sessions to follow ahead of the Conference of Plenipotentiaries.
In December 2024, the UN General Assembly adopted a resolution calling for an international conference in 2028 and 2029 to develop a binding international legal instrument on preventing and punishing crimes against humanity.
Syria elected Vice Chair of UN Preparatory Committee on Crimes Against Humanity Convention Enab Baladi.
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