The Netherlands is preparing to file a lawsuit against Syria before the International Court of Justice, with the aim of holding the regime of President Bashar al-Assad accountable.
Because of his human rights violations, which include torture and the use of chemical weapons.
Dutch Foreign Minister Steve Block said, in a letter to Parliament, today, Friday, that the Netherlands has decided to hold Syria accountable "under international law for gross violations of human rights, especially torture."
The foreign minister's letter cited Damascus’s pledge to respect the United Nations Convention against Torture, which Syria signed in 2004.
In the message, the minister said, "The Assad regime has committed horrific crimes time after time. The evidence is overwhelming .. There must be consequences .. A large number of Syrians were tortured, killed, forcibly disappeared, and attacked with poison gas, or lost everything, while fleeing with their lives."
Syria was informed of the legal step that precedes the possibility of referring the case to the International Court of Justice in The Hague, which is competent to adjudicate disputes between countries.
The Netherlands decided to take this step after Russia obstructed several efforts in the UN Security Council to refer human rights violations in Syria to the International Criminal Court, which is trying individuals accused of war crimes, based in The Hague.
The Netherlands says that the war raging for about 10 years in Syria has claimed at least 200,000 lives, while 100,000 are still missing, and 5.5 million have been forced to flee to neighboring countries.