Final statement of the Caesar Files Conference in Paris
Paris – May 29, 2025
Ceasar Files for Justice extends its warm gratitude to a tremendous showing at “Witnesses of Justice: Pursuing Accountability and Justice in Syria – What Next?” on 28 May, hosted by the City of Paris. We are humbled and honoured to be able to have been provided with this opportunity to, for the first time, explain how the Ceasar Files team was formed in 2011, our long years of working in secrecy, and our vision for the future.
What you know as the “Caesar Files” is one essential element of our work, but it is also one part of a broader and comprehensive mandate that the Ceasar Files for Justice Team is dedicated to achieving. We are a diverse range of people, many of whom to this day remain unnamed, who have invested significant time and effort —often anonymously and at great personal risk—to further justice and accountability in Syria.
We have worked for years without any funding, preserving the independence and integrity of our mission. We are now taking steps to institutionalize our structure to ensure the long-term sustainability of our work, and we reaffirm our commitment to defending the rights of Syrians and elevating the role of civil society in the pursuit of justice.
In this new context, after retrospective Bashar Al-Assad fled in December 2024, a critical opening has been created, and with it, renewed hope for a transitional justice process in Syria ensuring accountability and justice for gross human rights violations and crimes committed under the former Assad Regime by all parties in the conflict. We believe that civil society – including the Caesar Files for Justice Team- should leverage its accumulated years of expertise in justice and accountability to play a key future role in transitional justice.
In doing so, we hope to engage with a government that will seek to view justice not only retrospective but as foundational to a just future – to recognizing victims’ suffering, rebuilding trust, healing the social fabric of the country and ensuring that no future abuses can ever happen again. Transitional justice in Syria must be shaped by Syrians, for Syrians — but meaningful and complementary international support remains essential to achieving our mutual goals.
We reaffirm that have always been and always will continue to be genuinely inclusive, and our mandate will remain rooted in and reflective of the experiences and demands of all segments of Syrian society—especially survivors, families of the disappeared, and civil society actors. All of us together are responsible in the pursuit of justice in this transitional phase and we all serve as key witnesses and partners in achieving this aim.
In this spirit of shared responsibility, the conference was honored by the presence and participation of a wide range of stakeholders, including NGOs, human rights defenders, legal experts, political representatives, and policy-makers, who came together to discuss the future of justice and accountability in Syria.
On behalf of the Mayor of Paris, Ms. Anne HIDALGO, the Deputy Mayor Mr. Jean-Luc Romero-Michelpresented the Grand Medal of Paris to members of the Caesar Files for Justice team, in recognition of their long-standing work and dedication
- Mr. Usama UTHMAN, founder of the team and Executive Director of CF4J.
- Mr. Farid AL-MAZHAN (“Caesar”), the key witness behind the Caesar Files
- Mr. Mashaal HAMOUD, CF4J Board Member.
- Mr. Mohammad HASAN, CF4J Board Member
- Mr. Ayman and Mr. Ammar.
- Mrs. Khawla and Mr. Issa.
The Caesar Files for Justice team took pride in honoring a number of individuals who supported its mission during critical moments and stood by Syria when many others stepped back. As a gesture of deep gratitude and appreciation, the team presented symbolic gifts to express this acknowledgment.
There is still a long path forward. But any vision we have for the future of Syria must justly account for the past and seek to move towards to an accountable future inclusive of all Syrians voices
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