Yasmen Almashan lost five of her six brothers in the early years of the Syrian civil war, four of them in 2012 alone. Her brother Zouhair was killed during protests against Assad. Okba was arrested by security forces and disappeared. A few months later, Obeida was killed by a sniper while working as a medic, trying to rescue wounded civilians from the rubble of buildings destroyed by bombs. A sniper also killed her brother Tishreen.
Then, in mid-2014, her younger brother Bashar was kidnapped by the Islamic State group. She never heard from him again.
“I was the only girl among six brothers, and suddenly I lost five of them. All the time before I lost them, they surrounded me with all the love you can imagine,” Almashan explained, standing outside UN headquarters in New York. “I feel it is now my duty to fight for justice for them.”
When a military defector codenamed Caesar smuggled thousands of photos out of Syria, Almashan recognized her brother Okba in the pictures of tortured corpses.
He co-founded the Association of Caesar Families and worked with other groups of survivors and families to seek justice for the disappeared in Syria.
Since the start of the Syrian civil war in 2011 until the fall of the Assad regime, more than 180,000 people have gone missing, according to the Syrian Network for Human Rights.
Read moreSyria’s Enforced Disappearances: No Relief for Grieving Families
France 24 met Almashan in 2023 when he came to lobby for the creation of an international foundation for the disappeared. Calm and determined, she stood outside the United Nations in protest holding photos of civilians missing under the Assad regime.
Read moreFamilies of missing Syrians urge UN to create ‘disappeared’ agency
Fifteen months after the fall of the regime, he is back at the United Nations – only this time in an official role as commissioner of the National Commission for Transitional Justice in Syria.
He spoke with two other Syrian human rights activists at an event Thursday at the German House in New York on Advances in Transitional Justice and Access to Syria, who are tasked with addressing past human rights violations, ensuring accountability and supporting national reconciliation after the Assad regime’s abuses.
“Ten years ago I was a woman in a tent in a refugee camp in Turkey. We fought to reach a decision-making point in our beloved Syria,” she said.
The trajectory of Ibrahim Olabi, Syria’s ambassador to the United Nations, is no different for Yasmen. He was also a defender of human rights. He established the Syrian Legal Development Program, which provides legal expertise to Syrian NGOs, advising them on issues related to forced displacement, torture and humanitarian aid delivery. Now he is representing his country at the United Nations.
“I think being in the positions we’re in now is part of all our healing — we’re capable, we’re in the driving seat.”
Read moreSyria’s Lost Children: Families Search for Youth Taken Under Assad’s Rule
The new Syria
Forces loyal to Syria’s transitional president Ahmed al-Shar’a overthrew Assad in December 2024. Once the head of an armed Islamist group known as Hayat Tahrir al-Sham, which was only removed from the US list of terrorist groups in July 2025, Shara has been at pains to project a more moderate image.
Although the war in Syria has ended, hundreds have been killed in clashes between Druze and Sunni Bedouin communities and government forces, with rare incidents of sectarian violence. There has also been targeted violence against the Alawite community.
The Kurdish community accused Shara of involvement in the 2014 genocide of the Yazidi Kurds, filing a complaint with Germany’s Federal Public Prosecutor’s Office in October 2025. He has denied the allegations.
“The president himself has made it clear that he is not involved and that this commission is independent and will investigate any crimes related to the Assad era,” Ambassador Olabi told FRANCE 24.
Previous lessons
Dr Thomas Jahneisen, Germany’s Deputy Ambassador to the UN hosted a side event featuring experts on law and sexual violence. He spoke about the challenges of Germany’s long journey of national reconciliation and reunification. “It’s a difficult path through experience. Yes, there are successes, but there are also a lot of setbacks,” Zahneisen explained. “It will take a long time.”
Jahnesen said the National Commission for Transitional Justice in Syria recently traveled to visit the archives of the Stasi, the former East Germany’s feared security force that was instrumental in repressing and intimidating the population during the Cold War. He said that UN mechanisms are playing an important role in supporting this process.
Deputy Ambassador of Colombia, Raul Sanchez, shared his country’s experience in solving past crimes to establish accountability and social cohesion.
“This is a remarkable time for transitional justice in Syria, because everything is possible and everything is at stake,” explained UN Director of Crisis Action Gareth Sweeney. “The commissions are blessed to have people like Yasmen of incredible integrity. They speak a truth that Syrians can see and feel. But the challenges they face in terms of resources are clear to all of us, to build justice and accountability in a country that works and rebuilds.”
After the meeting at the German House, Almashan heads to the UN mission in Syria, a block from the main UN building, to meet the delegation before iftar, the evening meal that breaks the fast during Ramadan. There is no clear marking on the building except for a sign that reads “Diplomatic Centre”, but to her the building symbolizes the regime where her brothers died.
She trembles as she enters, but she hopes that eventually, reconciliation is possible.
(tags to be translated)Middle East
