The Iran Human Rights Documentation Center (IHRDC) submitted a request to the International Criminal Court (ICC) Wednesday for the opening of a preliminary examination into the role of the Islamic Republic of Iran (Iran) and the armed groups in Syria it controls in crimes committed during the conflict in Syria.

In the request, the IHRDC alleged that agents from Iran and its Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps have perpetrated, aided, and abetted the commission of certain crimes such as deportation and persecution against Syrian civilians which forced them to flee to Jordan for safety. This hostility across the entirety of Syria has led to the expulsion of more than 650,000 Syrians to Jordan, in an attempt to flee violence during the war.

The request also included testimony from Syrian victims directly impacted and forced to flee into Jordan due to Iran and their agents actions. The victims detailed how Syrians have been killed, injured, and displaced.

Although the request was submitted in accordance with Article 15 of the Rome Statute and Syria is not a State Party to the Rome Statute, jurisdiction over the alleged crimes can still be considered because the victims were forced into Jordan, a country that is a State Party to the Rome Statute. Based off of recent ICC case law, the ICC has clarified that the court does in fact have jurisdiction over certain crimes that affect the territories of a State Party.

According to a statement made by the IHRDC, the Syrian war is a complex, protracted conflict that has lasted for more than a decade: “What began as popular protests for reform in spring 2011 were met with state violence from Bashar al-Assad’s government, which then devolved into civil war.”

In September 2021, Amnesty International reported that Syrian refugees who returned to Syria after seeking refuge in another country have been tortured, raped and taken away by Syrian security forces. Similarly, the UN Report of the Commission of Inquiry on the Syrian Arab Republic revealed that Syria is unsafe for refugees to return to following one decade of armed conflict and war.