After eight years gathering evidence of serious crimes committed by members of the Assad regime, the International Impartial and Independent Mechanism (IIIM), a body set up by the General Assembly in 2016, was finally able to set foot in Damascus in December 2024, just days after the fall of the dictator, Bashar al Assad.

Robert Petit, the head of the IIIM, told Conor Lennon from UN News that there is renewed hope that his team will be allowed to deploy on the ground in Syria and, eventually, that perpetrators will face justice.