Since 2017 CEHRI represents Syrian survivors of grave human rights violations, such as systematic torture and arbitrary detention. In its fight against impunity, CEHRI cooperates with the Syrian Media Centre for Media and Freedom of Expression (SCM), the Syrian Centre for Legal Studies and Research (SCLR),  the  European Center for Constitutional and Human Rights (ECCHR), and since 2019 with the Open Society Justice Initiative (OSJI). The government of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad has committed countless war crimes and crimes against humanity since the onset of the Syrian civil war in 2011, including the systematic use of torture in detention facilities. The perpetrators  of these crimes face virtually no consequences, as there is almost total impunity in Syria.

The ICC currently lacks jurisdiction over crimes committed in Syria, given that Syria is not a party to the Rome Statute and the efforts of the UN Security Council to refer the situation in Syria to the ICC for investigation are being blocked by Russia and China.

As the international criminal justice system currently offers no possibility to prosecute crimes committed in Syria, national courts are essentially the only ones able to prosecute these crimes on the basis of universal jurisdiction

Austrian authorities have initiated investigations into the Syrian intelligence services’ role in, inter alia  systematic torture.

On 28 May 2018, CEHRI, together with the ECCHR and the Syrian lawyers Anwar al-Bunni and Mazen Darwish, submitted a criminal complaint on behalf of 16 victims to the public prosecutor in Vienna against 24 high-ranking officials of the government of Bashar al-Assad. It represents the first criminal complaint of its kind in Austria, and alleges that these officials are responsible for torture and other war crimes and crime against humanity committed detention facilities run by the Syrian Military Intelligence Service, the Air Force Intelligence Service and the General Intelligence Service. 

Since 2019, CEHRI and OSJI jointly represent 20 Syrian torture survivors taking part in ongoing investigations against former Syrian Brigadier General Khaled Al-Halabi, who arrived in Austria in 2015, and other former high ranking Syrian regime officers. Al-Halabi served as Head of the Syrian State Security branch of Raqqa (Branch 335) from 2009 until 2013. Has been accused by victims and human rights groups of supervising torture and other crimes while overseeing a detention facility in Raqqa and considered to be the highest-ranking former Syrian intelligence officer known to be in Europe.