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New York/Information Office/22 June 2016/ Organized by the Permanent Missions of the State of Qatar and Liechtenstein to the United Nations. a meeting was held entitled "First Cracks in the Syrian Impunity Wall: National Prosecutions Underway in the Courts of Third Party States for Serious Crimes committed in Syria" The event aimed at promoting understandings of the judicial developments and their legal underpinnings as well as prospects and challenges that states face in widening these efforts. Taking part in sponsorship of the event which was held at United Nations Headquarters in New York, were France, Germany, Sweden, the Syrian Network for Human Rights and was attended by a large number of representatives of the Member States of the United Nations. In an inaugural speech of the meeting, HE Ambassador Sheikha Alia Ahmed bin Saif Al -Thani, the Permanent Representative of Qatar to the United Nations highlighted Qatar's role in international efforts to combat impunity for the perpetrators of terrible crimes that violate international humanitarian law and international human rights law. HE Sheikha Alia stressed that the time has come to ensure accountability for the crimes committed in Syria, and work on other ways to achieve justice in the absence of accountability. She explained, that the meeting aimed at identifying the ongoing efforts to investigate the egregious crimes committed in Syria and prosecute them in the national judicial systems in some third countries, according to the principle of universal jurisdiction, which involved international instruments on mass atrocities.