Syria After Assad: Truth, Evidence, and the Fight for Justice

Janine di Giovanni (Moderator)

CEO, The Reckoning Project

Di Giovanni is the founder and CEO of TRP. An award-winning author, human rights investigator, and academic, she is also a Senior Fellow at Yale University's Jackson School of Global Affairs and a former UN consultant on human rights and transitional justice.

Over more than three decades, she has documented conflicts across the Balkans, the Middle East, and Africa, and is the author of eight acclaimed books, including The Morning They Came for Us and The Vanishing.

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Andrew Gilmour

Former UN Assistant Secretary-General for Human Rights

Gilmour spent 30 years with the UN, often in conflict areas. He was the UN Assistant Secretary-General for Human Rights, political director in the Secretary-General's Office, and many positions in field operations. From 2020-2025, he was the Executive Director of the Berghof Foundation in Berlin, Germany's oldest and largest organisation working on conflict. He is the author of The Burning Question: Climate and Conflict – Why Does It Matter? (2024). He was made Visiting Fellow of All Souls, Oxford, and Senior Fellow of SOAS. His writings on foreign policy, human rights and climate change have been published widely.

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Amberin Zaman

Chief Correspondent, AL-Monitor

Zaman is AL-Monitor's chief correspondent and covers major stories on the Middle East and North Africa from across the region and beyond. Zaman's reporting focuses on geopolitical trends, diplomacy and human rights. She has covered conflicts in Iraq, Syria and the South Caucasus and hosts Al-Monitor's "On the Middle East" podcast. Zaman is widely acknowledged for her courageous work on Turkey and the Kurds for which she was named a "Hero" by the Coalition for Women in Journalism. Prior to joining Al-Monitor as a full time reporter in 2018, Zaman was The Economist's Turkey correspondent for 16 years. Zaman was also a regular contributor to The Washington Post, The Daily Telegraph, The Los Angeles Times and Voice of America.

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Amb. Peter Galbraith

Former U.S. Diplomat and Policy Advisor

Ambassador Peter W. Galbraith is an author, academic, commentator, politician, policy advisor, and former United States diplomat. From 1993 to 1998, he served as the first U.S. Ambassador to Croatia. He was a cabinet member in East Timor's first transitional government, successfully negotiating the Timor Sea Treaty. In 2009, Ambassador Galbraith was an Assistant Secretary General of the United Nations serving as Deputy Special Representative for Afghanistan.

He is the author of two critically acclaimed books on the Iraq War. In the 1980s, Galbraith uncovered the beginnings of the Anfal campaign against the Iraqi Kurds and, in 1988, documented the use of chemical weapons, leading the US Senate to pass comprehensive sanctions legislation authored by Galbraith. Beginning in 2003, Ambassador Galbraith was an informal advisor to the Kurdistan Regional Government in northern Iraq, supporting the Kurdistan delegation in the drafting process of the 2005 Iraqi Constitution.

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Natasha Hall

Senior Associate/ Non-resident Expert, Center for Strategic & International Studies

Natasha has over 15 years of experience as an analyst, researcher, and practitioner in complex humanitarian emergencies and conflict-affected areas with a specialty in the Middle East. Most recently, she has worked on the Syrian conflict with The Shaikh Group, GIZ, Mayday Rescue, Center for Civilians in Conflict, and the U.S. government's Refugee Affairs Division.

Her reports have spurred congressional hearings on Syria. As a director with Mayday Rescue, she led these responses, working with the White Helmets to reinforce critical civilian infrastructure and protect civilians from explosive weapons and other consequences of the war.

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Carne Ross

Founder and former Executive Director of Independent Diplomat

Carne Ross is a former senior British diplomat who resigned from the UK Foreign Office over the 2003 Iraq War after providing confidential testimony exposing the government's misrepresentations ahead of the invasion. Following his departure, he founded Independent Diplomat, the world's first non-profit diplomatic advisory group, which supports democratic governments, political actors, and liberation movements seeking fair access to international decision-making processes that directly affect them.

He continues to advise on diplomacy and international affairs while writing and producing commentary that examines the deeper structures and forces shaping global politics.

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Raji Abdul Salam

Chief Data Archivist & Analyst, The Reckoning Project

Raji Abdul Salam is a Data Archivist and Data Analyst. He is considered a pioneer in the preservation and analysis of evidence of war crimes, crimes against humanity, and concerns of genocide in Ukraine.

Previously, Raji contributed to accountability efforts in Syria and Iraq, where his investigation of hundreds of testimonies supported prosecutions under universal jurisdiction in Germany, Sweden, and Belgium, and under limited universal jurisdiction in the Netherlands. With a background in research, legal documentation, and ethical archiving, Raji is committed to safeguarding the chain of custody of sensitive data and amplifying the voices of survivors in pursuit of justice.

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