This session uses the Syrian chemical weapons attacks and an ongoing French war-crimes case as a concrete lens to explore how neuroethics can be practiced in the service of survivors and international justice. Neurotoxic agents such as sarin are designed to target the nervous system, disrupting acetylcholinesterase, inducing seizures, hypoxia, and producing long-term neurocognitive and psychiatric sequelae. This panel examines current practices and limitations of how evidence of such brain-based harm is documented and used in legal settings.
- Turhan Canli
- Mark Cameron
- Clemence Witt
- Houssam al-Nahhashas
Agenda
- Framing and goals / 5 mins
- Scientific and legal context: neurotoxins, biomarkers, and accountability / 8 mins
- Logistics of collecting forensic evidence of chemical war crimes / 10 mins
- Treating survivors and documenting neurological/psychiatric effects / 10 mins
- Using scientific and medical evidence in court / 10 mins
- Panelist discussion / 7 mins
- Audience Q&A / 10 mins
Attend
IMT School for Advanced Studies
Sagrestia Room
Friday, April 17, 2026
15:00-16:00 CEST
Time check »
Neuroethics 2026
Building Bridges and Cultivating Community
This session is part of the Neuroethics 2026 conference organized by INS and SINe, and hosted by the IMT School for Advanced Studies. Register for the conference to attend in-person at IMT School for Advanced Studies in Lucca, Tuscany, Italy, or to participate virtually.
Description
“Accountability for War Crimes involving Neurotoxins: A Case Study of Applied Neuroethics in Syria” uses the Syrian chemical weapons attacks and an ongoing French war-crimes case as a concrete lens to explore how neuroethics can be practiced in the service of survivors and international justice. Neurotoxic agents such as sarin are designed to target the nervous system, disrupting acetylcholinesterase, inducing seizures, hypoxia, and producing long-term neurocognitive and psychiatric sequelae. This panel examines current practices and limitations of how evidence of such brain-based harm is documented and used in legal settings.
Mark Cameron (CEO, The Canadian International Medical Relief Organization CIMRO) will discuss the practical challenges of collecting forensic evidence of chemical attacks under conditions of armed conflict, displacement, and ongoing risk. Dr. Houssam al-Nahhas, a Syrian physician who treated survivors, will describe the acute and chronic neurological and psychiatric effects of exposure, as well as the moral distress and responsibility experienced by clinicians in such settings. Human rights lawyer Jeanne Sulzer (ImpactLitigation, France) will address how courts currently evaluate evidence of chemical attacks, the obstacles to admitting scientific and medical data, and the need to anticipate how future biomarker evidence of neurotoxic exposure could be made admissible and persuasive in war-crimes trials. Turhan Canli will outline current efforts in molecular neuroscience to develop biomarkers of exposure and brain injury and address the ethical questions they raise, including consent, subject and investigator safety, re-traumatization, data security and biobanking, and the potential misuse of “neuro-evidence.”
At a time of ongoing atrocities and renewed attention to accountability mechanisms, this session aims to: (1) clarify how brain-focused science can support survivors’ rights and legal accountability; (2) identify normative and methodological guardrails for neurotoxin-related biomarker research; and (3) spark interdisciplinary collaboration between neuroscientists, clinicians, lawyers, ethicists, and survivors. In doing so, it situates neuroethics not only as a reflective discipline, but as an active partner in atrocity prevention and response.
Recording
A recording of this session will be made available to registered attendees.