The United Nations General Assembly has passed a resolution to investigate responsibility for war crimes in Syria. The resolution calls for a special team to "collect, consolidate, preserve and analyze evidence," as well as to prepare cases on war crimes and human rights abuses committed. Syria and Russia led the opposition to the proposal. This comes as the Syrian government prepares to fully retake eastern Aleppo after years of intense fighting. According to the Red Cross, the last remaining civilians will be evacuated from the once rebel-held area by tonight or tomorrow. The fall of eastern Aleppo marks a major victory for Syrian President Bashar al-Assad and his Russian allies. Earlier this week, the foreign ministers of Russia, Iran and Turkey met in Moscow to discuss the ongoing war. The United States was not invited to participate. We speak to Mouin Rabbani, the former head of political affairs for the U.N. special envoy for Syria. He is a co-editor of Jadaliyya.

In Syria, the evacuation of rebels and civilians from eastern Aleppo has resumed, after thousands were left stranded on Wednesday amid heavy snowfall and freezing temperatures. Syrian government forces said they expected the last of the evacuees to board buses within the coming hours, leaving the Syrian Army to take total control of the city, which has been devastated by months of heavy bombing and siege warfare. We speak to Syrian dissident and former political prisoner Yassin al-Haj Saleh, who lives in exile in Turkey. His wife, Samira Khalil, disappeared three years ago along with the prominent human rights attorney Razan Zaitouneh. Yassin al-Haj Saleh’s forthcoming book is titled "The Impossible Revolution: Making Sense of the Syrian Tragedy."

Today we look at another request for a presidential pardon, this one from the family of Marcus Garvey, a pioneering figure in the Black Freedom struggle in the early 20th century who inspired generations of civil rights activists around the world. In the 1920s, FBI Director J. Edgar Hoover targeted Garvey for his political activity as a leader of the Pan-African movement. Garvey was convicted in 1923 on a charge of mail fraud and sentenced to five years in jail. His charges and conviction effectively ended Garvey’s political movement and eventually led to his deportation back to Jamaica. We speak to Marcus Garvey’s son, Dr. Julius Garvey, who is leading the Justice4Garvey effort.