Commission of inquiry on Syria to brief General Assembly, Monday 29 July

GENEVA (26 July 2013) – The Chair of the UN commission of inquiry on the Syrian Arab Republic, Mr. Paulo Sérgio Pinheiro, will brief the UN General Assembly in New York on Monday 29 July at 10 a.m. local time. The briefing is pursuant to General Assembly resolution A/67/L.63 of 8 May.

The Commission of Inquiry on Syria has so far issued 10 reports and updates on the human rights situation in the Syrian Arab Republic, since it was set up in August 2011. The next report is due to be presented to the UN Human Rights Council in Geneva on 16 September 2013.

The event will be live webcast at http://webtv.un.org/.

NOTE FOR BROADCASTERS: live feeds and archived footage will be available on UNTV's site at http://www.unmultimedia.org/contact-us.html.
Due to logistical reasons, no press conference will be held after the briefing.

To access the latest report (June 2013), go to:
English: http://www.ohchr.org/Documents/HRBodies/HRCouncil/CoISyria/A-HRC-23-58_en.pdf
Arabic: http://www.ohchr.org/Documents/HRBodies/HRCouncil/CoISyria/A-HRC-23-58_ar.pdf

To access the Commission of Inquiry’s webpage, where Mr. Pinheiro’s statement will be posted after delivery, go to:
http://www.ohchr.org/EN/HRBodies/HRC/IICISyria/Pages/IndependentInternationalCommission.aspx

Background

The Commission of Inquiry, which comprises Mr. Paulo Sérgio Pinheiro (Chair), Ms. Karen Koning AbuZayd, Ms. Carla del Ponte and Mr. Vitit Muntarbhorn, has been mandated by the United Nations Human Rights Council to investigate and record all violations of international human rights law. The Commission has also been tasked with investigating allegations of crimes against humanity and war crimes, and its mandate was recently expanded to include “investigations of all massacres.”

For further information, please contact:
New York: Mr Nenad Vasic, Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, Tel: +1 212 963 5998, email: vasic@un.org

Geneva: Mr Franco Galdini, Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, Tel: +41 (0)22 917 9205, email: fgaldini@ohchr.org