Press briefing note on Syria and France

Spokespersons for the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights:  Rupert Colville
Location:   Geneva
Date: 15 July 2016
Subject:    (1) Syria & (2) France / attack in Nice

(1) Syria

In a press release issued this morning, High Commissioner Zeid rang the alarm about the increasingly desperate situation of at least 200,000 civilians trapped in three towns in Syria where attacking forces have been making significant headway in recent weeks.

…

The High Commissioner urged all the forces advancing on Aleppo, Darayya and Manbij, as well as those fighting in other parts of Syria, despite declared truces, to take great care not to harm the many hundreds of thousands of civilians trapped in the conflict zones.

“The country is already a gigantic, devastated graveyard,” he said. “The number of war crimes already committed surpasses the worst nightmares. But it is in the power of both attacking and defending forces – and their foreign backers – to minimize further civilian casualties and avoid further crimes and atrocities. They must do so."

"They must also ensure that the fundamental needs of the besieged population such as food and water are met," Zeid said. "The intentional starvation of civilians is a serious violation of international human rights and humanitarian law, and may constitute a war crime. Those responsible for such violations should be held criminally accountable. Even if they have become so brutalized they do not care about the innocent women, children and men’s whose lives are in their hands, they should bear in mind that one day there will be a reckoning for all these crimes.”

The press release is available here: http://www.ohchr.org/en/press-releases/2016/07/least-200000-civilians-dire-straits-noose-tightens-three-syrian-towns-zeid

(2) France / attack in Nice

The High Commissioner Zeid Ra’ad Al Hussein wishes me to say the following on his behalf:  he is appalled by the horrendous carnage in Nice yesterday evening. This latest murderous assault on ordinary people, using a simple truck as a deadly weapon, is yet another blow aimed at the heart of humanity by extremists. There are now so many deadly attacks – in Baghdad, Brussels, Dhaka, Istanbul, Medina, Orlando – to name just a fraction of those that have occurred in recent months, that words of condemnation sound like damp leaves fluttering to the ground after another violent storm.

While the motives driving yesterday’s killer in Nice are still to be established, in general we are confronted by an ideology that seems to be creating an endless supply of fanatics prepared to kill for the sake of killing. When one means of murder – hijacking planes, planting bombs, getting hold of assault rifles – becomes more difficult, they simply find another. And our response needs to be carefully calculated and highly sophisticated. It is not simply about heightened security, it is about deflating the ideology itself until it dwindles back to where it belongs -- which is nowhere.

ENDS

For more information and media requests, please contact Rupert Colville (+41 22 917 9767 / rcolville@ohchr.org) or Cécile Pouilly (+41 22 917 9310 / cpouilly@ohchr.org)

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