Statement by Paulo Pinheiro, Chair of the Independent International Commission of Inquiry on the Syrian Arab Republic at the 57th Session of the UN Human Rights Council

Monsieur le Président du Conseil des Droits de l´Homme, 
Excellences,

As world attention and resources shift to other grave political or humanitarian crises, Syria descends further into a quagmire of misery, despair, multiple failures and missed opportunities.

We have seen 13 years of internal armed conflict brought about by the Syrian state’s violent and repressive response to peaceful demonstrations.

Our report documents continuing arbitrary detentions with State officials continuing to forcibly disappear, torture and ill-treat detainees in their custody, despite the International Court of Justice’s order in November last year that Syria cease torture.

Online activists and journalists are arbitrarily detained, often incommunicado, for criticizing the Government.

Officials and intermediaries demand bribes from family members who seek to contact or visit an arbitrarily detained loved ones, or to get them released or even just to obtain information on their whereabouts.

The failure of the state to change its ways is compounded by the failure of armed non-state actors that control Syrian territory to forge a different approach to governance, one that protects for basic rights and freedoms.

In the northwest of the country, Hay’at Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) and some factions of the Syrian National Army (SNA) continue to arbitrarily detain, torture and disappear civilians and those perceived as political opponents, while at the same time political activists are detained by the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) in northeast Syria.

In the northeast, tens of thousands of women and children remain trapped in camps in cruel and inhumane conditions. They include Yazidi women and children, ten years after the Yazidi genocide. 

Beyond the state and non-state armed groups, we note the failure of the Global Coalition against Da’esh that has been present in Syria since 2014, as Da’esh attacks in Syria this year are reportedly on course to double compared to 2023.

Alongside the stalled peace process, other efforts by the international community to bring the conflict to an end are also not meeting with much success. Fighting has intensified along multiple front lines, taking a heavy toll on civilians:

In the incidents we investigated in the northwest of the country, at least 150 civilians, half of them women and children, were killed and injured by Government forces, the vast majority in indiscriminate ground attacks near frontline villages and towns.

In Deir-Ez-Zawr, there has been a resurgence of violence, with government forces now backing a coalition of tribal fighters fighting against the SDF. In just one week in early August, 65 civilians were reportedly killed or injured in attacks along the banks of the Euphrates River. Fighting displaced thousands of families, destroyed civilian property and hampered humanitarian assistance, with reports of civilian infrastructure, including water stations and schools, used for military operations.

Tensions between the SDF and SNA fighters have intensified in northern Aleppo, with mutual shelling and crossline assaults, and renewed reports of civilian casualties by vehicle-borne IED attacks in July and August. In central Syria, we see increasing armed attacks, kidnapping and use of IEDs reportedly by Da’esh, in an area where Iran-backed militias are also present.

The litany of failures and missed opportunities extends to so-called “reconciliation” efforts in areas retaken by the Government such as Dar’a. These have not led to any reconciliation worthy of the name. Instead, in their wake we’ve documented how many who “reconciled” have been detained, disappeared, murdered or found dead in custody – and now, in the report before you, repurposed into pro-Government militias who committed brutal massacres this spring.

M. le Président,

Civilians continue to be killed on a daily basis in a senseless war that has left the country economically and politically broken, dramatically eroding the social fabric. 

While people strive to maintain their dignity amidst daily challenges, they are forced to navigate predatory practices by local security forces and factions across the country, ranging from extortion at checkpoints, to confiscation of land and properties, and kidnapping or arbitrary detention.

Living conditions are increasingly desperate and the international community has failed to fund more than a quarter of the UN’s 2024 humanitarian response plan. Northwest Syria is now home to 4.2 million people, of whom 80% are IDPs, having fled war multiple times by now. There, funding shortages have already shut down 110 health facilities. OCHA has warned that half of all health facilities will have to fully or partially cease operations by this December – severely affecting the mostly women and children living in tents, faced with illness resulting from water shortages and poor sanitation.

In the northeast, an already severe water, fuel and electricity crisis has been compounded by strikes on civilian infrastructure. Malnutrition rates have risen dramatically, including among young children.

Overall, Syria’s GDP has shrunk by more than half since 2011, a result of the combined effect of destruction of infrastructure and economic networks, forced displacement of more than half the population, predatory practices and rampant corruption. While elites seem sheltered from the prolonged humanitarian and economic crises, we are concerned that sanctions further deepen Syria’s economic abyss and aggravate already dire living conditions of the civilian population – particularly sectoral sanctions.

M. le Président,

The heightened regional tensions stemming from the conflict in Palestine have led to intensified Israeli airstrikes (and last week a raid) targeting Iranian officials and militias across Syria, causing civilian casualties on at least three occasions. Iranian affiliated groups and the US have stepped up attacks on each other in northeast Syria since the start of the Gaza war.

In recent months, you have been alerted to the dangers to the system of international law itself if the Member States charged with upholding it are seen to be failing in this obligation. We are truly shocked that there has been no worldwide condemnation of the simultaneous, widespread attacks using handheld devices that this week terrorized people and resulted in thousands of casualties, including in Syria.

Excellences,

It should amaze you that Syrians across the country still resort to protests in the streets,. Most recently, we have seen protests against HTS in the northwest, against the SNA in the north, against the SDF in the northeast, and against the Government in Suweida.

These protests should spur us to overcome the failures I highlighted. All actors need to focus on why the Syrian people rose up in 2011 and begin to systematically address the real and ongoing grievances and indeed aspirations of the people. 

The human rights situation will only get worse unless the international community pays renewed attention to the Syria crisis. Member states need to do more on the humanitarian front.   The Syrian people deserve to live in dignity exercising their fundamental rights and freedoms.  They look to this Council to help them get there.

I thank you.