Home » Mauritania » SYR - News » Syria: UN Commission of Inquiry presents latest report, repeating serious concerns and highlighting the need of documentation and referral to justice
During his speech, Mr Pinheiro stressed that "Syria is in a free-fall." He asked for a dialogue giving the chance to find a solution to the conflict. Moreover, he added that weapons transfers to Government as well as opposition forces strengthened the risk of human rights abuses and increased the number of victims. Subsequently, Mr Pinheiro invited States to "exert influence over the parties to the conflict to compel them to protect civilians" instead of sending arms. Furthermore, according to the experts, there are reasonable reasons to believe that "limited amounts of chemical weapons had been used in Syria" although it remains impossible to define their nature as well as their perpetrator, especially because the Commission experts failed to enter the country.
Based on 430 interviews and witnesses, the Commission noted that Government forces and affiliated militia have committed "murder, torture, rape, forcible displacement, arbitrary detention and other inhumane acts," while anti-Government groups appeared as responsible of crimes against humanity, including "murder, extrajudiciary executions, hostage-taking and pillage." The report further states that over the studied period at least "17 incidents potentially meeting the definition of massacre" were recorded. The deprivation of liberty also appears as "a weapon of war" in view of a large number of arbitrary detention and enforced disappearance. Since the beginning of the conflict, many detention facilities, including Adra Prison, have become notoriously known for their high level of torture and ill-treatment. According to the report, children are among detainees in those prisons. They are also actively involved in conflicts and are subjected to severe torture.
In its recommendations, the Commission again called "for a referral to justice at the national and international levels" and highlighted the importance of the role of documentation in order to understand the situation in Syria as well as "to protect the Syrian peoples' right to truth." Alkarama welcomes this emphasis on the importance of the work of local and international actors gathering information on the massive and widespread human rights violations and calls on the international community to provide all possible protection to those carrying out this work. We take this as an occasion to reiterate our request for the release of all those detained for defending human rights within Syria, including three staff members of the Syrian Centre for Media and Freedom of Expression (SCM).