News briefing
Translated and edited by: Committee for Justice
Geneva: 12 July 2021
The Human Rights Council on 6 July held an interactive dialogue with the Independent International Commission of Inquiry on the Syrian Arab Republic, with recommendations to establish a mechanism for finding missing persons in Syria.
The impact of the Covid-19 pandemic and the economic crisis on the situation in Syria:
Paulo Pinheiro, Chairman of the Independent International Commission of Inquiry on the Syrian Arab Republic, stated that the pandemic and the current economic crisis have brought new dimensions of suffering to the Syrians.
Pinheiro added that five international armies, their proxies, and a large number of non-state actors continued to fight in Syria – including the air forces of the Russian Federation, the United States and Israel – and as a result civilians had to navigate through all of these actors to simply go on with their lives.
The head of the International Commission of Inquiry on Syria noted that more than 2.7 million displaced people are stranded in increasingly miserable living conditions in Idlib governorate. Although violence decreased after the March 2020 ceasefire, it has escalated again since January of this year in northwest Syria, noting that despite the continued insufficient response in the Security Council, it appears that there is now some momentum behind the creation of a Missing Persons Mechanism.
The official Syrian response to the investigation committee’s report:
Syria, as a concerned country, said that it rejected the meetings and decisions initiated by some countries that sought, through misinformation and lies, to justify intervention policies and acts of military and economic aggression against it.
The Syrian delegate pointed out that these actions caused enormous human suffering to the Syrian people and were a direct cause of migration and displacement inside and outside Syria.
