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Commission of Inquiry on Syria Delivers Damning Human Rights Report

UNITED NATIONS, Jul 31 2013 (IPS) - The U.N. General Assembly convened  Monday to hear a report by Paulo Pinheiro, Chairperson of the Commission of Inquiry on Syria. Pinheiro exhorted to the international community that there is no military solution to the conflict, and that the war has been “a chronicle of missed opportunities.”

“An untold number of people have disappeared passing through the ubiquitous checkpoints, hospitals have been bombarded leaving the sick and wounded to languish without care and with the destruction of thousands of schools a generation of children will struggle to get an education,” Pinheiro told delegates.

Syria’s statistics are heady; now 4.5 million people have been internally displaced, and the fighting has caused an estimated 60-80 billion dollars of damage to the economy, a third of its pre-war gross domestic product (GDP).

Pinheiro emphasized that Syria’s porous borders have facilitated the involvement of regional armoured actors; according to him “increasingly along sectarian lines.”

A key element to the report was that although there had been human rights violations on both sides, the government was the primary perpetrator. Unlawful attacks by government forces have been documented in almost every governorate, said the Chairperson, most recently in eastern Damascus where shelling is occurring almost every day, as with many other areas.

The outlook remains grim; “both sides are labouring under the illusion that a military victory is possible,” explained Pinheiro. “Crimes that shock the conscience have become a dreadful daily reality in Syria. Over 800 days since the arrests first began, it is apparent that violations against civilians continue with little regard for law or conscience.”

He called on the international community to act decisively, saying it had an obligation to do what must be done to bring the war to a close.

Notably,  the Chairperson did not use the platform to press the United Nations Security Council to make a referral to the International Criminal Court (ICC) in the Hague.

 
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