If the Security Council was unable to carryout Resolution 2139, adopted on 22 February, 2014, which states: “all parties immediately cease all attacks against civilians, as well as the indiscriminate employment of weapons in populated areas, including shelling and aerial bombardment, such as the use of barrel bombs.”, the Security Council at least should press on the Syrian regime to stop targeting vital places, which are usually crowded, such as schools, hospitals, markets, bakeries, and places of worships. This report highlights the documented attacks against vital facilities. It is worth noting that what we documented was the minimum due to the many practical obstacles we run across during our work.
SNHR affirms, through its investigations, that there were no military facilities or presence in these places before or during the attacks. The Syrian regime has the responsibility to justify its brutal attacks before the United Nations and the Security Council.
SNHR documented in many of its previous statistical reports that the Syrian regime has destroyed no less than 850,000 buildings completely and damaged 204 million buildings with its daily shelling over the past years. “Building” here refers to hospitals, schools, mosques, churches, houses… The Syrian regime will seemingly continue its systematic policy to destroy what is left. Also, many armed groups targeted many buildings using indiscriminate shelling. However, comparison between the two parties remains almost impossible where the Syrian regime is vastly superior with its scud missiles and barrel bombs which are being dropped on the Syrian people every day.
According to the International Humanitarian Law, indiscriminate, deliberate, or disproportionate attacks are all prohibited. The Syrian regime targeting schools, hospitals, churches, and bakeries is a blatant disregard for the International Humanitarian Law’s minimum standards and the Security Council Resolutions.