The Resolution Stresses that Syria is Unsafe for the Return of Refugees
Available In
The Hague – The Syrian Network for Human Rights (SNHR)
On Thursday, October 10, 2024, the Member States of the UN Human Rights Council (UNHRC) voted on Draft Resolution A/HRC/57/L.11 which condemned the Syrian regime’s continuing perpetration of gross violations of international humanitarian law and international human rights law in a systematic and widespread manner. The draft resolution was adopted with a majority of 26 states voting in favor, while four voted against (China, Cuba, Eritrea, Brunei), and 17 abstained from voting.
Oppressive authoritarian states that oppose human rights continue to vote in favor of the Syrian regime. Indeed, the Syrian Network for Human Rights (SNHR) showed in a previous report how other totalitarian states and dictatorships, most prominently Russia and China, consistently vote in support of the Syrian regime’s crimes at the UNHRC.
Vote outcome on Draft Resolution A/HRC/57/L.11 regarding the human rights situation in Syria. The draft was voted on during the UNHRC’s 57th session.
#HRC57 | Draft resolution A/HRC/57/L.11 on the situation of human rights in the Syrian Arab Republic was ADOPTED. pic.twitter.com/PSe3XPsfjO
— United Nations Human Rights Council | 📍#HRC57 (@UN_HRC) October 10, 2024
The latest resolution condemns what it describes as the “grave” human rights situation across Syria, making reference to the most recent report by the Independent International Commission of Inquiry on the Syrian Arab Republic (COI) which documents “continued violations of international human rights law and international humanitarian law, including attacks against civilians and civilian objects arbitrary arrests, enforced disappearances and deaths in detention due to ill-treatment or lack of access to medical care and arbitrary arrests on return to the Syrian Arab Republic.”
The resolution further condemns the violations committed by the Syrian regime, noting that over 5,000 children are currently detained or forcibly disappeared at the hands of the parties to the conflict. SNHR’s data aligns with these figures, as the group has documented that at least 5,263 children of those arrested by the parties to the conflict and controlling forces in Syria between March 2011 and June 2024 are still under arrest/detention and/or forcibly disappeared. Of these, 3,698 children were arrested by regime forces, while 319 were arrested by ISIS, 57 by Hay’at Tahrir al-Sham, 834 by Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), and 365 by all armed opposition factions/Syrian National Army (SNA).
The resolution also reiterates the findings of the COI, which were further corroborated by the UN Human Rights Office (OHCHR), namely that “the Syrian Arab Republic does not yet offer a safe and stable environment for the safe, voluntary and dignified return of refugees or for those displaced inside the country.”
SNHR welcomes the UNHRC resolution and the most recent COI report, which stressed that “Syria remains mired in a complex humanitarian crisis in which civilians continue to be killed and injured during hostilities, State and non-State actors exercise power arbitrarily and commit violations with impunity… Concurrently, the economic and humanitarian situation has continued to degenerate, amid corruption, organized crime,”
It should be noted that SNHR has been working in collaboration with many UN bodies for the past 13 years, including the OHCHR, the COI, the International, Impartial and Independent Mechanism (IIIM), UNICEF, and several Special Rapporteurs.