Syria - Country of Concern: latest update, 31 March 2014
Updated 21 January 2015
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The situation in Syria deteriorated still further over the first three months of 2014. The death toll from the conflict is now over 140,000, while the damage to Syria’s society, economy and cultural heritage has reached devastating proportions. 9.3 million people are in need of humanitarian assistance within Syria, with 3.5 million of them in hard to reach areas, an increase of one million since the start of the year. Meanwhile, 2.6 million Syrians have fled to neighbouring countries, which is placing an escalating burden on Syria’s neighbours.
The Geneva II peace process opened on 22 January. Over two rounds of talks the regime refused to engage seriously with the purpose of the discussions: the negotiation of a transitional governing body which could bring about a political settlement to the conflict. The regime’s lack of commitment to the political process was illustrated by the way that it intensified its campaign of aerial bombardment of civilian areas, including widespread use of barrel bombs, during the talks themselves. After the second round of talks, the regime refused to accept the agenda proposed by Lakhdar Brahimi, the UN and Arab league Joint Special Envoy for Syria. This failure to engage properly with the peace process has meant that there has been no date set for a third round of talks.
On 21 January, the law firm Carter-Ruck and Co published a report written by three extremely prominent international war crimes prosecutors: the Rt Hon Sir Desmond de Silva QC, Prof David Crane QC, and Prof Sir Geoffrey Nice QC. This report examined a sample of over 55,000 photographs purporting to show the bodies of over 11,000 people detained and killed by the Assad regime. The investigators found that the evidence was credible and constituted “clear evidence …of systematic torture and killing of detained persons by the agents of the Syrian government”. Sir Desmond compared the emaciated bodies in the photographs with images of Nazi death camps, while Prof Crane referred to the evidence of the report as a “smoking gun”.
On 27 January, the UN Secretary General released a report on Children and Armed Conflict in Syria. This detailed the horrific suffering which the children of Syria have been subjected to including the disproportionate and indiscriminate use of force by regime forces, which has killed “countless” children. It referred to both regime-affiliated militias and some opposition groups recruiting teenage children, though noting that their use by the opposition was “not conducted systematically or as a policy”. The Supreme Military Council of the Free Syrian Army has condemned the use of child soldiers, and we will continue to support the Syrian opposition’s efforts in upholding their obligations under international law.
The 12 nuns who were removed from their nunnery in Maaloula in December were released on 9 March. They appear to have been freed by Jabhat al Nusra in exchange for the release of women held by the regime.
The UN Commission of Inquiry report, released on 5 March, further detailed the widespread human rights violations carried out by the regime, including the widespread and systemic use of sexual violence and sexual torture against men, women and children in regime detention centres. It also made clear increasing reports of human rights abuses carried out by extremist groups, including widespread torture carried out by the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant. The report drew a clear distinction between the moderate opposition, which it acknowledged to be supporting a “democratic and pluralist state” and the extremist groups who pose a grave threat to all Syrians.
The UK played an active and supportive role in the passage of a resolution in the UN Human Rights Council which extended the mandate of the COI, demanded that the Assad regime grant it full access to Syria, condemned the regime’s “gross, systematic and widespread violations of human rights” and made clear that all those responsible for violations and abuses of human rights must be held to account.
We have also been at the forefront of efforts to deal with Syria’s humanitarian crisis. At the Kuwait II humanitarian conference on 15 January the UK pledged an additional £100 million, bringing our total contribution to the humanitarian effort to £600 million. We remain the second largest bilateral donor to the humanitarian crisis. The Assad regime continues to operate a campaign of, in the words of the COI “starvation until submission”. It uses access to food as a weapon of combat, which is prohibited under international humanitarian law. We welcomed the passing of UN Security Council Resolution 2139 on 22 February, and are intensifying our efforts to press the Assad regime to comply with the demands in the resolution by ceasing its arbitrary denial of humanitarian access.