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UN Human Rights Council Adopts Resolution on Human Rights Violations in Syria
The United Nations Human Rights Council approved a resolution presented by the UK on behalf of a core group (France, Germany, the Netherlands, Qatar, Turkey, and the United States) concerning human rights violations in Syria.
On Thursday, September 10, the resolution received support from 26 countries, with four nations—Cuba, China, Burundi, and Eritrea—opposing it, while 17 countries, including Algeria, Morocco, the UAE, and Sudan, abstained from voting.
The resolution condemned the violations and abuses, calling for an immediate halt to such actions. It also demanded an end to attacks on schools and healthcare facilities, urging all parties to ensure unhindered, safe, and sustainable humanitarian access for those in need. It emphasized that Syria's future depends on the ability of upcoming generations to engage in a political resolution to the conflict.
The resolution was based on the preliminary statement regarding Syria delivered by the UK’s permanent representative to the UN, Simon Manley, on Thursday. His remarks drew on the briefing by Paulo Pinheiro, the head of the UN's Independent International Commission of Inquiry on Syria, presented to the Human Rights Council last month, wherein he characterized Syria as "a quagmire of despair." Manley noted that this description, though tragic, accurately reflects the profound humanitarian suffering that Syrians continue to endure at the hands of Assad and his allies.
According to Manley, the committee's report documents violence against civilians, arbitrary detentions, and imprisonment under extremely horrific conditions, where torture, sexual violence, and gender-based violence are pervasive.
Families receive no information or receive misleading messages about the fate of their loved ones or their whereabouts after being arrested, and there seems to be no end to the brutality that the regime is willing to inflict upon those it is supposed to protect.
Before its adoption, the resolution also highlighted the violations and abuses faced by a generation of children in Syria, who have only known violence, fear, hunger, and loss as part of their daily reality. The resolution pointed out that at least 2.4 million children are out of school, while children as young as 11 have suffered from sexual violence and gender-based violence in detention facilities managed by the "state" (referring to the Syrian regime), where innocent children have become victims of indiscriminate attacks on schools, hospitals, and civilian areas.
Moreover, girls have been targeted based on their gender, facing forced marriages and increasing responsibilities in caregiving, with uneducated girls disproportionately affected.
