Syria is experiencing a wave of violence not seen since 2020, the UN Commission of Inquiry on Syria warned in a report released Monday. Across multiple fronts, parties to the conflict have attacked civilians and infrastructure in ways that likely amount to war crimes, while an unprecedented humanitarian crisis is plunging Syrians into deepening despair, the Commission said.
âSince October, Syria has seen the largest escalation in fighting in four years. With the region in turmoil, a determined international effort to contain the fighting on Syrian soil is imperative. Syria, too, desperately needs a ceasefire,â said Paulo Pinheiro, Chair of the Commission.
âThe Syrian people cannot sustain any further intensification of this devastating, protracted war,â Pinheiro said.
âMore than 90 percent now live in poverty, the economy is in free fall amid tightening sanctions, and increased lawlessness is fueling predatory practices and extortion by armed forces and militia.â
The upsurge in fighting in Syria started on October 5 when consecutive explosions during a graduation ceremony at a military academy in the government-controlled city of Homs killed at least 63 people, including 37 civilians, and injured scores.
According to the report, Syrian government and Russian forces responded with bombings that hit at least 2,300 sites in opposition-held areas in just three weeks, killing and injuring hundreds of civilians. Their indiscriminate attacks, which may amount to war crimes, hit well-known and visible hospitals, schools, markets, and camps for internally displaced persons (IDPs), and have continued since.
âSyrian Government forces again used cluster munitions in densely populated areas, continuing devastating and unlawful patterns that we have documented in the past,â said Commissioner Hanny Megally.
Syria is one of the worldâs two largest displacement crises, with more than 12.5 million people unable to return to their homes.
âThe October attacks resulted in some 120,000 people in fleeing, many of them previously displaced several times, including by the devastating earthquakes last February,â Megally said.
âIt should be no surprise that the number of Syrians seeking asylum in Europe last October reached the highest level in seven years.â
Since the start of the Gaza war, tensions have increased between some of the six foreign armies active in Syria, notably Israel, Iran and the United States - raising concerns of a wider conflict. Israel reportedly struck alleged Iran-linked sites and forces in Syria at least 35 times and attacked the Aleppo and Damascus airports, temporarily halting vital UN humanitarian air services.
Pro-Iranian militias reportedly attacked US bases in north-east Syria over 100 times, and the US responded with air strikes against pro-Iranian militias in eastern Syria.
Meanwhile, in northeastern Syria, the Turkish military accelerated operations against the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) in retaliation for an October attack on Ankara claimed by the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK).
Turkish airstrikes on power plants left nearly a million people without water and electricity for weeks, in violation of international humanitarian law. Civilians have also been killed in targeted airstrikes that fit a pattern of Turkish drone attacks. Such attacks may constitute war crimes.
Compounding the violence in the north-east, the fragmentation of military alliances and fierce infighting between the SDF and a coalition of tribal fighters in Dayr-al-Zawr have resulted in several unlawful attacks that have caused civilian casualties. The ongoing hostilities are fueled by long-standing grievances that the cash-strapped Kurdish-led self-administration is failing to provide essential services to ensure basic rights.
ISIL - the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant, also known as Da'esh - has also intensified its operations in central Syria, not only against military targets but also against civilians in urban areas in attacks that likely amount to war crimes.
âAnd as much as the world may wish to forget, five years after the fall of Baghuz when ISIL lost its territorial control in Syria, almost 30,000 children are still held in internment camps, prisons or rehabilitation centers in north-east Syria,â Commissioner Lynn Welchman said.
âThese children were already victimized during ISILâs rule, only to be subjected to years of continued human rights violations and abuses.â
The Commission has concluded that living conditions in Al Hawl and Al Rawj camps amount to cruel and inhuman treatment and outrages on personal dignity.
âNo child should ever be punished for their parentsâ actions or beliefs,â Welchman said.
âWe urge all States to immediately allow all children, including Syrian children, to return home from the camps and take measures to ensure their reintegration into society and accountability for the crimes they have suffered.â
The Independent International Commission of Inquiry on the Syrian Arab Republic was established by the UN Human Rights Council in August 2011. The Commission, which is mandated to investigate all alleged violations of international human rights law in Syria since March 2011, will present its latest mandate report to the UN Human Rights Council next week.
The Syrian conflict is one of the largest and most complex humanitarian crises in the world. The crisis continues to cause tremendous human suffering for people inside and outside the country. The people of Syria have been subjected to massive and systematic violations of international humanitarian and human rights law. Since 2011, hundreds of thousands of Syrians have been killed and maimed, and millions have been forced to flee their homes.
The UN estimates that in 2024 some 16.7 million people will be in need of life-saving and life-sustaining humanitarian assistance and protection. This is the highest number of people in need since the war began, with three out of four people in need of humanitarian assistance.
Thirteen years of conflict in Syria have led to extreme suffering and one of the two largest displacement crises in the world - the other being the civil war in Sudan - with more than 12.5 million people displaced from their homes.
While 6.8 million women, men and children are internally displaced in their own country, the ongoing civil war has resulted in more than 5.7 million Syrian refugees, located mostly in Turkey, Lebanon and Jordan. Neighboring Turkey hosts the largest number of Syrian refugees, currently some 3.2 million people. Germany is the largest non-neighboring host country, with more than 670,000 refugees from Syria.
More than half the population suffers from hunger. Syria, a country that used to be self-sufficient in food, is among the six most food insecure countries in the world, according to the World Food Programme (WFP). A severe shortfall in donor funds has forced the UN to suspend regular food aid in Syria, placing millions in the grip of hunger. Entire communities are struggling to survive, as humanitarian funding has dropped to an all-time low.
On the occasion of the 13th anniversary of the conflict, UN Secretary-General AntĂłnio Guterres said in a statement on Saturday that the month of March marked another grim anniversary of conflict, systematic atrocities and untold suffering in Syria.
âFor thirteen years now, Syrians have endured unprecedented devastation and displacement, gross and systematic violations and breaches of international law, while their demands for truth, justice and accountability remained elusive,â Guterres said.
âArbitrary detention, mass incarceration, enforced disappearances, extrajudicial killings, sexual and gender-based violence, torture, and other ill-treatment, continue and are an obstacle to sustainable peace in Syriaâ, he said.
The Secretary-General underscored the importance for everyone to do their utmost to reach a genuine and credible political solution that restores the sovereignty, the unity and independence, and the territorial integrity of Syria and create the conditions necessary for the voluntary return of refugees in safety and in dignity.
âWe need a negotiated political solution. We need civilians and civilian infrastructure to be protectedâ, he said.
"We need sustained and unhindered humanitarian access throughout the country, through all modalities."
Guterres also stressed that the United Nations need urgent and adequate funding to sustain its life-saving humanitarian operations, including early recovery.
âIt is long past time for key parties to step up and meet these needs. An entire generation of Syrians has already paid too high a price,â he added.
Further information
Full text: Report of the Independent International Commission of Inquiry on the Syrian Arab Republic, 55th regular session of the UN Human Rights Council, released March 11, 2024
https://www.ohchr.org/sites/default/files/documents/hrbodies/hrcouncil/sessions-regular/session55/A_HRC_55_64_EN.pdf
Full text: Statement of the Secretary-General on Syria, UN Secretary-General AntĂłnio Guterres, statement, released March 9, 2024
https://www.un.org/sg/en/content/sg/statement/2024-03-09/statement-of-the-secretary-general-syria