The UN political chief said Wednesday that more than 100,000 people in Syria have been detained, abducted or gone missing during the eight-year conflict, with the Assad regime mainly responsible.
A continued lack of access to detention sites and people being held in Syria has left the United Nations with “no official statistics on those detained, abducted or missing”, UN political affairs chief Rosemary DiCarlo told the Council in her briefing.
The UN has confirmed the Assad regime’s involvement in genocide, sexual violence and rape against dissidents and sympathizers of opposition forces since 2011.
DiCarlo pointed out that the information available to her on the missing people depended on estimates by the UN Commission of Inquiry in Syria which the UN Human Rights Council set up following the outbreak of the Syrian revolution in 2011.
DiCarla called for the release of those arbitrarily detained. “The parties must fulfill their obligations under international law, to unilaterally release all arbitrarily detained or abducted, and most urgently, women, children, the sick and elderly”, she spelled out.
DiCarla called for referring Syria to the International Criminal Court as did the UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres.
“Accountability for serious violations of international humanitarian law and human rights is central to achieving and maintaining durable peace in Syria,” DiCarlo emphasized.
The Syrian National Coalition earlier stressed the need to implement the recommendations of UN investigators to refer perpetrators of violations against detainees to fair and immediate trials, release the remaining detainees, and prevent new arrests outside the law in accordance with the international resolutions, most notably the Geneva Communique of 2012 and Resolution 2254.
In its latest report on the disappeared and abducted people in Syria, the Syrian Network for Human Rights called on the UN Security Council to follow up on the implementation of its resolutions. It urged the UN Human Rights Council to follow up on the issue of detainees and forcibly disappeared people in Syria. It also called for drawing attention to the issue in the Council’s annual meetings, calling for cooperation and coordination with the active local human rights organizations. (Source: Syrian National Coalition’s Media Department + Agencies)
