Since the start of a conflict that has claimed the lives of at least 230,000 persons and displaced more than half of the Syrian population, the Human Rights Council has adopted no less than 17 resolutions on Syria. Over the years, the independent international Commission of Inquiry (CoI) it established has played an important role, putting the spotlight on the humanitarian and human rights situation in Syria and documenting gross, widespread and systematic violations of international humanitarian and human rights law. The CoI has also contributed to advancing accountability by listing avenues for holding perpetrators of international crimes to account. Yet, a “Syria fatigue” has become obvious at the Council, as fewer and fewer states deliver oral statements on the country.
In a joint letter released prior to HRC 30, six human rights NGOs – of which several are part of the “Free Syria’s Silenced Voices” campaign [1] – called on the Human Rights Council to adopt an innovative approach in order to tackle this fatigue and demonstrate its relevance as the main UN body in charge of promoting and protecting human rights, by adopting a resolution focused on the fate of all those deprived of their liberty in Syria for their peaceful activism, as well as human rights defenders and others who have been detained, subjected to enforced disappearance or abducted as a result of their professional (humanitarian, medical or journalistic or other peaceful) activities, and that calls for their release.
Read more about Free Syrian Voices: www.free-syrian-voices.org