Photo: Over 60 killed in Al Janudiyye, 8 June 2015 – Syria Civil Defence.
The #withSyria coalition of humanitarian organisations has written the following letter to the UN Security Council, calling for consequences for violations of UN Security Council 2139, in particular violations of the resolution’s demand for an end to shelling and air attacks in populated areas:
We are a coalition of human rights and humanitarian organizations working to protect and assist the civilians of Syria. We wish to express our collective outrage at the never ending state of unchecked brutality in Syria and call on the UN Security Council to take immediate action. Given continuing indiscriminate attacks against civilians within Syria, we urge each member of the Security Council to now take steps to implement further diplomatic measures given clear and ongoing non-compliance with Resolution 2139, specifically measures to establish a mechanism to track and publically expose indiscriminate attacks by any means against civilians, including barrel bombs or car bombs, and to lay down clear consequences for violators.
Sixteen months ago the UN Security Council demanded an end to “…all attacks against civilians, as well as the indiscriminate employment of weapons in populated areas, including shelling and aerial bombardment, such as the use of barrel bombs” in Resolution 2139. Yet since then the Council has stood by as this demand has been repeatedly violated month after month with unrelenting and brutal attacks against schools, markets, and hospitals and the deaths of thousands of Syrian civilians. This must not be allowed to continue. Expressing “deep concern” in statements to the press while Syrians are killed and maimed in attacks which violate International Humanitarian Law day after day is a woefully inadequate response. Syrians deserve to be protected from all attacks, not just those involving chemical weapons.
We urge the Council to use the upcoming Arria meeting to seize the momentum on this critical issue and commence the process required to set up a mechanism to track and publically expose indiscriminate attacks by any means against civilians, including barrel bombs or car bombs, and to lay down clear consequences for violators.
Signatories:
- Action des Chrétiens pour l’Abolition de la Torture (ACAT)
- Algerian League for Defense of Human Rights
- Alkarama Foundation
- Alliance for Peacebuilding
- Amnesty International
- Andalus Institute for Tolerance and anti-Violence Studies
- Arab Coalition for Sudan
- Arab Network for Human Rights Information (ANHRI)
- Arab Organisation for Human Rights – Libya
- Arab Organisation for Human Rights – Mauritania
- Arab Program For Human Rights Activists
- Bahrain Human Rights Watch Society (BHRWS)
- Baytna Syria
- Bridge of Peace Syria
- Broederlijk Delen
- CAABU (Council for Arab-British Understanding)
- CAFOD
- Cairo Institute for Human Rights Studies
- CARE International
- Caritas Czech Republic
- Center for Civilians in Conflict (CIVIC)
- CIVICUS
- Concern Worldwide
- Darfur Bar Association
- Development and Peace
- Euro-Mediterranean Human Rights Network (EMHRN)
- The International Federation for Human Rights (FIDH)
- Fraternity Center for Democracy and Civil Society
- Friends Committee on National Legislation
- Global Centre for the Responsibility to Protect
- Handicap International
- Hand in Hand for Syria
- Human Rights & Democracy Media Center “SHAMS”
- Human Rights First Society – Saudi Arabia
- Human Rights Watch
- Humanist Institute for Development Cooperation (HIVOS)
- International Rescue Committee (IRC)
- Islamic Relief USA
- Karam Foundation
- Ligue des droits de l’Homme (LDH)
- Madani Organization
- Mayday Rescue
- Médecins du Monde/ Doctors of the World
- Montreal Institute for Genocide and Human Rights Studies
- Nonviolence Network in the Arab Countries
- No Peace Without Justice
- Norwegian People’s Aid
- Norwegian Church Aid
- NuDay Syria
- Omani Monitor for Human Rights
- Open Doors UKI
- Palestinian League for Human Rights – Syria
- Pax Christi Flanders
- The Peace Appeal Foundation
- People In Need
- Permanent Peace Movement
- Phenix Centre for Economic and Informatics Studies (Jordan)
- Physicians for Human Rights
- Refugees International
- Relief International
- Rethink Rebuild Society
- Relief & Reconciliation for Syria
- Save the Children
- SOLIDARITES INTERNATIONAL
- Sudan Social Development Organisations (SUDO UK)
- Syrian American Medical Society (SAMS)
- Syria Civil Defence
- Syria Relief
- Syria Relief and Development
- The Day After Association
- The Helen Bamber Foundation
- The Syrian Emergency Task Force
- Trocaire
- Tunisian Forum for Economic and Social Rights
- United to End Genocide
- United for a Free Syria
- Violations Documentation Center in Syria
- Vision GRAM-International
- Welthungerhilfe
- World Jewish Relief
- Zarga Organisation for Rural Development (ZORD) – Sudan
“Unless resolution 2139 is enforced, Syria’s civilians will continue to be trapped in an endless cycle of bloodshed caused by the unlawful use of explosive weapons such as barrel bombs.”More from What’s In Blue: Arria-Formula Meeting on the Indiscriminate Use of Weapons against Civilians in Syria
Update: As a patriotic Syrian, I never imagined I would do this – Address by Raed Saleh, head of the White Helmets, at the UN Security Council Arria Briefing on the 26th of June.