Press Conference by Commission of Inquiry on Syria

 

Only a negotiated solution would end the suffering in Syria as the nature of human rights violations there changed from the use of excessive force during demonstrations to wholesale attacks on neighbourhoods, members of the Commission of Inquiry on the situation told correspondents at Headquarters this morning.

“What is necessary — the only solution — we see as a negotiated settlement,” said Paulo Sérgio Pinheiro, Chair of the Independent International Commission of Inquiry on Syria, introducing the findings of its second report to the United Nations Human Rights Council, presented to that body on 12 March 2012.

For that reason, Mr. Pinheiro said, the Commission welcomed this week’s Security Council statement supporting Joint Special Envoy Kofi Annan’s six-point plan to end the fighting, ensure humanitarian access and begin an inclusive dialogue between all parties in the country.  The plan was very close to the recommendations made by the Commission on how best to protect the rights of the Syrian People.  “Further militarization will contribute to escalation to full-fledged civil war, from which it will be much more difficult to find an exit,” Mr. Pinheiro said. 

Joining Mr. Pinheiro in responding to questions about the Commission’s work were Commission members Yakin Ertürk and Karen Koning AbuZayd, and the session was moderated by Margaret Novicki of the Department of Public Information.  According to Ms. Novicki, the Human Rights Council decided in August 2011 to establish the independent Commission to investigate all alleged violations of international human rights law committed in Syria since March 2011.  The first report was presented on 2 December 2011.  Both reports documented patterns of summary execution, arbitrary arrest, enforced disappearance, torture, including sexual violence, and violations of children’s rights, Commission members said.

Since the release of the second report last week, Ms. Ertürk said in response to questions, some 70 interviews with Syrian refugees had indicated the new trends, with less interviewees saying they were victims of excessive use of force during the quelling of protests and more testifying they fled army attacks on entire villages.  As a result, large neighbourhood groups were now making the difficult trip across the closed borders, as opposed to the individuals and families that were the rule before.

Attacks on neighbourhoods, she said, occurred during the pursuit of armed groups, sometimes with the apparent aim of collectively punishing the population of a locality.  Sometimes, the army warned residents that a neighbourhood would be shelled if specified persons did not surrender, refugees had testified. 

At last count, she said, there were some 15,000 Syrian refugees registered in Lebanon — though many were not registered — with around 16,000 in Turkey and more than a few thousand in Jordan, which had no numbers available.  There were also estimates of 200,000 internally displaced and 18,000 detainees.  Recently, higher ranking army officers had started to defect, but not enough at the top ranks to affect the chain of command or the balance of power, she said.

Mr. Pinheiro stressed that the Commission’s work was “victim-centred”, addressed all communities in Syria and dealt with the affects of the unrest on the entire civilian population.  Government forces were responsible for much of the “gross human rights violations” documented, with some attributed to the armed opposition, he said, while pointing to a lack of equivalence between the two kinds of forces.  “The two parties, there is an enormous disparity,” he stated, adding that most of the armed groups were citizens protecting the population.  At the same time, he warned against an overly naïve attitude towards all the opposition combatants, some of whom, he said, were complicating matters. 

In promoting accountability for violations, the Commission had made efforts to determine the chain of command of the army forces and the armed opposition, as well as the responsibility of individuals for which they had found evidence of having committed gross human rights violations and crimes against humanity, Mr. Pinheiro said.

Ms. Ertürk said that then names of those individuals were kept on a list that would remain sealed until a roster of conditions were met, including the existence of a competent authority to oversee a formal investigation and trial in a competent court.  Venues could include the International Criminal Court, although it was not the Commission’s job to consider a referral.  The primary responsibility fell on the State, where, however, there were serious question of capacity.

Responding to questions on the extension of the Commission’s mandate until September, Mr. Pinheiro said it was not yet a certainty, but if it occurred, the Commission would continue to document violations as best they could.  There was ongoing collection of information from those who fled to neighbouring countries, from direct contact with Government officials and with all “currents” of the opposition. 

Asked how they investigated information when they were not allowed into Syria, Commission members said that there was a “well-developed methodology” that set criteria for acceptable evidence.  They did not accept everything that was told to them.  Information had to be substantiated, for example, by at least two first-hand witnesses and corroborated by other evidence.  They also used satellite information and other available resources.

Ms. Ertürk said that 369 individuals had been interviewed for the first two reports, and contact had been maintained with those interviewees, many of whom were in refugee camps in neighbouring countries.  She stressed that the Commission was open to receiving information all the time.  Getting first-hand information on violations by opposition groups was more difficult, and consistent secondary information often had to be used.  In the reports, the Commission integrated all the numbers provided by the Government concerning deaths among its security forces.  Given greater access, Committee members stressed, they were open to any data that the Government wanted to supply.

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For information media • not an official record