Maat calls on all parties in Syria to stop the armed conflict and respect human rights

On the sidelines of the work of the 40th session of the Human Rights Council held in Geneva from February 25 to March 22, and in the context of its interest in promoting respect for human rights in the Arab region, the Maat Foundation for Peace, Development and Human Rights presented a written intervention on the human rights situation in Syria under the clause 4 of the Council’s work, related to the report of the Independent International Commission of Inquiry on the Syrian Arab Republic, within the framework of Human Rights Council Resolution 29/37

Regarding the fight against terrorist organizations, the intervention emphasized that recent months have witnessed a major shift in events on the ground, represented by the success of the Syrian regime in re-controlling large parts of the territories that were under the control of opposition armed groups and the terrorist organization ISIS. The conflicting parties, with the exception of terrorist groups, after Russian-Turkish arrangements, were able to meet in the Kazakh capital "Astana", in order to reach a political solution that would ensure a complete cessation of the conflict, and the parties agreed to stop hostilities in four regions.

In her intervention, Maat revealed that gross violations of international humanitarian law and human rights law are still being committed in Syria by the conflicting parties, through targeting civilians and indiscriminate killing, including women and children, albeit on a smaller scale during 2017/2018. The intervention focused on the violations committed by terrorist groups. During the period between February and April 2018, armed groups, including the "Army of Islam", "Ahrar al-Sham" and "Faylaq al-Rahman" groups, killed hundreds of civilians in indiscriminate attacks on Damascus. According to the United Nations Fact-Finding Commission, these groups have regularly arbitrarily detained and tortured civilians in Douma, including members of religious minorities.

The intervention referred to the report of the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), which emphasized that the conflict in Syria contributed to a mass displacement, as nearly half of the population fled their homes, and the number of people who fled their homes and were displaced to areas inside the country is estimated at about 6.1 million, while 505 million were displaced outside Syria.

Finally, the international bodies and all parties to the conflict recommended the necessity of working to stop the armed conflict in Syria, uniting all efforts for the success of the Geneva process to reach a settlement to the conflict, cooperation in the fields of combating terrorism and extremism to eliminate terrorist groups, and concerting international efforts to provide humanitarian aid. For refugees and displaced people inside and outside Syria.