Second forum on human rights violations in Syria’s Afrin held in Qamishli

The second human rights forum on violations in Afrin – North Press
The second human rights forum on violations in Afrin – North Press

QAMISHLI, Syria (North Press) – The activities of “The Second Human Rights Forum on Human Rights Violations in Afrin Region – Syria” began in the city of Qamishli, northeastern Syria, on Saturday, with the participation of human rights figures. 

The forum was held under the auspices of the Human Rights Organization in Afrin and Jazira, the Research Center and Protection of Women’s Rights in Syria, the Human Rights Defense Initiative, and the Rojava Center for Strategic Studies.

The forum was held with the participation of about 150 persons from inside and outside Syria who shed light on the crimes and violations of the Turkish forces and the affiliated armed groups in Afrin.

The forum was divided into three main axes, including “the characteristics of the crimes committed in Afrin, the violations committed against women, and the legal means for holding the perpetrators accountable in accordance with international law.”

During the opening address, Abd Hamed al-Mehbash, co-chair of the Executive Council of the Autonomous Administration of North and East Syria (AANES), said that the Turkish incursion on Afrin caused the displacement of more than 300,000 people, and the settlement of about 400,000 people of the families of the Turkish-backed armed opposition groups who came from the areas of the Syrian conflict.

He called on the international community to move quickly and seriously to stop the practices of Turkey and the armed opposition groups in Afrin.

At the conclusion of the forum, the participants demanded the UN to send an international fact-finding committee to Afrin to investigate the crimes committed there.  

The forum called on the international bodies to assume their legal and moral responsibilities towards the hundreds of thousands of Afrin IDPs, and consider it a crime of forced displacement for the purpose of demographic change.  

It stressed the work to end the Turkish occupation of Syrian lands and to ensure the return of the forcibly IDPs to their homes under international sponsorship.  

The forum indicated the need to communicate with human rights activists, academics, and researchers to prepare files on the violations committed in Afrin and submit them to European international courts, and communicate with relatives of victims in Europe and the US.