Syrians faced increasing and intolerable hardships – UN official
QAMISHLI, Syria (North Press) – Syrians faced increasing and intolerable hardships, living among the ruins of the lengthy Syrian conflict, said Paulo Pinheiro, Chair of the Independent International Commission of Inquiry on Syria, on Thursday.
Pinheiro added that millions of Syrians are suffering in displacement camps, while resources were becoming scarcer, donor fatigue is rising, and now there is a cholera outbreak.
This came in an interactive dialogue held by the UN Human Rights Council with the Commission in the Swiss city of Geneva on Thursday.
“Hostilities were intensifying on several fronts. Attacks kept claiming civilian lives and damaging key civilian infrastructure, including food and water resources, in the midst of a drought,” Pinheiro noted.
He focused of the issue of the missing persons saying, their fate and whereabouts must be clarified.
He said, the Secretary-General’s urgent report on this issue contained a clear recommendation for the establishment of an international body, as called for by families and survivors, focusing strongly on victims and survivors and inclusive of families as soon as possible.
“It must provide adequate support to victims, survivors, and the families of the missing,” Pinheiro stressed.
In addition, the UN official pointed out that the report must address the gendered impact of disappearances, notably female relatives of the missing, and especially those who were particularly vulnerable.
He called on the states to facilitate the safe return of displaced persons to their homeland.
A 2021 UN report titled “Report of the Independent International Commission of Inquiry on Syria” estimates that 100,000 persons are missing because of the current conflict in Syria.