North Press, HIC-HLRN appeal to UN about water crisis in NE Syria
The Monitoring and Documentation Department of North Press, in collaboration with the Housing and Land Rights Network of Habitat International Coalition, presented an appeal to United Nations Special Procedures about the water crisis in northeast Syria.
The appeal calls on the UN to intervene on behalf of the population in the region who are deprived of their right to access safe and clean water because Turkey cuts off Syria’s share of the Euphrates River water and also because Turkish-backed armed opposition, also known as Syrian National Army (SNA), control the Alouk water station, which is the main source of water for the city of Hasakah and its countryside and the camps in the region.
The appeal considers “This case involves the violation of multiple overlapping individual, collective, domestic and extraterritorial human rights treaty obligations of the concerned states, namely Syria and Türkiye. Specifically, Türkiye is acting as an occupying power in parts of northeast Syria and using the closure of the Alouk water station as a negotiating tactic to use it to leverage negotiations with the Kurdish-led Autonomous Administration.”
The appeal was sent to ten UN Special Rapporteurs. They are as follows:
- Special Rapporteur on the human rights to safe drinking water and sanitation.
- Special Rapporteur on the right to development
- Special Rapporteur on the human rights of internally displaced persons
- Special Rapporteur on the right to food
- Special Rapporteur on the promotion and protection of human rights in the context of climate change
- Special Rapporteur on the right of everyone to the enjoyment of the highest attainable standard of physical and mental health
- Special Rapporteur on the right to adequate housing
- Special Rapporteur on extreme poverty and human rights
- Special Rapporteur on minority issues
- Special Rapporteur on adequate housing, Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights, Special Procedures Branch.
The appeal recommends the immediate removal of all dams on the Khabur River (a tributary of the Euphrates River) in Turkish territories to stop the downstream water blockade and respect international legal obligations on protection of civilian infrastructure, as protected under the Geneva Conventions Additional Protocol I.
The joint appeal called on the International community to proactively engage with Turkey and Syria to ensure that civilians have access to the Khabur River’s water and to develop a strategy for the region on cross-boundary water challenges linked climate-change linked developments.
The appeal also called upon the Human Rights Council and the Independent International Commission of Inquiry on the Syrian Arab Republic to include the blockage of water courses in Syria in their situation monitoring, and systematically include violations of the human right to water in their reporting to relevant authorities. It also called upon the UN Security Council to ensure regular briefings on water insecurity impacts facing civilians in Syria and other conflict-affected areas during its monthly briefings on the humanitarian situation, and ensure the participation of civil society organizations in the briefings and reporting mechanisms.
You can support the appeal sent to the Special Procedures by clicking on the Urgent Action support button here.
Read the full details of the case here