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Detention In The Syrian Arab Republic: A Way Forward Independent International Commission Of Inquiry On The Syrian Arab Republic
No full textDetention In The Syrian Arab Republic: A Way Forward Independent International Commission Of Inquiry On The Syrian Arab Republi
Letter from the Secretary-General addressed to the President of the Security Council
No full textSecurity Council Repor
Security Council, 73rd Year : 8188th Meeting, Saturday, 24 February 2018, New York
No full textSecurity Council Resolution 2401 (2018) [on Cessation Of Hostilities To Enable Humanitarian Aid Delivery In The Syrian Arab Republic
SECURITY COUNCIL, 73RD YEAR : 8188TH MEETING, SATURDAY, 24 FEBRUARY 2018, NEW YORK
No full textThe situation in the Middle East This record contains the text of speeches delivered in English and of the translation of speeches delivered in other languages
Security Council, 73rd Year: 8206th Meeting, Friday, 16 March 2018, New York
No full textThe Situation In The Middle East Report Of The Secretary-General On The Implementation Of Security Council Resolutions 2139 (2014), 2165 (2014), 2191 (2014), 2258 (2015), 2332 (2016) And 2393 (2017)United Nations S/PV.8206
Security Council
Seventy-third year
8206th meeting
Friday, 16 March 2018, 10 a.m.
New York
Provisional
President: Mr. Van Oosterom. . (Netherlands)
Members: Bolivia (Plurinational State of). . Mr. Inchauste Jordán
China. . Mr. Ma Zhaoxu
Côte d’Ivoire. . Mr. Tanoh-Boutchoue
Equatorial Guinea. . Mr. Esono Mbengono
Ethiopia. . Ms. Guadey
France. . Mr. Delattre
Kazakhstan. . Mr. Umarov
Kuwait. . Mr. Alotaibi
Peru. . Mr. Tenya
Poland. . Ms. Wronecka
Russian Federation. . Mr. Nebenzia
Sweden . Mr. Skoog
United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland . Mr. Allen
United States of America. . Mr. Miller
Agenda
The situation in the Middle East
This record contains the text of speeches delivered in English and of the translation of
speeches delivered in other languages. The final text will be printed in the Official Records
of the Security Council. Corrections should be submitted to the original languages only. They
should be incorporated in a copy of the record and sent under the signature of a member
of the delegation concerned to the Chief of the Verbatim Reporting Service, room U-0506
([email protected]). Corrected records will be reissued electronically on the Official
Document System of the United Nations (http://documents.un.org).
18-07334 (E)
*1807334*
S/PV.8206 The situation in the Middle East 16/03/2018
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The meeting was called to order at 10.10 a.m.
Adoption of the agenda
The agenda was adopted.
The situation in the Middle East
The President: In accordance with rule 39 of
the Council’s provisional rules of procedure, I invite
Mr. Staffan de Mistura, Special Envoy of the Secretary-
General for Syria, to participate in this meeting.
Mr. De Mistura is joining the meeting via video-teleconference
from Brussels.
The Security Council will now begin its consideration
of the item on its agenda.
Recalling the Security Council’s latest note 507 on
its working methods (S/2017/507), I wish to encourage
all participants, both members and non-members of the
Council, to deliver their statements in five minutes or
less. Note 507 also encourages briefers to be succinct and
to focus on key issues. Briefers are further encouraged
to limit initial remarks to 15 minutes or less.
I now give the floor to Mr. De Mistura.
Mr. De Mistura: We have been constantly, around
the clock, in touch with the Secretary-General, my
colleagues in the field and all those with influence
because, as the Security Council knows, many events,
some of which are very worrisome, have taken place in
the past few days.
On 7 March, I briefed the Council in consultations
on the status of the implementation of resolution 2401
(2018). At that time, I said that there had not been any
sustained ceasefire or adequate humanitarian access at
that stage. On 12 March, the Secretary-General himself
orally reported to the Council on the implementation
of resolution 2401 (2018) and United Nations efforts to
create such conditions by using his own good offices
or those of his own team, including ourselves (see
S/PV.8201). The Secretary-General also underscored
that it was incumbent on all the parties and on all those
with influence in the Council, in the Astana process
and in the broader International Syria Support Group
to act on the resolution throughout Syria without delay.
Allow me to update the Council on where we stand
on the matter since then — that is, since the Secretary-
General gave a very comprehensive report — on the
very day after the sad anniversary of the beginning
of the conflict. We are entering the eighth year. In
everything that we are doing in the horrific conflict,
our compass — and I know the Council feels the
same — has been, is and should be the Syrian people,
wherever they are, who are telling us that they are fed
up with the conflict and the way in which civilians
are being affected in the cross-fighting. That is our
compass. So whatever we do these days and whatever
we suggest, including our current facilitation role, is
constantly framed by the urgent needs of ordinary
civilians — women, children and men.
Since the briefing by the Secretary-General, in
the past few days further meetings have taken place
between the Russian Federation and Jaysh Al-Islam
on the outskirts of Douma, which is the northernmost
of the three opposition-controlled enclaves in eastern
Ghouta. The result of that engagement is a tenuous and
fragile ceasefire between the Government, the Russian
military and the Jaysh Al-Islam forces, which has now
largely continued to hold for the sixth day. We hope that it
will continue to do so, notwithstanding the engagement
between Government forces and Jaysh Al-Islam in
other areas outside Douma, such as the village of
Reihan. In other words, the talks, the discussions and
the ceasefire have been effected and implemented with
Jaysh Al-Islam in Douma but not beyond.
However, that is only one part of eastern Ghouta.
For example, the ceasefire is not being replicated in the
rest of eastern Ghouta or elsewhere, and it is extremely
fragile. While I speak, I understand that at this very
moment there are some delicate meetings taking place
regarding the follow-up to the arrangement regarding
Douma. Let us therefore hope that the ceasefire holds
because that would be at least one good piece of news
among very bad news.
The United Nations has been practicably offering
its good offices but efforts to facilitate meaningful
contacts between the Russian Federation and Faylaq
Al-Rahman or Ahrar Al-Sham have not yet produced
results. They are dominant forces in the two other
enclaves in eastern Ghouta — in Harasta and around
Kafr Batna, Ayn Tarma, Arbin, Zamalka and Jobar,
respectively. In those two other areas, we have not
seen any ceasefire to speak of. Rather we have seen
Government forces and their allies pursue a concerted
escalation against those two enclaves with rapid ground
offensives, accompanied by shelling and airstrikes.
Reports of a public market in Kafr Batna having been
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hit are just coming in. Of course, we need to verify
them, since they are new reports.
Again, regrettably, there are numerous civilian
casualties. We have also seen continuous shelling
coming from those areas of eastern Ghouta inside
civilian areas of Damascus again. We are also hearing
from people inside eastern Ghouta, asking the United
Nations, the Council and Member States with influence
to pressure the armed opposition groups to let civilians
leave and to pressure all parties for a ceasefire and
protection for those who do not want to leave but want
to stay. The bottom line of all this is that too many
civilians are suffering and too many have died in
that area.
Let me first say that it need not be that way.
Negotiations in Douma in the past few days show that
there is a way to create the conditions to advance the
implementation of resolution 2401 (2018). As we have
done so far, the United Nations therefore stands ready
to offer its good offices to all parties to facilitate further
engagement of that kind so as to make a concrete
contribution to the implementation of resolution 2401
(2018) in all areas of eastern Ghouta. The United Nations
is not ready to facilitate ultimatums from either side.
It stands ready to facilitate discussion, a ceasefire and
evacuations. Meanwhile, violence has escalated across
many other parts of Syria, where there is no ceasefire
to speak of. In Afrin, the Turkish Government forces
and their armed allies continue to gain ground rapidly.
We have also received reports of shelling in besieged
Fo’ah and Kafraya — two villages which, for a long
time, have been held by the opposition. There have also
been air strikes in Idlib and a new armed-opposition
offensive in Hama. Clashes and air strikes have also
occurred in Dar’a, southern Syria.
If now is the time for de-escalation, the Security
Council had better convince me that de-escalation is
indeed taking place. What we see on the map looks like
the opposite — escalation. Let me re-emphasize that
resolution 2401 (2018) cannot be applied piecemeal. It
is not an à la carte menu. It applies to all non-Security-
Council-listed terrorist groups across Syria. Let me
also reiterate the words of the Secretary-General who
stated that even efforts to combat terrorist groups
identified by the Council do not supersede obligations
under international law.
I am sure that members of the Council will have the
opportunity to hear a briefing from Mr. Mark Lowcock.
Meanwhile, since I have the opportunity to brief the
Council today, let me provide some information about
the humanitarian situation. On 13 March, the United
Nations observed the evacuation of 147 civilians,
including 10 critical medical cases — the majority of
them women and children from Douma who sought
shelter in rural Damascus. Based on the outcome of
discussions and meetings between the Russian military
and Jaysh al-Islam, facilitated by the United Nations,
on 15 March, United Nations colleagues also delivered
a convoy of food assistance to Douma for 26,100 people
in need. Additional medical cases were also evacuated.
Let us be honest and admit that positive efforts
are generally welcome and long overdue, but remain
limited. Civilians require much more, including
medical and health-care supplies, the restoration of
water, commercial access and freedom of movement.
Members of the Council must have seen the report in
which Mr. Peter Maurer, who had been meeting with
some of the people in eastern Ghouta, stated they
were simply asking for water. They just needed water.
Humanitarian colleagues who entered those areas spoke
of having seen hunger, dire want, poverty, haggard
faces and despair all around. Even for experienced
people, such as my own humanitarian colleagues, it
is an unsustainable situation in which people are on
the brink of collapse a few kilometres — 20 minutes’
drive — from Damascus. Let me be clear, that is only in
Douma — an area which has seen a few days of ceasefire
and positive movement on humanitarian access. Can we
imagine the situation elsewhere? In other words, in the
other two enclaves of eastern Ghouta further south, we
have seen no ceasefire to speak of and to borrow the
words of the Secretary-General, people are still living
in hell on Earth.
Scores of people have been killed and the injured
left unattended because health workers could not reach
them due to the relentless air strikes. We have heard
fresh allegations about the use of incendiary weapons
in various urban areas and the targeting of medical
facilities since 12 March, as well as new and disturbing
allegations of chlorine use in those areas. As the
Secretary-General has stated, we cannot independently
verify those allegations but we also cannot and should
not ignore them. We have also received reports of
thousands of people displaced, some moving further
into eastern Ghouta and many others exiting en masse
in large groups, as a result of the advances of the Syrian
Government in Hama, Noria and in Saqba.
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Evacuations not observed by the United Nations
are also reported to have taken place, including from
Misraba and other areas. The United Nations was not
present to observe those evacuations and is unable to
know the precise number of them. We urge parties that
all evacuations must take place in accordance with
the highest protection standards under international
humanitarian law and international human rights law.
Whether civilians choose to stay or leave, they must
be protected against attacks and have access to the
essentials to survive. They must be safe and voluntarily
enter a place of their of choosing. The United Nations
stands ready to provide assistance to people in
need — those who choose to stay and those who want
to leave.
We are also extremely concerned about the plight of
civilians throughout Syria. They include the displaced,
as well as almost 3 million in besieged and hard-to-reach
areas and those caught up in escalations in Idlib,
Hama, Aleppo and Dar’a. Resolution 2401 (2018)
demands that all parties immediately lift the sieges
of populated areas. To date, that has not occurred.
According to my colleagues, the situation in Afrin is
particularly worrying. We have received reports of tens
of thousands of people displaced within Afrin and to
nearby Tell Rifaat and surrounding villages, Nubul and
Zahra, and other areas of Aleppo governorate.
The United Nations has also received reports of
civilian casualties and restrictions on movement for
many of the large numbers of civilians seeking to
leave the city. I urge all parties to ensure that civilians
seeking to leave Afrin be given safe passage. Since
6 March, it has been reported that people in Afrin city
have suffered from severe water shortages as its source
of water has been damaged by the fighting.
Allow me to add a point of particular importance
that was revealed in a recent report. The safety of
Syrian women in particular is threatened when they are
evacuated following the lifting of a siege or end of a
battle. Threats include widespread sexual and gender-based
violence, which has been widely documented
and mentioned by women’s groups. The protection and
needs of women must be at the forefront of our response.
With regard to a separate humanitarian issue,
on 14 March my technical team participated in the
first meeting of the Working Group on detainees
and missing persons that took place in Astana. We
pressed the Astana guarantors at that meeting and
before to make progress on the crucial issue, which
to us, is one of the main reasons we attend meetings
in Astana. It is an issue that has been at the forefront
of our concerns. We have offered to host a standing
secretariat so that information on detainees can be
distributed in all meetings of the Working Group. Thus
far, the guarantors have simply agreed to consider our
proposal about a standing secretariat in Geneva to
monitor the issue of detainees, but no final decision
has been taken. We will intensify our contact with
them and the parties in order to accelerate work on that
important — frankly, crucial — humanitarian issue. We
should remind ourselves that the issue of detainees and
missing persons was first raised in Astana a year ago
and, sadly, no concrete progress has been made so far.
We owe it to the Syrian families on all sides who have
long been awaiting word on the fate of their relatives.
Although the logic of war clearly still prevails
and resolution 2401 (2018) is not being implemented
as it should be, as the Secretary-General stated, we
absolutely refuse to give up hope of seeing Syria rising
from the ashes. The Syrian people deserve to be helped.
The Syrian people are proud. They love their country.
We need to help them to go back to having a normal
country. There too, it is with the people of Syria in
mind and their legitimate aspirations for the long-term
shape of their country that we continue our political
efforts — in spite of what we see on the ground — for
a sustainable settlement of the conflict. And there too,
the voices of women across Syria conveying their wish
to play a meaningful role — just as with our own civil
society — in the next stage of the political process must
be heard.
Therefore, my team and I have continued to consult,
in the context of the political side, widely and intensively
on the formation of the constitutional committee in
Geneva in an effort to advance the full and complete
implementation of resolution 2254 (2015) within the
framework of the United Nations-facilitated political
process in Geneva. To this end, we seek to leverage the
momentum produced by the Sochi final declaration,
which emphasizes the fact that we should have a
constitutional committee in Geneva with the assistance
of the United Nations. We take note, therefore, of the
statement issued — today, I believe — by the Astana
guarantors in their own ministerial meeting, in which
they reaffirmed that
“the results of the Sochi Congress, especially to form
the constitutional committee and to facilitate the
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beginning of its work in Geneva with the assistance
of the United Nations Secretary-General’s Special
Envoy for Syria as soon as possible.”
However, I have to be frank. I must report that at
this stage — more than two weeks beyond one month
since the National Dialogue Congress in Sochi — we
have not yet received the complete inputs on the pool of
candidates for a constitutional committee developed in
Sochi, from the three guarantors. It is my intention, in
close consultations with all concerned, to look carefully
at this pool when we receive it, and at others as required
and consistent with resolution 2254 (2015), to facilitate
the establishment of the constitutional committee. I
must also report, once again, that there is still some
serious homework to be done regarding the Syrian
Government’s readiness to engage on implementing
the Sochi final declaration and moving forward with a
constitutional committee in Geneva. I have impressed
that on the relevant guarantors repeatedly in recent
weeks, just as I continue to make clear the readiness
of the United Nations to engage the Government of
Syria on this matter. We need them to be part of it. We
need to have the comprehensive participation of all
Syrian parties.
In the meantime, we have been proactive in
offering creative suggestions as to how to expedite
the formation of that constitutional committee. We
continue to assess various options on how to advance
discussions on all four baskets of the political process in
Geneva. In particular, it is clear that there must be more
and serious talks with the Government, the opposition
and all Syrian and international stakeholders on what
is required in order to establish a secure, calm, neutral
environment, as per resolution 2254 (2015), in which a
constitutional process and United Nations-supervised
presidential and parliamentary elections, pursuant to a
new constitution, could viably take place. We remained
determined to engage all parties.
As I said in my most recent briefing, a month
ago (see S/PV.8181), conflict is increasingly spilling
over Syria’s borders, or at least risks doing so. This
month we have further incidents of potential and real
international confrontation within Syria that we cannot
independently verify, but which concern us. That is
precisely we need urgent action on the political front.
Syrians need to see some positive movement on the
political process.
On Monday I will be attending a meeting of European
Union (EU) Foreign Ministers here in Brussels. On
Tuesday, I should be back in Geneva. I will attend
the meeting at the invitation of High Representative
Mogherini, in the context of the preparatory efforts of
the EU and the United Nations for their joint ministerial
conference in Brussels at the end of April. I hope that
the Conference will provide a significant opportunity
to bolster international support for the Syrian people
though humanitarian commitments. I also hope that the
gathering of a significant number of Foreign Ministers
will also provide an opportunity to reinvigorate the
collective efforts of the international community
towards a sustainable peace through the United Nations-led
peace process in Geneva, within the framework of
resolution 2254 (2015) and other relevant resolutions.
In conclusion, I urge caution. We must recognize
that we are witnessing developments of the utmost
gravity on the ground. These events demand action, and
the world is worried and watching. I remain concerned
that concrete matters that we have been trying to
advance — resolution 2401 (2018), detainees and a
constitutional committee — need to move faster and
with more meaningful impact than has so far proven
possible. And de-escalation must replace what we are
watching at the moment — a clear tendency towards
escalation. I will continue, creatively and determinedly,
to seek to facilitate the overall political process. As the
Secretary-General said on Monday, the ultimate goal is
to help the Syrians and to
“see a united, democratic Syria able to avoid
fragmentation and sectarianism and with its
sovereignty and territorial integrity respected,
and to see a Syrian people able to freely decide
their future and choose their political leadership.”
(S/PV.8201, p. 5)
The President: I thank Mr. De Mistura for
his briefing.
I now give the floor to those Council members who
wish to make statements.
Mr. Tenya (Peru) (spoke in Spanish): We thank
you, Sir, for convening this meeting and Mr. De
Mistura for his briefing. We are grateful for his tireless
and important efforts.
We agree that the continuation of the conflict
and the regrettable humanitarian situation in Syria
undermines the prospects of making political
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progress. The unpunished lack of compliance with
international law, international humanitarian law and
Security Council resolutions erode the needed trust for
sustainable peacebuilding. While we express our deep
sympathy and solidarity with the victims, we would
like at the same time to indicate our concern over the
impact of the Syrian conflict on regional stability, the
Council’s credibility and the functioning of an rules-based
international system.
More specifically, the international community
is awaiting an immediate ceasefire throughout Syria,
full access to the needed humanitarian assistance, the
attainment of a political agreeme
Statement Attributable To The Spokesman For The Secretary-general On Syria
No full textStatement Attributable To The Spokesman For The Secretary-general On Syri
Statement attributable to the Spokesman for the Secretary-General on the situation in the Middle East
No full textStatement attributable to the Spokesman for the Secretary-General on the
situation in the Middle Eas
Statement Of Special Envoy For Syria, Mr. Staffan De Mistura, At The Conclusion Of The Special Round 9 Meeting Of The Un-convened Intra-syrian Talks In Vienna
No full textStatement Of Special Envoy For Syria, Mr. Staffan De Mistura, At The Conclusion Of The Special Round 9 Meeting Of The Un-convened Intra-syrian Talks In Vienn
Statement By Panos Moumtzis, Regional Humanitarian Coordinator For The Syria Crisis, On East Ghouta
No full textStatement By Panos Moumtzis, Regional Humanitarian Coordinator For The Syria Crisis, On East Ghout