We Welcome This Resolution and Hope It Will Be a Step Towards a Seriously Active European Role in Achieving a Political Solution Towards Democracy on Equal Terms with the European Union States
BY: The European Parliament
Paris – A Statement Issued by the Syrian Network for Human Rights:
Coinciding with the tenth anniversary of the popular uprising for democracy in Syria, the European Parliament adopted a resolution by a majority of votes on March 11, 2021, in which it noted the gravity and the magnitude of human rights violations in Syria perpetrated by all parties to the conflict, including killing, detention, enforced disappearance, torture, sexual violence, rape, displacement and ethnic cleansing, describing the situation in Syria as a “disastrous humanitarian crisis.”
The resolution was based mainly on:
1. Relevant UN Security Council Resolutions.
2. Reports of the Independent International Commission of Inquiry on Syria (COI).
3. Data from the Syrian Network for Human Rights (SNHR), from which 10 statistics were referred to in five places in the report.
4. The latest statement from the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF).
The resolution condemned all atrocities and violations of human rights and international humanitarian law and reminded the international community of the gravity and the magnitude of human rights violations in Syria perpetrated by different parties to the conflict, as well as emphasizing the Syrian regime’s overwhelming responsibility for its decision to meet peaceful protests from their first moments with brutal repressive practices, including killings, arbitrary arrest, enforced disappearance, torture of detainees, sexual violence, and other atrocities, and noted that the regime is responsible for nearly 88% of all civilian killings, and nearly 99% of those tortured to death, who number nearly 15,000, according to the SNHR’s data.
The resolution noted that Russian airstrikes killed about 6,900 civilians, targeting independent media centers, hospitals, and Syrian Civil Defense units, and denounced Russia’s attempts to tarnish the image of the White Helmets in Western media through an aggressive and sustained social media disinformation campaign.
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