The United Nations To Prepare Cases Of The War Crimes Committed In Syria

On Wednesday the United Nations General Assembly elected to establish a special team to prepare cases on the war crime and human rights abuses committed during the conflict in Syria. The war in Syria has seen 22 million people uprooted and 400,000 people killed. The war has lasted almost 6 years and many war crimes and human rights abuses have occurred; many of these have been shared on social media.

The Liechtenstein-drafted resolution was adopted by the General Assembly. 105 nations voted in favour of the resolution, 15 voted against and 52 abstained from voting. Most notably Syria, Russia, and Iran voted against the resolution. The team established by the resolution will be responsible for collecting, preserving, and analyzing evidence to facilitate and expedite fair and independent criminal proceedings in accordance with international law. The resolution also calls for states and civil society groups to provide any documentation to assist the team. The team will work with the United Nations Syria Commission of Inquiry. The U.N. Syria Commission of Inquiry was established by the U.N. Human Rights Council in 2011 to investigate possible war crimes. At present, the U.N. Commission of Inquiry on Syria has a confidential list of all suspects on all sides who have committed war crimes. It has also repeatedly called for the U.N. Security Council to refer the matter to the International Criminal Court, a move that was vetoed by Russia and China in 2014.

While the resolution was adopted, it was not welcomed by every nation. Notably, Syria’s U.N. ambassador, Bashar Jaafari, has called the resolution a “direct threat to a solution” to the conflict and has criticized the move as being a “…flagrant interference in the internal affairs of a U.N. member state.”  However, as Christian Wenaweser, the Liechtenstein U.N. Ambassador explained: “we have postponed any meaningful action on accountability too often and for too long.” This inaction, according to Christian Wenaweser, has sent “the signal that committing war crimes and crimes against humanity is a strategy that is condoned and has no consequences.” The purpose of this resolution is to overcome that image and hopefully bring justice to those who need it.

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