The Syrian Observatory For Human Rights

Ireland to ‘champion’ respect for human rights in Syria at UN Security Council

A migrant wearing a face mask stands behind a fence inside a refugee camp in Kokkinotrimithia outside of capital Nicosia, Cyprus. Cyprus’ Interior Minister Nicos Nouris said this week that the east Mediterranean island nation whose closest point to Syria is around 150 kilometers (93 miles) remains first among all other European Union member states with the most asylum applications relative to its population. Picture: AP

 

Ireland will “champion” respect for human rights in Syria at the UN Security Council where Ireland holds a prominent role in responding to the humanitarian crisis in the war-ravaged country.

 

 

It comes after the UN’s top human rights envoy, Irishwoman Fionnuala Ní Aoláin, warned that an “unknown number” of foreign nationals have died in squalid camps in north east Syria and called on western European countries to do more to bring their citizens back home.

 

 

Ms Ní Aoláin, UN special rapporteur on the promotion and protection of human rights, said “thousands” of people held in the camps were exposed to violence, exploitation and deprivation and warned that failing to help those languishing in the camps risked creating a new generation of extremists.

 

 

“I think of the many grandmothers I have spoken to over the course of the last couple years, many of whom are literally watching their grandchildren starve on cellphones in western countries that refuse to return their mothers and children,” Ms Ní Aoláin said.

 

 

She said that at the Al-Hol camp – the largest camp for refugees and internally displaced people in Syria – more than 80% of those being held were women and children.

 

 

She said the situation was equally distressing in Roj camp, also in northeast Syria.

 

 

Irish woman Lisa Smyth had lived, with her daughter, at the Al-Hol camp, from where she conducted a number of interviews.

 

 

She and her daughter arrived back in Ireland at the end of November 2019, after being deported from Turkey. She was arrested and is currently before the Special Criminal Court.

 

 

A naturalised Irish citizen, Alexandr Bekirzaev is understood to have spent time in a number of Syrian camps, though his current location or condition is not clear.

 

 

In the first action of its type, the Government revoked his Irish citizenship in August 2020 over a sham marriage.

 

 

Ms Ní Aoláin said that although some countries had managed to bring back their nationals, others had not, despite having “just a handful” of detainees in Syria.

 

 

Ireland began its two-year stint on the UN Security Council this year and holds a lead secretarial role on the Syrian humanitarian sub-committee.

 

 

Responding to Ms Ní Aoláin’s comments, the Department of Foreign Affairs said protecting human rights was a core part of its foreign policy, including on bodies such as the Human Rights Council.

 

 

It said Ireland was committed to meeting the enormous humanitarian needs in Syria.

 

 

“Since the outset of the conflict, Ireland has provided almost €170 million in funding – our largest ever response to a single crisis,” it said.

 

 

As well as funding however, it is also vital that humanitarian workers are granted safe and secure access to all people in need. As co-lead with Norway on the humanitarian file on the Council Ireland will continue to advocate for humanitarian workers being given access to all people in need.

 

 

It said: “Ireland will continue to champion respect for human rights, humanitarian access and accountability, including through our role on the Security Council.”

 

 

The statement said the conflict in Syria was a human tragedy on “an enormous scale” and that a decade of conflict had left over 13 million people in need of humanitarian assistance and had witnessed serious violations of human rights.

 

 

It said independent investigations had documented arbitrary detention, disappearances, torture, the bombing of schools and hospitals.

 

 

It said civil society and human rights defenders had been brutally targeted and that there has often been a disproportionate impact on women and children.

 

 

“Throughout the conflict, Ireland has consistently called for an immediate end to these human rights abuses,” the statement said.

 

 

“We also strongly support accountability for the crimes that have been committed. Ireland continues to support the work of International, Impartial and Independent Mechanism, whose experts have highlighted in clear and horrifying detail the scale of human rights violations in Syria.

 

 

“We also support the efforts of the Independent International Commission of Inquiry on the Syrian Arab Republic, which has set out detailed evidence of multiple violations of international human rights law.”

Source: Ireland to ‘champion’ respect for human rights in Syria at UN Security Council