HRC 51: Statement for the Interactive Dialogue with UN Commission of Inquiry on Syria

Thank you, Mr President,

Thank you, Commissioners, for your latest report and the clear and detailed account of the human rights violations, as well as war crimes and crimes against humanity that continue to take place across Syria. The Syrian regime and its allies will bear primary responsibility for these well documented horrors. Your valuable record provides an evidentiary basis on which the international community now must act to hold perpetrators to account.

Mr President,

Tens of thousands of Syrians have been forcibly disappeared and detained during the long years of this conflict. Thousands of families still wait to hear about their loved ones.

The agony of not knowing, and the danger faced by families, particularly women, in their search for answers, must end.

No more excuses. Just recommendations do you have to ensure that lessons from other international efforts on the missing, including detained and forced disappearances, can be applied to support Syrian families in their search for their loved ones?