Media Home
UN Web TV
UN Audiovisual Library
UN PhotoUnifeed
GENEVA / SYRIA DEATH TOLL
STORY: GENEVA / SYRIA DEATH TOLL
TRT: 2:19
SOURCE: UNTV CH
RESTRICTIONS: NONE
LANGUAGE: ENGLISH / NATS
DATELINE: 22 AUGUST 2014, GENEVA
1. Wide shot, exterior, United Nations Geneva
2. Wide shot, press room
3. SOUNDBITE (English) Rupert Colville, Spokesperson, High Commissioner for Human Rights, United Nations:
"With additional killings reported from the earlier periods, in addition to around 62,000 the new killings in the year covered in this new analysis, the total has actually together more than doubled the number documented a year ago, which we announced in June 2013. As the report explains, unfortunately, this is probably an under estimate of the real total number of people killed during the first three years of this murderous conflict."
4. Med shot, journalist
5. SOUNDBITE (English) Rupert Colville, Spokesperson, High Commissioner for Human Rights, United Nations:
"The High Commissioner in a statement being issued now says she deeply regrets that, given the onset of so many other armed conflicts in this period of global destabilization, the fighting in Syria and its dreadful impact on millions of civilians has – to some extend – dropped off the international radar."
6. Wide shot, journalists
7. SOUNDBITE (English) Rupert Colville, Spokesperson, High Commissioner for Human Rights, United Nations:
"The killers, destroyers and torturers in Syria have been empowered and emboldened by the international paralysis. There are serious allegations that war crimes and crimes against humanity have been committed time and time again with total impunity, yet the Security Council has failed to refer the case of Syria to the International Criminal Court where it clearly belongs."
7. Close up, journalist
9. Med shot, journalists
10. SOUNDBITE (English) Rupert Colville, Spokesperson, High Commissioner for Human Rights, United Nations:
"It is an indicative number based on very very precise number of data of individuals killings. And the most important thing to remember about any number is that it’s is not a number, it's people. People are dying every single day. The rate of killings in Syria, if you look at monthly averages, is extraordinarily high still. We are talking, I think, in over the last year, around 5,000 to 6,000 per month."
11. Wide shot,press room
A report by the United Nations (UN) Human Right's Office has said that the death toll in Syria's three-year conflict has more than doubled in a year, rising to nearly 200,000.
At a press briefing today (22 Aug) in Geneva, the spokesperson for the office, Rupert Colville, quoting the UN High Commisioner for Human Rights Navi Pillay said:
"I deeply regret that, given the onset of so many other armed conflicts in this period of global destabilization, the fighting in Syria and its dreadful impact on millions of civilians has – to some extend – dropped off the international radar."
According to the report a total number of 191,369 people were killed in Syria between March 2011 and April 2014.
Colville noted that the High Commissioner cited international laxity in resolving the conflict and hence the high death toll. The High Commissioner reiterated her call that war crimes allegations in Syria should be referred to the International Criminal Court.
Pillay said "the killers, destroyers and torturers in Syria have been empowered and emboldened by the international paralysis. There are serious allegations that war crimes and crimes against humanity have been committed time and time again with total impunity, yet the Security Council has failed to refer the case of Syria to the International Criminal Court, where it clearly belongs,
The report is the third produced by the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights. It is an updated analysis carried out by specialists commissioned by the UN Human Rights Office. The document includes information from five different sources, including the government.
Colville, pointed out that the figures are not cumulative of the total number of people killed in the Syrian conflict. "It’s an indicative number based on very, very precise number of data of individual killings. And the most important thing to remember about any number is that it’s not a number, it's people. People are dying every single day. The rate of killings in Syria, if you look at monthly averages, is extraordinarily high still. We are talking, I think, in over the last year, around 5,000 to 6,000 per month."
The report states that 85.1 per cent of the victims, some 162,925 people were men while 9.3 per cent were female.
Download
There is no media available to download.
