7560th Security Council Meeting on Situation in Middle East

Protecting Civilians, Providing Unimpeded Humanitarian Aid Must Remain Focus of International Efforts, Security Council Told during Briefings on Syria.

7560th Meeting (PM)

• Categories: Meetings & Events / Security Council
• Video Length: 02:29:43
• Production Date: 16 November 2015
• Asset Language: Arabic; Chinese; English; French; Russian; Spanish
• Personal Subject: LEILA ZERROUGUI; STEPHEN O'BRIEN; ZAINAB BANGURA
• Subject Topical: CIVILIAN PROTECTION; CONFLICT SITUATION; HUMANITARIAN AFFAIRS; HUMANITARIAN CRISIS; HUMANITARIAN RELIEF; REFUGEES
• Geographic Subject: MIDDLE EAST; SYRIA
• MAMS Id: 1510617
• Parent Id: 1508331

Description

Political Solution Must Be First Step in Resolving Situation, Delegations Stress.

As the international community approached a critical juncture in the five-year-long Syrian crisis, its focus must remain on protecting civilians and ensuring they enjoyed unimpeded access to humanitarian aid, senior United Nations officials emphasized as they briefed the Security Council today.

“Parties to the conflict continue to commit unthinkable atrocities on a daily basis, plunging Syria and its citizens deeper into darkness,” said Stephen O’Brien, Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs and Emergency Relief Coordinator, as he addressed the 15-member body. Describing the crisis as a “chronicle of missed opportunities” for the international community, he nonetheless welcomed recent international talks in Vienna and called on stakeholders to seize that momentum towards a negotiated political solution.

He went on to note that, to date, the conflict had cost an estimated 250,000 people their lives, given rise to extremist and terrorist groups, and reduced much of Syria to rubble. The fighting had also propelled the world’s largest humanitarian crisis of the twenty-first century — with some 13.5 million people in Syria needing some form of humanitarian assistance — and driven more than four million people to seek refuge outside their home country. Medicine and medical supplies continued to be prevented from reaching those who desperately needed them, he said, adding that only a small portion of the 4.5 million needy people in hard-to-reach areas had been reached in 2015. He called upon the Syrian authorities urgently to approve humanitarian convoys, and on non-State armed opposition groups, as well as listed terrorist groups, to allow passage for the deliveries they were blocking.

Zainab Hawa Bangura, Special Representative of the Secretary-General on Sexual Violence in Conflict, said women and girls caught up in the Syrian conflict were under assault every day and at every point of their lives. Sexual violence had been perpetrated by most of the belligerent parties as a tactic of war aimed at advancing extremist and strategic objectives. Stressing that the response to such crimes must go beyond security and military considerations — to encompass legislative and service-delivery dimensions — she underscored the importance of commitment by leaders at the regional, national and local levels. Services were also needed for survivors of sexual violence in Syria and neighbouring countries, she added.

Also briefing the Council was Leila Zerrougui, Special Representative of the Secretary-General for Children and Armed Conflict, who said that most of the children killed or injured had been the victims of indiscriminate attacks on civilian areas by all parties to the conflict. Aerial bombardments by Syrian Government forces, including the use of barrel bombs and successive air strikes, continued to cause a significant proportion of verified child causalities in 2015, she noted. A continuing feature of the conflict was the widespread recruitment and use of children by all non-State armed groups, she continued, adding that the Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) and al‑Nusra Front had used children to perpetrate acts of extreme violence. Reports indicated that children as young as seven years of age had been recruited by armed groups, and ISIL had allegedly recruited up to 400 children in the first quarter of 2015.

As the floor was opened for statements by Council members, a number of speakers underlined the need to capitalize on the political momentum sparked by the recent international talks in Vienna, describing the talks — aimed at producing a timetable for a political transition and elections in Syria — as a critical opportunity that must not be squandered.

Justine Greening, Secretary of State for International Development of the United Kingdom — who presided over today’s meeting — said the generosity of Syria’s neighbouring States had not been matched by the international community at large. United Nations appeals for the country were only 45 per cent funded amid the continuing political deadlock, and time was running out to meet the most basic needs of the Syrian people. “There can be no excuse for preventing humanitarian agencies from reaching those in need,” she emphasized.

Many speakers echoed the need to focus on humanitarian assistance and the protection of civilians, even as the Vienna talks presented a “glimmer of hope” for a political solution to the crisis. Meanwhile, the Russian Federation’s representative said the politicization of human rights and humanitarian issues was unacceptable at the present decisive stage.

In light of the recent attacks in Paris and Beirut, among other places, a number of delegations strongly condemned terrorist acts, with some saying that Syria had become “the greatest factory manufacturing terrorists”. Still others called for the creation of an international anti-terrorism coalition under the auspices of the United Nations.

Also addressing the recent terror attacks, Syria’s representative pointed out that similar actions carried out in his country had not received sufficient attention. Certain Council members had prevented the body nine times from issuing a mere press statement condemning similar attacks against innocent civilians in Aleppo and Damascus. Syria was fighting terrorists on behalf of the entire world, he said, adding that those who distorted that reality were accomplices in terrorism and partners in shedding the blood of the victims. It was time the world woke up, he said, calling for words to be accompanied by action while expressing concern that States continued to fund terrorist activities in his country.

The meeting began at 3:10 p.m. and ended at 5:40 p.m.