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STORY: GENEVA / HUMAN RIGHTS COUNCIL
TRT: 2.19
SOURCE: CH UNTV
RESTRICTIONS: NONE
LANGUAGE: ENGLISH / NATS
DATELINE: 25 FEBRUARY 2013, GENEVA, SWITZERLAND / FILE
FILE – RECENT, GENEVA, SWITZERLAND
1. Wide shot, Palais des Nations
25 FEBRUARY 2013, GENEVA, SWITZERLAND
2. Med shot, delegates
3. SOUNDBITE (English) Vuk Jeremic, President of the United Nations General Assembly:
"I wish to underline my grave concern at the perpetuation of the most horrific humanitarian tragedy of our times, the bloodbath of Syria. New allegations of human rights abuses are reported daily, with official UN statistics putting the death toll at over 70,000. Most of these casualties are believed to be civilians."
4. Tilt up, from tablet to delegates face
5. SOUNDBITE (English) Vuk Jeremic, President of the United Nations General Assembly:
"For close to two years, the international community has failed to put a stop to the carnage. The immediate cessation of hostilities should be our foremost priority. It has to be followed by a political process that would enable the citizens of Syria to freely determine the course of their political future. There is a manifest danger that the violence will simply be allowed to run its course, a scenario that would continue to disproportionately affect the civilian population."
6. Med shot, delegates
7. SOUNDBITE (English) Navi Pillay, UN High Commissioner for Human Rights:
“There are still far too many people with command responsibility who escaped justice for serious crimes and gross human rights violations. Hundreds of thousands of people have died in genocides in Rwanda and Bosnia and Herzegovina. The Palestinian Territories are still occupied. Massive violations have occurred in Iraq and Sri Lanka and war crimes continue to be committed in numerous internal conflicts including those continuing in Afghanistan, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Mali, Sudan and Syria. We must continue to nurture and strengthen the system designed to deal with such crimes and violations and those who commit them. It is also critical that we in the international community do our utmost to prevent such situations from developing and deteriorating.”
8. Med shot, delegates
The President of the United Nations General Assembly, Vuk Jeremic, warned today (25 February) that the Syrian people will continue to be subjected to untold hardship if the violence in the country is allowed to continue.
Speaking at the opening of the 22nd session of the UN Human Rights Council in Geneva, Jeremic urged the international community to make the ending of hostility in Syria their top priority.
He said the situation in Syria constituted “the most horrific humanitarian tragedy of our times and pointed out that “for close to two years, the international community has failed to put a stop to the carnage.”
He added that “there is a manifest danger that the violence will simply be allowed to run its course, a scenario that would continue to disproportionately affect the civilian population."
Opening the session, Navi Pillay, the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, joined Jeremic in criticizing the international community's inaction on Syria. Pillay said her office had pushed repeatedly for the Security Council to refer the conflict to the International Criminal Court (ICC) in The Hague.
Pilay also warned anyone committing serious human rights violations elsewhere in the world must be held accountable.
She said “war crimes continue to be committed in numerous internal conflicts including those continuing in Afghanistan, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Mali, Sudan and Syria” and “we must continue to nurture and strengthen the system designed to deal with such crimes and violations, and those who commit them.”
The Human Rights Council runs until the 22nd of March. Monday’s session features a panel of dignitaries and UN officials on the Vienna Declaration and Programme of Action, adopted in 1993.
