The conflict in Syria was the “worst man-made disaster the world has seen since World War II,” the United Nations’ human rights chief said as he called for an end to all torture, executions and unfair trials.
“Today, in a sense the entire country has become a torture-chamber: a place of savage horror and absolute injustice,” UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, Zeid Ra’ad Al Hussein, on Wednesday told a high-level panel discussion at the Human Rights Council on the situation of human rights in Syria.
The entire conflict is “this immense tidal wave of bloodshed and atrocity,” Zeid said.
He said that he had recently met with a group of Syrian women whose relatives had been detained or are simply missing.
Their relatives are among the “countless people” in Syria to suffer arbitrary detention, torture, kidnapping, and enforced disappearance.
The Office of the High Commissioner (OHCHR) has been refused access to the country, and no international human rights observers are admitted to check on sites where “very probably tens of thousands of people are currently held,” Zeid said.
Despite limited access, OHCHR is working alongside the Commission of Inquiry to collect and analyse evidence, building up the basis for criminal proceedings against individual perpetrators.
In his statement, Zeid noted that the conflict started with torture which spawned “rebel movements, fuelling violent extremists and setting the stage for a regional and proxy war”.
Nearly 6.3 million people have been displaced and an additional 4.9 million people – mostly women and children – were forced to seek refuge since 2011, according to UN figures.
His comments come as the conflict in Syria is entering its seventh year, triggered in March, 2011, when authorities clamped down on demonstrations in Damascus, setting off massive anti-government protests.
Zeid called for “ensuring accountability, establishing the truth and providing reparations”, if Syrians are ever to find peace and reconciliation.
– African News Agency