UAE expresses great concern over human rights abuses in Syria

GENEVA, 16th March 2016 (WAM) --- The UAE has expressed its great concern over the human rights abuses documented by the latest report of a U.N. commission investigating human rights abuses. "Despite the fact that the Syrian regime and its militias are the main cause of the crisis, the U.N. Security Council's adoption of 15 resolutions since the onset of the crisis has changed nothing on the ground, which confirms that this council is unable to enforce its resolutions which it issued to settle the situation in Syria, as this report shows," Permanent Representative of the UAE to United Nations Office at Geneva, Ambassador Obaid Salem Saeed Al Zaabi, said in a statement during the interactive dialogue with the United Nations Commission of Inquiry on Syria, at the Human Rights Council in Geneva. He said the UAE is greatly concerned over the human rights abuses documented by the Human Rights Council's Independent International Commission of Inquiry on the Syrian Arab Republic, including massive and systematised violence - including the killing of detainees in official and makeshift detention centres - which has taken place out of sight. He praised the commission for preparing its report despite the fact that the Syrian regime has consistently denied the commission and other international human rights monitoring organisations unfettered access to its territory following the adoption of Human Rights Council Resolution 22/24. Al Zaabi said these abuses are in violation of Common Article 3 of Geneva Conventions of 1949 to which the Syrian government is party. For the U.N. commission, these human rights violations are war crimes and their perpetrators should be held to account, he said. Speaking on the humanitarian situation in Syria, the UAE representative strongly condemned the bombing of hospitals and noted that the UAE backs the U.N. commission's calls for opening safe humanitarian corridors to enable international relief teams to deliver aid to affected areas. He said the UAE was at the forefront of countries that delivered aid to the Syrian people in 2012. To date, more than US$597 million were offered by the UAE to help the Syrian people, including the construction of a refugee camp and a hospital in Jordan. Moreover, the UAE is supporting the United Nations' humanitarian assistance for neighbouring countries through three international donor conference held in Kuwait. The UAE continues to cooperate with international humanitarian partners, including OCHA, UNICEF and UNHCR, operating in Syria and neighbouring countries to promote food security The U.N. commission's latest report entitled "Out of Sight, Out of Mind: Deaths in Detention in the Syrian Arab Republic". Al Zaabi concluded his statement by saying the UAE has great hopes that U.N. Security Council's resolution 2268, adopted in 2016, would achieve the goal of enforcing a ceasefire and a cessation of hostilities to pave the way for a solution that fulfils the aspirations of the brotherly Syrian people. – Emirates News Agency, WAM - http://www.wam.ae/en/news/emirates/1395292935640.html