UAE backs recommendations of UN report on human rights violations in Syria

Geneva: Ambassador Obaid Salem Al Zaabi, UAE Representative to United Nations in Geneva and other International Organisations, has commended the members of UN independent panel investigating human rights violations in Syria, on their efforts in compiling the report on the dire conditions in Syria in the light of continuous violence by the regular forces and their allies against the civilians there. The 25th regular session of the Human Rights Council is being held from 3 - 28 March 2014. Delivering the UAE speech before the Human Rights Council during interactive debate on the Syria human rights report, the report referred to the continuous deterioration of human rights in Syria since the war erupted in March 2011. He added thousands of Syrian civilians are killed daily, while thousands of others are under the siege. He added they are deprived of humanitarian aid and basic needs such as food and medical care. Ambassador Al Zaabi noted that the Syrian regime has recently used the siege and starvation as war weapons in a blatant violation of human rights. He said the UAE backs the report, which calls for tracking down those involved in war crimes to bring them to book. "The savagery and human rights violations being committed in Syria require concerted effort from the international community to put an end to the tragic situation." Al Zaabi said the UAE and other states back The National Coalition for Syrian Revolutionary and Opposition Forces, being also backed internationally, to continue efforts to build a plural free united Syria. He regretted non-cooperation of the Syrian regime with the independent panel, reiterating the UAE's support to the panel's recommendation to the UN Security Country to end the violence and encourage comprehensive dialogue in accordance with the Geneva I recommendations that call for commencement of the sustainable political transitional process at earliest. – Emirates News Agency, WAM