Print
See related documents
Recommendation 2026 (2013) Final version
The situation in Syria
1. The Parliamentary Assembly recalls
its Resolution 1878 (2012) on the situation in Syria, in which it firmly condemned
“the widespread, systematic and gross human rights violations amounting
to crimes against humanity committed by Syrian military and security
forces” and “the human rights violations committed by some of the
armed groups combating the regime”.
2. It is appalled by the fact that, since then, the violence
has escalated, resulting in a full-fledged civil war and a humanitarian
tragedy: more than 100 000 people have died since the beginning
of the conflict, 2 million have taken refuge abroad, 4.25 million
are internally displaced and a total of 6.8 million people are in
need of humanitarian assistance. Also, gender-based violence, including
rape, the kidnapping and trafficking of women, sexual exploitation
and violence, forced prostitution and forced marriages, has become
part of a strategy aimed at destabilising the Syrian population.
The Assembly condemns in particular the large-scale use of chemical
weapons on 21 August 2013 in the Ghouta area of Damascus, which
reportedly resulted in many hundreds of deaths, particularly among
civilians, including several hundred children.
3. Once again the Assembly insists that there can be no impunity
for those who commit crimes against humanity, whoever and wherever
they are. All allegations of violations and crimes committed throughout
the Syrian conflict, by virtue of the 1949 Geneva Conventions and
the 1925 Geneva Protocol for the Prohibition of the Use of Asphyxiating,
Poisonous or Other Gases, and of Bacteriological Methods of Warfare
must be properly investigated and their perpetrators, whoever and
wherever they may be, brought to justice, including, as appropriate,
before the International Criminal Court.
4. The Assembly notes in this respect the fact that the United
Nations Mission to Investigate Allegations of the Use of Chemical
Weapons in the Syrian Arab Republic, which presented its report
on the Ghouta attack on 16 September confirming the use of chemical
weapons, has now returned to Syria to complete investigations on
allegations of six additional chemical attacks which occurred before
or after that of 21 August.
5. The Assembly welcomes the fact that, against the background
of Western threats of military strikes, political developments have
taken the upper hand. Intensive diplomatic efforts had led, by mid-September 2013,
to a United States-Russia framework agreement on the elimination
of Syrian chemical weapons and the adoption of a resolution by the
United Nations Security Council laying out the modalities of its
implementation. The United Nations Security Council Resolution 2118,
adopted on 27 September 2013 immediately after the decision of the
Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) on special
procedures for an expeditious and verifiable destruction of Syria’s
chemical weapons by mid-2014, renews hopes for peace and a political
settlement to the conflict.
6. The Assembly also welcomes the acceptance by the Syrian authorities
of the agreement, highlighted by Syria’s accession to the United
Nations Convention on the Prohibition of the Development, Production, Stockpiling
and Use of Chemical Weapons and on their Destruction and by the
handing over by the Syrian authorities of information about its
chemical weapons and related infrastructure, according to the agreement. The
United Nations Security Council resolution obliges the Syrian authorities
to accept personnel designated by the OPCW or the United Nations
and provide them with immediate and unfettered access to – and the
right to inspect – any and all chemical weapons sites.
7. The Assembly is well aware of the huge technical difficulties
and legal obstacles to the elimination of Syria’s chemical weapons,
and that the ongoing civil war in the country increases them immensely.
Strong political will is needed to work out the details of implementation
of the agreement, and strict compliance by both the Syrian authorities
and the opposition are indispensable for its success. Pending cessation
of the hostilities, ceasefires should be implemented to allow for
inspection of chemical weapons sites, as well as for the transportation
and destruction of chemical weapons.
8. In this respect, the Assembly recommends that the Committee
of Ministers urge the governments of Council of Europe member States
to:
8.1. put pressure on all sides
so as to ensure respect for the ceasefires necessary for the implementation
of the agreement;
8.2. provide additional resources to the OPCW to carry out
its challenging task.
9. The Assembly notes that whereas the international community’s
agreement on a process aimed at the elimination of Syria’s chemical
weapons has the merit of renewing hopes for peace, it does not stop
the war, which may continue with the use of conventional weapons.
Therefore, reiterating that the possibility of eliminating violence
and embracing the change for which so many lives have been sacrificed
can only be opened up to Syria though a political solution to the
conflict, the Assembly supports wholeheartedly the organisation
in Geneva of an international peace conference on Syria (Geneva
2) and hopes that it may be convened before the end of 2013.
10. The road map for a political transition in Syria, which was
endorsed by the United Nations Security Council, should gradually
lead to the creation of conditions for a Syrian-led political process
and, eventually, to free and fair elections, on the basis of the
Kofi Annan peace plan and the Geneva Communiqué of June 2012. The
Syrian people should be free to build their own future.
11. In this respect, the Assembly is concerned over the growing
rifts within the Syrian opposition as well as between its political
and military branches. The increasing presence of jihadists and
other extremist groups, including terrorist groups, among those
who are fighting the regime, fuels legitimate fears among the various religious
and ethnic minorities about their future in a post-conflict Syria.
Sadly, the United Nations Security Council Resolution 2118 seems
to have deepened divisions among the opposition groups. The Assembly
also warns against external players, who, because of specific geopolitical
interests or for sectarian reasons, are providing political, military
and financial support to extremist groups.
12. The Assembly therefore recommends that the Committee of Ministers
urge the governments of Council of Europe member States to:
12.1. make use of their bilateral
relations with Arab States and other States in the region to secure
their support for a ceasefire in preparation for the international
peace conference on Syria (Geneva 2);
12.2. engage in all international efforts aimed at uniting those
Syrian opposition groups which favour democracy and tolerance and
bring them to the negotiating table;
12.3. support the emergence of a democratic, inclusive and stable
State in Syria respectful of human rights and the rights of ethnic,
cultural and religious minorities, rather than the fall of the current
regime;
12.4. make preliminary plans to address the devastation to the
physical infrastructure resulting from the war.
13. The Assembly reiterates that the mosaic of ethnic, cultural
and religious groups which forms the Syrian population, religious
tolerance, and the sovereignty and territorial integrity of Syria,
must be preserved in a future post-conflict Syria.
14. The Assembly further believes that the emerging unity of the
international community, as witnessed by the adoption of the United
Nations Security Council Resolution 2118, should now focus on tackling
the dramatic humanitarian consequences of the conflict. In this
respect, recalling its Resolutions 1902 (2012) on the European response to the humanitarian crisis
in Syria and 1940 (2013) on the situation in the Middle East, as well as its
current affairs debate, held in April 2013, on “Syrian refugees
in Jordan, Turkey, Lebanon and Iraq: how to organise and support
international assistance?”, the Assembly:
14.1. calls on the Council of Europe member States to demonstrate
solidarity and shared responsibility by taking the necessary measures
to cater for Syrian refugees as effectively as possible. In this
respect, it welcomes the Swedish authorities’ decision to grant
permanent residence permits and the right to family reunion to all
Syrian refugees currently in the country, as well as to those who
will arrive and obtain a resident permit. It encourages other member
States to consider taking similar measures;
14.2. reiterates its gratitude to the receiving countries, in
particular the Jordanian, Turkish, Lebanese and Iraqi authorities,
for hosting and assisting Syrian refugees;
14.3. calls on the Council of Europe member States, as well
as the international community as a whole, to respond urgently to
the calls for funds, including additional funds to the United Nations
Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East
(UNRWA), to assist the Syrian refugees and also the neighbouring
countries receiving them, as well as the displaced persons within
Syria. Noting the recent sharp increase in the arrival of Syrian
refugees in European non-neighbouring countries, international solidarity
and assistance should also be extended to these countries;
14.4. underlines that the problems posed by the dramatic situation
of refugees and displaced persons in Syria and in receiving countries
can only be solved if there are prospects for peace and a political solution
to the conflict;
14.5. encourages Council of Europe member States to ensure that
the effects of the very widespread use of sexual and gender-based
violence against women, and the humanitarian consequences of the Syrian
conflict, as well as the need for urgent international assistance,
are put on the agenda of the forthcoming international peace conference
on Syria (Geneva 2).