Syrian Coalition Condemns Assad Regime’s Assaults on Children, Calls on UN to Ensure Accountability

Press Statement

Syrian Coalition

New York, NY

March 7, 2014

Over the past three years, personal testimonies and reports have outlined the terrible abuses committed by the Assad regime against Syria’s children. Children have been illegally detained, used as human shields, murdered in home raids, subjected to torture and sexual violence, and denied access to education and urgently needed medical care.

Today’s report by the Special Representative to the Secretary-General for Children and Armed Conflict to the UN Security Council offers a powerful indictment of a regime and its forces that are indiscriminately targeting Syria’s most vulnerable groups, including youth and children.

In a letter to the United Nations, sent on Thursday, March 6, 2014, Dr. Najib Ghadbian, Special Representative of the Syrian Coalition to the United Nations, condemned the Assad regime for its repeated use of children as instruments of war. “These egregious violations must come to an end and more serious action must be taken to protect and uphold the rights of all children in Syria and to hold all perpetrators to account in accordance with international standards,” wrote Dr. Ghadbian.

The Syrian Coalition calls on the Assad regime to immediately stop any and all of its actions that maim, torture and destroy the lives of Syrian children. All forces under the regime’s command must respect basic moral standards and do everything to avoid harming Syrian civilian populations, and children in particular.

The Syrian Coalition, and its partner the Free Syrian Army, have taken a number of concrete measures to protect and advance the rights of Syria’s children. These include implementing new training for Free Syrian Army members in International Humanitarian Law to eliminate the recruitment and participation of children in armed conflict.

We call on the UN Security Council to do more to protect Syria’s civilians and enact concrete measures to ensure full accountability with international humanitarian law, to ensure that the Assad regime can no longer commit crimes against children with impunity.

We ask for Mercy for our martyrs, health for our wounded, and freedom for our detainees.

Long live Syria and its people, free and with honor.