UN Condemns Assad's Human Rights Violations and Demands Full Accountability for Chemical Weapons Attacks

Press Statement

Syrian Coalition

Istanbul, Turkey

November 19, 2013

The Syrian Coalition welcomes today’s adoption of the United Nations General Assembly Resolution on the Situation of Human Rights in the Syrian Arab Republic. The resolution highlights the failure of the Syrian regime to protect its own population and underlines the serious and systematic violations of human rights that Assad’s security forces, foreign combatants and shabiha militias continue to perpetrate against the Syrian people.

“The message sent by this resolution is strong and clear,” said Dr. Ghadbian, Special Representative of the Syrian Coalition to the UN. “The Syrian regime is responsible for war crimes and crimes against humanity and it must be held to account, including for its chemical weapons attacks in eastern Ghouta, which cost the lives of more than 1,400 Syrians.”

For more than two and a half years, the Assad regime has been the driver of Syria’s conflict as it has systematically targeted innocent civilians, including women and children, through the use of heavy weapons, aerial bombardment, gender based-violence, starvation and chemical weapons, in an effort to suppress a popular revolution. These acts have destroyed the livelihoods of millions of Syrians and cost the lives of more than 115,000 people. As further evidence of its brutality, the Syrian regime has, by its own admission, also sought to starve its people into submission, deploying starvation as a weapon of war in areas such as Moadamiya, Yarmouk and Homs.

“Following the adoption of this resolution, it is now incumbent upon the international community to move swiftly to stop further human rights violations in Syria, and to support our country’s transition to democracy” stated Dr. Ghadbian. “By explicitly identifying the Syrian regime as responsible for the chemical weapons attacks committed in eastern Ghouta, this resolution makes absolutely clear that Assad cannot be a part of a democratic transition, and has no place in a future Syria.”

The Syrian Coalition calls on the regime to heed the demands of the international community and immediately release all persons arbitrarily detained. It further calls on all Assad forces to desist from any attacks that target medical centers, schools and water stations and to immediately open humanitarian corridors into besieged areas.

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.