Human Rights Commissioner condemns attack on Syrian refugee camp

> I am horrified by the air strike on the Al-Shajara camp in southern Syria on 18 June in which numerous internally displaced persons, including many women and children, lost their lives. It is completely unacceptable that people in need of protection who are fleeing from conflict and have found provisional refuge in a camp are the victims of a military strike.

> In this context I condemn in the strongest terms the use of barrel bombs in civilian residential areas. This devastating weapon has unleashed immeasurable suffering in Syria. Its arbitrary use is time and again causing the civilian population to flee within the country and beyond its borders.

> The Syrian Government has an obligation to protect the Syrian population. Moreover, all parties to the conflict must observe international humanitarian law, in particular with regard to the necessary protection of the civilian population. For this reason I urge all parties to the conflict to refrain from drawing camps for internally displaced persons and refugees into the conflict, to refrain at all costs from attacking protected persons and to avoid preventing essential supplies from getting through to these people.