Nearly all of them are sheltering inside the Bardarash refugee camp, around 140 kilometres east of the border. In March, the UN Commission of Inquiry on Syria issued a report on sexual and gender-based violence from March 2011 to December 2017 finding that the rape and sexual violence committed by government forces and associated militias amounted to war crimes and crimes against humanity. Between 2013 and 2018, Human Rights Watch and seven other independent, international organizations investigated and confirmed at least 85 chemical weapons attacks – the majority perpetrated by Syrian government forces. In a positive step, in September, the Syrian Democratic Forces pledged to stop recruiting children. ♦ Receive daily updates directly in your inbox -. From January to April 2018 more than 920,000 individuals had been newly displaced inside of Syria, according to the UN. The updates provided no specific details other than date and, occasionally, cause of death, and the government failed to provide the remains to the families. Anti-government groups in Idlib detained individuals attempting reconciliation with the government, media activists, and restricted humanitarian aid. The European Union and the United States have maintained that they will not fund reconstruction in government-held Syria in the absence of a political transition along the lines of the UN Security Council resolution 2254. 22 October 2019 Peace and Security After nearly two weeks of fighting in northeast Syria, the UN’s humanitarian wing has estimated that around 180,000 have been forced to leave their homes or shelters, including 80,000 children, all in desperate need of humanitarian assistance. Evidence suggests the alliance used incendiary weapons in Ghouta and Daraa. Well over eight years of war have now displaced 13 million people, according to the Commission of Inquiry report, amid violence involving Government-backed forces, Hay’at Tahrir al Sham (HTS) opposition fighters and the US-led international coalition, as well as Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF). As active conflict partially decreases, Russia and Syria called for refugees to return and Syria passed laws to facilitate reconstruction. At least 390 children have died from malnutrition or untreated infected wounds, the investigators said. An internally displaced girl from Daraa province carries a stuffed toy and holds the hand of child near the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights in Quneitra, Syria June 29, 2018. Neighboring countries – including Turkey, Jordan, and Lebanon – continued to prevent Syrians from seeking asylum at their borders, despite serious risks of violence. ISIS and Al-Qaeda affiliates in Syria continued to perpetrate abuses, ranging from summary executions and kidnappings to interference in aid delivery. Russia refused to grant asylum to a Syrian national, claiming that his case was baseless given “the ongoing events on [Syria’s] territory have specific characteristics of a counterterrorist operation, not a classical military confrontation.”. In June, Germany's chief federal prosecutor reportedly issued an arrest warrant for a senior Syrian military official on charges of war crimes. After nearly two weeks of fighting in northeast Syria, the UN’s humanitarian wing has estimated that around 180,000 have been forced to leave their homes or shelters, including 80,000 children, all in desperate need of humanitarian assistance. In the meantime, the fate of thousands of those kidnapped by ISIS in the east of Syria before they lost the territory remains unknown, with little effort by the Syrian Democratic Forces and US-led coalition to uncover their whereabouts. “Up to 70,000 individuals remain interned in deplorable and inhumane conditions at Al Hol camp, the vast majority of whom are women and children under the age of 12,” he said. The Syrian-Russian military alliance used internationally banned cluster munitions and chemical weapons in re-taking areas. “Those who are in charge of these camps have limited resources as well,” she said. In an effort to oust HTS fighters, “aerial and ground offensives by pro-Government forces to oust those militants and affiliated armed groups from Idlib, northern Hama, Latakia and western Aleppo escalated dramatically” in February, Mr. Pinheiro added, “destroying infrastructure essential to the survival of the civilian population, forcing almost half a million civilians to flee”. It will host a third in March 2019. Russia has called on the European Union and Western states to support reconstruction in Syria, currently predicted to cost at least US$250 billion. In April, EU foreign ministers reiterated their joint commitment to “relentlessly” pursue the release of civilians detained and disappeared, and alongside the UN, co-chaired the Brussels II conference on Syria. The actual number of chemical attacks is likely higher. Similarly, on June 16, the alliance led an offensive in Daraa and Quneitra governorates, southwest of Syria, triggering massive displacement towards Jordan and the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights. “I mean they’re put in places where there’s not good people in charge", she asserted, "or people who are really interested in the future of these children, or anybody else in these camps, women as well.”. In January, Russia hosted a Syrian People’s Congress in Sochi to agree on a new constitution. The European Union’s response to the Syrian refugee crisis continued to fall short, with its emphasis on preventing arrivals from Turkey and confining those who do in overcrowded, unsanitary camps on Greek islands. As of June 2018, Jordan has registered around 666,294 Syrian refugees. “The Alouk water station, which serves nearly half a million people in Al-Hassakeh city and the surrounding displacement camps, has been out of service for the past ten days” the Office explained, but with help from the Syrian Arab Red Crescent (SARC), together with water and electricity experts, temporary repairs mean that safe water is flowing again. pic.twitter.com/QaYDVv3CoQ. According to the Commission’s report, the humanitarian response to needs at Al Hol “remains woefully inadequate”, with hundreds of preventable deaths recorded. Updating journalists on the conflict elsewhere in the country – particularly in Idlib, the last opposition-held bastion and Deir Ez Zor in the east - Mr. Pinheiro insisted that civilians continue to bear the brunt of hostilities. The United States also froze its funding for recovery and stabilization in areas captured from ISIS, asking the UAE and Saudi Arabia to step in to support local authorities, which they did. While needs in Al Hol remain high; services have gradually improved, Mr. Laerke noted, particularly in terms of health, with three new field hospitals in the camp. Since January, the Autonomous Administration and the Asayish, the local police, detained at least 20 members of the Kurdish National Council, a coalition of opposition Kurdish parties, and in some cases appear to have forcibly disappeared them. The Kurds provided most of the frontline fighters belonging to a US-led coalition that pushed ISIL terrorists out of its strongholds across the region, but Turkey regards them as terrorists, only pausing its offensive at the request of the US. A significant number of those interned at Al-Hol camp also include tens of thousands of people who fled the bombardment of Baghouz town - an ISIL stronghold in eastern Syria - straining further the already severely overstretched humanitarian resources. However, several European states, including France and Switzerland are seeking to support rehabilitation and stabilization efforts in areas re-taken by the government, or have opened humanitarian offices in Damascus. The Commission’s 21-page report also highlights hostilities in the east that included the “large-scale operations” by the US-led international coalition and the Syrian Democratic Forces causing “near complete destruction of widespread destruction” of towns and villages in and around Hajin and Baghuz in Deir ez Zor, Mr. Pinheiro noted. In July, the Syrian government updated civil registries to include death certificates for hundreds of individuals previously detained or disappeared by the government. In Qaboun and Darayya the government has restricted access for civilian residents seeking to return to their homes, and has unlawfully demolished residents’ private homes, without providing notice, alternative housing, or compensation. Russia, Iran, and Turkey have repeatedly made commitments to resolve arbitrary detention and enforced disappearances as guarantors of the Astana talks. Hay’at Tahrir al-Sham (HTS), an Al-Qaeda affiliate present in Idlib, carried out arbitrary arrests and kidnappings that targeted local political opponents and journalists. It will host a third in March 2019. Turkish media reported the YPG launched indiscriminate attacks on Turkish border towns and killed at least seven civilians. Russia remains the primary arms supplier to the Syrian government. A small number of refugees have returned to Syria under localized agreements, however these are not overseen by UNHCR. Some refugees have said they are returning because of harsh policies and deteriorating conditions in Lebanon, not because they think Syria is safe. The Security Council has “utterly failed Syrian detainees and their families”, Amina Khoulani, Co-founder of Families for Freedom, told the Security Council on Wednesday, during a meeting focussed on those who have been jailed or gone missing across Syria, during years of brutal conflict. The humanitarian aspect of the Syrian conflict is one of few where the council maintains consensus. Israel also reportedly conducted several strikes on government-held areas. The volatile situation on the ground has pushed thousands to flee to neighboring Iraq, with more than 7,100 Syrian refugees arriving there since last Monday, according to UNHCR. This was despite an agreement between Russia and Turkey in September 2018 to establish a demilitarized zone in Idlib, he noted. Around three quarters of Syrian refugees are women and children, some requiring psycho-social first aid and support, after witnessing explosions and shelling and living in fear in midst of the fighting. In Idlib, “(HTS) terrorists attacked military positions of pro-government forces and indiscriminately launched rockets towards Government-held areas”, Mr. Pinheiro said, “killing and maiming dozens of civilians in the countryside of Aleppo, Hama and elsewhere”. The US renewed its grant of Temporary Protected Status (TPS) to almost 7,000 Syrians living in the United States, but did not extend the status to any new Syrians. Making an impassioned appeal on behalf of older children from 12 to 18, questioning whether allegations and suspicions of terrorist affiliation levelled against them were correct, he said that the Commission "finds this completely appalling.”. In June, Germany's chief federal prosecutor reportedly issued an arrest warrant for a senior Syrian military official on charges of war crimes. In August, the US announced it would pull back hundreds of millions of dollars in funding allocated to rebuild parts of Syria previously held by ISIS. Upon returning from a visit to Syria’s northeast, Iman Riza, who heads up the UN refugee agency (UNHCR) in the country, said the successful water restoration will “avert a more serious humanitarian problem for residents in the area”, adding that he was “struck by their heightened vulnerability.”. Landmines planted by ISIS before fleeing continued to kill and maim civilians. In late 2017, the UN Security Council renewed the mandate for cross-border aid delivery. While the United States-led coalition re-opened investigations into civilian casualties from its strikes and admitted to inadvertently killing civilians, it did not provide transparency around these investigations nor compensation for victims. Limiting Beijing’s Influence Over Accountability and Justice, Convincing “Middle Powers” to Fight Autocrats Despite High Costs, Time to Re-Energize the “Never Again” Movement, Human Judgment and Responsibility in the Age of Technology, Helping Older People Stay Connected, and at Home, Changing the Terms of Engagement with Silicon Valley. Russia used its veto in the Security Council in February and April, preventing the creation of a UN-led investigatory mechanism. Critical civilian infrastructure has been damaged, the agency said, explaining that in addition to a key water station which is now inoperable due to power line damage, at least four medical facilities are reported to be affected. As the people of north-west Syria face intensifying violence, tens of thousands of women and children continue to be kept in “inhumane conditions” in a remote camp on the other side of the country, UN-appointed independent investigators said on Wednesday. The Violations Documentation Center (VDC), a local monitoring group, has compiled 60,000 names of those detained by the government since 2011 whose fate remains unknown. After several reported chemical attacks during the first half of the year, in an unprecedented step, the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) was authorized to attribute responsibility for attacks in Syria. As of May, Turkey had registered almost 3.6 million Syrian refugees in the country. However, in June, states parties to the Chemical Weapons Conventions granted the OPCW permanent authorization to investigate and assign responsibility for chemical weapons attacks. Indiscriminate attacks on civilians and civilian objects by the Syrian-Russian military alliance persisted in 2018. Years of relentless fighting left 6.6 million displaced internally and 5.6 million around the world, according to the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR). Blanket and food rations are set to reach some 580,000 civilians in Raqqa and Hasakeh governorates, and efforts are underway to provide essential services, in preparation for the onset of winter. Between October 2017 and April 2018, more than 1,000 people have been injured or killed by mines, according to local medical workers. Parties to the conflict continued to use unlawful weapons. Close to 180,000 people have now been displaced in NE Syria: 80,000 of them children.Despite security and access challenges, humanitarians are scaling up life-saving aid and essential services such as health and water. Meanwhile, the International, Impartial and Independent Mechanism (IIIM), a quasi-special prosecutor’s office established by the UN General Assembly in December 2016, continued to gather and preserve evidence for future criminal prosecutions. The committee has not been created yet. It also maintained a ban on Syrian citizens entering the United States. In December 2017, the guarantors established a working group on detentions and abductions in the Syrian conflict. The body is reportedly opening two cases in 2018. In areas controlled by anti-government groups and the Syrian Democratic Forces, most Western donors continue to provide humanitarian aid. In November, all the remaining hostages were freed according to the state news agency. As the Islamic State and armed opposition groups relinquished territorial control inside Syria, the Syrian government and its foreign partners made significant military and territorial gains. The group continued to interfere with humanitarian access and aid distribution in areas under its control. The UN and partners are scaling up life-saving assistance, despite ongoing security roadblocks. The UN-led political negotiations remained at a standstill, while Russia continued its attempts to politically legitimize the government’s military gains. Shelling and clashes in northern Syria on the border with Turkey continue to cause hundreds of people to flee, the UN said on Friday, despite a cessation of hostilities deal between Turkish forces and Syrian-backed Kurdish military. “Substantial” shortfalls in humanitarian funding are placing the lives of millions of children in areas affected by conflict and disaster at risk, the UN Children’s Fund (UNICEF) warned on Tuesday. The US assisted the SDF in northern Syria to detain hundreds of foreign ISIS suspects, and has begun returning suspected fighters to their countries, without transparency, raising human rights concerns. "I think it would be unfair to blame those who are holding those people there”. In early 2019, the White House announced that several hundred U.S. troops would remain in Syria. Reacting to the Commission’s findings, the UN Office for the Coordination for Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) said it shared the panel’s concerns, adding that more than 30 humanitarian partners face “enormous strain” to deliver services in Al Hol camp. In areas reclaimed by the Government - such as Dar’a in the south and Duma near Damascus - civilians, including recent returnees, have been arbitrarily arrested and detained, the report maintains. France issued its own arrest warrants in November. The UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) reported on Tuesday that despite a shaky five-day ceasefire, airstrikes and a ground offensive launched by Turkey on 9 October, targeting Kurdish held areas across the border, has had a “significant humanitarian impact.”. UNHCR and partners have supplied hot meals, camp transportation, shelter and protection services, in addition to protection monitoring, child protection and identification of unaccompanied children and persons with special needs. In September, the US announced that it intended to maintain a military presence in Syria, despite having announced a pullback earlier in the year. As of August 30, more than 90,000 individuals were forcibly disappeared in Syria, most at the hands of the Syrian government, according to the Syrian Network for Human Rights (SNHR), a local monitoring organization. Lebanon’s residency policy makes it difficult for Syrians to maintain legal status. The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (SOHR), a monitoring group based in the UK, estimated the death toll since the start of the war to be as high as 511,000 as of March 2018. Turkish-supported non-state armed groups affiliated with the Free Syrian Army also seized, destroyed, and looted properties of Kurdish civilians in Afrin, while local activists reported at least 86 incidents of abuse that appeared to amount to unlawful arrests, torture, and disappearances by those groups. Between February and April, anti-government groups based in Ghouta – including Jaysh al-Islam, Ahrar al-Sham, and Faylaq al-Rahmane – killed and maimed hundreds of civilians in indiscriminate attacks on Damascus. The law empowers the government to confiscate residents’ property without due process or adequate compensation. Hundreds of thousands of civilians in both locations also lack adequate access to water, electricity and education, the report adds. Little progress has been made in providing the necessary resources for recovery, and/or compensation for civilian victims of attacks. Since January, however, ten provinces – including Istanbul and Hatay – suspended Syrian asylum seeker registration. The Syrian Democratic Council, a civilian authority operating in areas retaken from ISIS, and the Kurdish-majority Autonomous Administration overseeing displacement camps in the northeast, confiscated identification documents of displaced persons and arbitrarily prevented them from leaving the camps and moving freely. Highlighting the Convention on the Rights of the Child, which explicitly calls on States to protect children and register them immediately after birth, Mr. Pinheiro maintained that there was a “shared responsibility of several Member States" concerning the state of the camp. Despite this, government forces continued to violate human rights and international humanitarian law, arbitrarily detaining and mistreating people, and imposing onerous restrictions on freedom of movement. They risk being left stateless because Member States appear unwilling to repatriate them, fearing extremist links, panel chair Paulo Pinheiro explained. According to news reports on Tuesday, Turkey’s President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said his forces would resume their offensive unless Kurdish fighters fully withdraw from the border area by the day’s end. On accountability, the council remains deadlocked due to Russia’s use of the veto. Full report & press release: https://t.co/8Hdlaw0gQM @UNGeneva pic.twitter.com/j25dxhrAIA. Prior to the arrivals over the last week, around 228,000 Syrian refugees have fled to Iraq due to more than eight years of conflict in their home country. A four-year-old girl wanders in Bardarash camp in Duhok, Iraq, one of thousands of Syria refugees who have fled fighting in the northeast of their country. Most of the 3,500 children held there lack birth registration documents, the Commission said in its latest report on the conflict. At the time of writing, a tenuous ceasefire was holding in Idlib between the Syrian-Russian military alliance and anti-government armed groups. The Bardarash camp has a water and electricity supply and sewage system, but the networks need beefing up and refugees continue to arrive, UNHCR said. In November, in response to international pressure, the Syrian parliament amended the law. On January 20, Turkey launched a military offensive in Afrin district in northwest Syria, previously under the control of the Kurdish-majority Autonomous Administration. Although exhumation of mass grave sites began in Raqqa city, little support has been provided to develop clear protocols to preserve or forensically identify the dead. The ♦ Receive daily updates directly in your inbox -, OCHA staff assist an Iraqi woman taking her four-day-old grandson to a health clinic in Al Hol camp, Syria. As of Tuesday, around half of those affected by the water crisis have access to potable supply, while the rest will gain access in the coming hours and days - the result of two consecutive missions across active frontlines to repair the damaged powerlines - an effort made possible by deconfliction efforts led by the UN and Turkish Government. Despite an agreement signed nearly a year ago on a halt to further escalation in Syria’s war-battered Idlib, “the bombing and fighting go on in plain sight, day in and day out”, the UN humanitarian chief told the Security Council on Thursday. Yet, little progress has been made. “Against this backdrop, humanitarian needs continue to grow”, OCHA said. As of March, the Turkish offensive reportedly resulted in the deaths of dozens of civilians, and displaced tens of thousands according to the United Nations. Municipalities in Lebanon forcibly evicted thousands of refugees in mass expulsions without a legal basis or due process. The United States’ policies on Syria oscillated. Turkish security forces intercepted and deported thousands of newly arrived Syrian asylum seekers at the Turkey-Syrian border during the year, and summarily deported them to the war-ravaged Syrian governorate of Idlib. However, Jordan helped evacuate members of the Syrian Civil Defense, a humanitarian emergency response team affiliated with the opposition, whom Germany, the United Kingdom and Canada, among others, agreed to resettle. According to the Commission’s report, this violence destroyed infrastructure “essential to the survival of the civilian population, including hospitals, markets, educational facilities and agricultural resources, and forcing hundreds of thousands to flee”. Jordan categorically refused to open the border – closed since June 2016 – to incoming asylum seekers fleeing hostilities in the southwest. Government forces used a combination of unlawful tactics, including prohibited weapons, indiscriminate strikes, and restrictions on humanitarian aid, to force anti-government groups to surrender in these areas, resulting in mass displacement. Seventy-four percent of Syrians in Lebanon lack legal residency and risk detention for being in the country unlawfully. Instead, Turkish authorities have opened several displacement camps in areas under their control in Syria. Russia, Turkey, and Iran continued their tripartite meetings on Syria, holding three summit-level meetings in 2018 and three rounds of talks in the Astana process, negotiations on de-escalation held regularly in Astana, Kazakhstan since 2017. Echoing Mr. Pinheiro’s appeal for international assistance, panel member Karen Abuzayd insisted that it was not a case of blaming one side or another. Over 1,600 civilians were reportedly killed between February 18 until March 21. The Syrian-Russian military alliance struck at least 25 medical facilities, 11 schools, and countless civilian residences. In areas re-taken from the Islamic State (also known as ISIS), the high toll of the war in civilian casualties and damaged infrastructure became clearer. Describing the situation at Al Hol camp as “appalling”, the UN Commission of Inquiry on Syria called on the international community to take action. In 2017, Lebanese authorities stepped up calls for refugees to return, despite the ongoing conflict and well-founded fears of persecution. More than a million Syrian refugees are registered with UNHCR in Lebanon. In addition, much-needed psychological support is only provided on a limited basis to Yazidi women and children, who fled ISIL massacres in neighbouring Iraq in 2014. “People who fled to the camp have suffered under ISIL for years, and many arrived at the camp in poor health”, OCHA spokesperson Jens Laerke said, noting that as the camp expanded from 10,000 people “to over 70,000 in a matter of months”, humanitarian organizations ramped up their response.