Acting Qatari Ambassador to the UNHCR, Jawhara al-Suwaidi, said that the Syrian regime has relied since the beginning of the Syrian conflict on arbitrary detention and enforced disappearance as one of the means of war.
Suwaidi stressed the need to hold accountable all those responsible for human rights violations, war crimes and crimes against humanity in Syria.
In a statement she gave to members of the Human Rights Council at its 50th session, during the interactive dialogue with the Independent International Commission of Inquiry on the situation in Syria, Suwaidi confirmed that “more than a million Syrians have been arrested, while more than 150 thousand Syrians are still arbitrarily detained or forcibly disappeared.”
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Qatar’s statement condemned what the international investigation indicated “the Syrian regime deliberately concealed information about the fate and whereabouts of the missing, and subjected them to torture and murder, such as the massacre that took place in an al-Tadamon neighbourhood in 2013, which was recently revealed.”
Suwaidi indicated that Qatar’s position “fully agreed” with the International Commission of Inquiry’s proposal on the establishment of a mechanism to reveal the fate of missing and disappeared persons, stressing that the reason for that is moral and humanitarian before on top of being legal and human rights.
Suwaidi stressed the importance of extending the work of the Security Council resolution on the mechanism for the delivery of humanitarian aid across the border, calling for the need to exert more pressure to reach a political solution to the Syrian crisis that meets the aspirations of the Syrian people, and is in line with the Geneva 1 statement and Resolution No. 2254.
Qatar had confirmed through its Foreign Minister, Mohammed bin Abdul Rahman Al Thani, its rejection of efforts to normalize relations with the Syrian regime and the reopening of its embassy in Damascus, similar to what some Gulf countries had said earlier.
This article was translated and edited by The Syrian Observer. The Syrian Observer has not verified the content of this story. Responsibility for the information and views set out in this article lies entirely with the author.AL
