UN report highlights dire conditions in Syria amidst escalating fighting

Syrians continued to suffer from fighting, extremely severe economic deterioration and persistent human rights violations and abuses, the UN Commission of Inquiry on Syria has said.

"Before Syria plunges deeper into escalating violence and economic decline, we call on the key actors to cease attacks on civilians and respond to their dire needs," Paulo Pinheiro, the chair of the commission, said on Tuesday at a news conference while releasing the latest report on Syria.

He urged the regime in Damascus to take heed and to respond positively to Syrians’ legitimate aspirations and rights as key to ending the conflict.

The report said: "Constructive steps taken to ease sanctions in response to the earthquake should be maintained."

Regarding the continued attacks on the areas devastated by February earthquakes, the report said it documented how the Bashar Al Assad regime and other parties "needlessly hindered life-saving aid and continued shelling targets in the earthquake-affected area."

Of the 15 attacks that the new report documented in the earthquake-affected area, "several may constitute war crimes," it added.

It said that suspected Israeli airstrikes rendered key transport infrastructure “inoperable,” with reverberating effects on humanitarian operations.

War crimes

In the past few weeks, there has been more fighting in "greater Idlib" that has forced many people to move, and in Deir Ezzor, which has caused dozens of deaths, according to the report.

There have also been many big protests for economic, social, civil, and political rights in areas controlled by the Assad regime, especially in Suweida.

Stressing that parties to the conflict continued to commit war crimes and crimes against humanity, the commission repeated its request for the freedom of all individuals detained without reason in Syria and for impartial observers to be given the opportunity to enter all detention facilities.

On living conditions at Al Hawl and Rawj camps, where an estimated 52,000 individuals, mostly women and children, are detained for almost five years, the report said the conditions are "terrible."

"We commend states who since January have repatriated over 2,000 women and children and call for such repatriations to continue," said Pinheiro.

It also welcomed the landmark resolution passed by the UN General Assembly in June, creating a dedicated institution for missing persons in Syria.

The report will be presented to the UN Human Rights Council on September 22.