»Der UN-Sicherheitsrat hat beim Schutz der Zivilbevölkerung versagt.«

Introduction

The unanimous adoption of UN Security Council Resolution 2139 (UNSCR 2139) at the end of February 2014 brought with it much needed hope for people in Syria and across the Middle East. In the resolution, the UN Security Council (UNSC) – the body responsible for international peace and security – called for an urgent increase in access to humanitarian aid in Syria and demanded that all parties immediately cease attacks against civilians, end arbitrary detention, kidnapping and torture, and lift sieges of populated areas.

In July and December 2014, the UNSC adopted two additional resolutions – 2165 and 2191 – which, among other things, authorized UN aid operations into Syria from neighbouring countries without requiring the consent of the Syrian government.

With these resolutions, the UNSC proved it could finally unite to prioritize the needs of civilians in Syria and to demand an end to their suffering. However, the resolutions, and the hope they provided, have rung hollow for Syrian civilians. They have been ignored or undermined by the parties to the conflict, other UN member states, and even by members of the UNSC itself.

In the 12 months since Resolution 2139 was passed, civilians in Syria have witnessed ever-increasing destruction suffering and death. Humanitarian needs have increased by nearly a third compared with 2013. More than 11.6 million people are now in urgent need of clean water and nearly ten million people do not have enough to eat. In December 2013 UNICEF declared that there were 4.3 million children in need of humanitarian assistance inside Syria. By December 2014 this number had risen to 5.6 million. More than 212,000 people are still living in besieged locations, including 163,500 in Eastern Ghouta5 and over 4.8 million reside in areas that aid agencies operating from inside Syria can either reach only sporadically or in many locations not at all.
This spiralling catastrophe is a stain on the conscience of the international community. The resolutions passed by the UNSC provide a framework to end the suffering in the short and longer term, and the parties to the conflict are under an obligation to implement them. While the UNSC has the legal authority to demand these changes, its members and their allies have the political, diplomatic and financial influence, and the ability, to ensure these changes actually happen. Without action by individual governments, the demands within these resolutions remain little more than words on a page. They can no longer be ignored.

Protection of Civilians

The year following the adoption of UNSC Resolution 2139 saw a dramatic intensification of the violence in Syria. Reports indicate that at least 76,000 people were killed in 2014 out of a total of 220,000 since the crisis began, including thousands of children. The exact death toll is unknown, and possibly much higher. Deliberate attacks, including the organized murder, rape, and torture of men, women and children continue to be committed by different sides in the conflict throughout Syria every day.

According to the UN Secretary-General:

Despite the adoption of Presidential Statement 2013/15, Resolutions 2139 (2014) and 2165 (2014), the protection situation has worsened. Reportedly, over 1,000 civilian deaths have occurred in August (2014), the deadliest [month] since the start of the war. Civilians live in appalling conditions.

In the past year an additional 2.5 million people, including more than a million children, were forced to leave their homes and are now displaced inside Syria or have fled across international borders. This represents a 26 percent increase compared with 2013. 12.2 million people or two thirds of the population within Syria are now in need of emergency assistance. This represents a 31 percent increase over 2013 and an 80 percent increase compared with two years ago.

At the same time, countries neighbouring Syria are making it increasingly difficult for people fleeing the conflict to seek asylum. It is estimated that hundreds of thousands of people are living in camps or with host families near or even on the borders of neighbouring countries, many unable to leave Syria.

Sexual Violence

Women and children have been particularly affected by the violence. The UN Commission of Inquiry and other bodies have documented the use of rape as a systematic and widespread method of war in Syria. Sexual violence against men, women, and even children has reportedly been perpetrated on a large scale in government detention facilities, alongside ever-increasing incidents of sexual harassment, intimidation and rape of women at checkpoints. There are also documented cases of opposition groups specifically targeting women and children for kidnapping, for use in prisoner exchanges. Under- reporting and delayed reporting of sexual violence continues to be endemic, often because medical documentation does not exist or because assistance is denied to women held in detention facilities.

Attacks against Children and Schools

In February 2014, the UNSC strongly condemned violations of international humanitarian and human rights law committed against children, including attacks on schools. However, since then the situation for children in Syria has continued to deteriorate. The first six months of 2014 alone witnessed at least 1,200 grave violations committed against children. This includes recruitment of children by armed actors, abduction of children, as well as their unlawful detention.
Children’s education is also suffering, with millions unable to attend school due to the ongoing fighting, including the deliberate targeting of school buildings and their use by armed groups. Roughly a quarter of Syria’s schools (over 4,000) have been damaged, destroyed or used for other purposes. According to the United Nations Children’s Fund, 160 children were killed in attacks on schools in 2014.36 In January 2015, NGOs reported attacks on schools that resulted

in at least 37 deaths, including nine children. Since UNSCR 2139 was passed, an additional 500,000 children are estimated to be out of school compared with 2013,38 bringing the total to 1.6 million.

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Political Solution

There are plans of war [...] there are no peace plans [...] I don’t see anybody saying “let’s stop fighting and let’s talk”.
Former United Nations/League of Arab States Peace Envoy Lakhdar Brahimi65

The UNSC’s demand that all parties work towards a genuine political solution has been met with piecemeal efforts and little progress. Despite three different UN envoys and two rounds of UN-led peace talks, there has been no movement towards a political settlement of the conflict. Talks in Moscow in January 2015 were not attended by the major political and military opposition groups. While UN Special Envoy Staffan de Mistura has announced a plan to “freeze” fighting around Aleppo, supported by the UNSC in Resolution 2191 of December 2014, as of the start of March 2015 it remains it remains unclear if and when a suspension in the fighting will take place and what any deal would entail.

Given the polarized nature of the conflict, the lack of trust between parties, and the limited role for civilians and civil society groups, truces have been fragile at best. At worst, they have resulted in populations subjected to massive violations of IHRL and IHL.66 At the same time, the lack of a credible political process means that there are limited prospects for ensuring that localized agreements can be effectively replicated and built on at the national level, in line with the 2012 Geneva Communiqué.

The role of the UN is to facilitate a peace process, but without political will from the parties to the conflict, and without adequate backing by UNSC members and – crucially – regional powers to create that will, the efforts of any peace envoy will be doomed to failure.

Recommendations:

Parties to the conflict should:

• Immediatelyputanendtothefightingandenterintomeaningful,inclusive peace talks, without preconditions, that respect the rights and aspirations of the Syrian people, in line with the 2012 Geneva Communiqué.

The UNSC and international and regional actors with influence should:

• Puturgentemphasisonfindingapoliticalsolutiontothecrisis,including by putting real pressure on all parties to the conflict to enter into talks on implementation of the 2012 Geneva Communiqué, without precondition.

• SupporttheeffortsofUNSpecialEnvoydeMisturatosecureafreezein the fighting in Aleppo city and ensure that any agreement unconditionally respects the rights of the civilian population and does not lead to an escalation in fighting elsewhere in the country.

• Ensurecivilsociety,inparticulargroupsrepresentingwomenandyouth, are included in any political process or attempts to reach ceasefires or freezes, in order to ensure agreements are just, sustainable and reflective of wider society.

Conclusion

It is over a year since UNSC Resolution 2139 was adopted, and four years since the start of the crisis. While subsequent resolutions have been passed by the UNSC, humanitarian access in Syria has decreased, and millions more people have been displaced and are in need of assistance. The number of people killed has risen by thousands.

The primary responsibility for the implementation of the resolutions, and the failure to do so, lies with the parties to the conflict. The conflict itself, however, is increasingly international and regional in character and the members of the UNSC and member states of the United Nations must change tack.
The UNSC has the legal authority to require action, and now its members must use their influence with the warring parties and their financial resources to put an end to the suffering of Syrian civilians. They must listen to the silent majority of Syrians who wish to see an end to the violence, and a sustainable and just peace in their country.

Practical steps must be taken as a matter of urgency. Deliberate obstruction of aid must halt immediately, as must the use of indiscriminate weapons in built-up areas, the targeting of civilians, and their arbitrary detention, kidnapping and torture. The impunity which characterizes the conflict must be brought to an end. Real backing for the UN Peace Envoy’s plans must be matched by a push to reconvene talks in line with the 2012 Geneva Communiqué, and redoubled efforts to end the violence engulfing the country and region.

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