By: Sarah Tayara
At the 20th meeting of the 48th Session of the Human Rights Council, the High Commissioner (Ms. Michelle Bachelet) presented its findings on the extent of civilian casualties in Syria during the decade-long conflict. Since 2011, the High Commissioner has been monitoring and reporting on the human rights situation in Syria thanks to data collected by the Commission, civil society organisations working on ground, and information provided by the Syrian government. Although the High Commissioner was able to commission 3 statistical analyses of documented killings in 2013, the exacerbation of the conflict in 2014 make it almost impossible for the Commission to continue with their analysis, forcing them to halt their work until 2019
To ensure high quality and no duplication of victims’ data, the High Commission accounted only for victims identifiable by their full name, and the date and the location of death. Since the beginning of March 2011, such requirements allowed the Commission to record the lost of around 350,209 during the Syrian conflict; however, the stark reality is that this number is certainly an undercount.
The High Commissioner underlined the importance of being able to accurately document those lost in the war: doing so not only acts as a mean of acknowledging and restoring the dignity of those whose lives were callously stolen away from them, but also as a mean of locating missing people in Syria and reuniting them with their families. Ms. Bachelet restated the need for an independent mechanism with a strong international mandate to identify missing people and the remains of casualties, as well as support families who are unaware of whether their loved ones are dead or alive.
GICJ notes with regret that Syria was unavailable to respond to the Commission’s findings. We urge the international community and all parties involved to listen to the voices of Syrian survivors and victims, as well as to the stories of those who have fallen silent for ever.
Justice, Human rights, Geneva, geneva4justice, GICJ, Geneva International Centre For Justice
