General Debate under Item 3:
Item 3 - Promotion and protection of all human rights, civil, political, economic, social and cultural rights, including the right to development
11 March 2019
Oral Statement by: International Organization for the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination (EAFORD) and Geneva International Centre for Justice (GICJ)
Mr. President,
Since March 2011, civilians in the Syrian Arab Republic have had to face the most atrocious crimes: they have been killed, injured, displaced and their property destroyed. Whole families have disappeared. Numerous civilians have been arbitrarily detained and systematically tortured.
The responsibility to hold the perpetrators of these borderless crimes accountable is on each and every state. These crimes go to the core of our human dignity.
Apart from the creation of a special tribunal or referring to the International Criminal Court, universal jurisdiction is a powerful tool that allows each and every state to prosecute war criminals in its national courts and therefore, to tackle impunity and to ensure justice for victims.
EAFORD and Geneva International Centre for Justice would like to underline that accountability is a precondition for sustainable peace in Syria and other ongoing conflicts in the Middle East and it has to be the foundation of any peaceful solution.
We urge each and every state to assume its responsibility to combat impunity by:
- referring cases to the ICC,
- creating ad hoc special tribunals,
- and making effective use of the available powerful tool of universal jurisdiction in collaboration with other states and NGOs.
Je vous remercie M. le Président.
Accountability, Syrian Arab Republic, Human Rights Council, Justice, Human rights, Geneva, geneva4justice, GICJ, Geneva International Centre For Justice
