YouSaid · the spoken record

Bernard Duhaime

lines on the record
13
first
2021-03-15
most recent
2021-03-15
sittings or episodes
1
sources
un-security-council

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  1. “It is now time for the United Nations, including the Security Council, as well as other mechanisms of the international community, to demonstrate that they are able to respond to the challenges and meet the rights and needs of victims in Syria. Bringing closure to so many families after a decade of trauma and loss depends on our collective and coordinated action. The Working Group stands ready to contribute to that process.”

    2021-03-15 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/2021/265 (2021) · source

  2. “All victims, including families of disappeared persons, should be granted the right to an effective remedy, including the cessation of violations, as well as compensation, rehabilitation, satisfaction and guarantees of non-repetition. The Working Group joins the recent call for the creation of an independent mechanism with an international mandate in order to clarify the fate and whereabouts of missing and disappeared persons, locate mass graves, exhume and identify the human remains of these individuals and return them to their relatives, with due respect for their cultural customs. The tragic situation in Syria has lasted for too long.”

    2021-03-15 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/2021/265 (2021) · source

  3. “The Charter calls for collective action to hold perpetrators accountable and protect the rights of victims and their relatives to truth, justice, reparation and memory. In that context, the Working Group underscores that all duty bearers must ensure full transparency and accountability in relation to persons in their custody, account for their fate and whereabouts to relatives and ensure that due process and fair trial rights are respected and protected. All places of detention — official and unofficial — should be disclosed, with complete lists of names and a formal registration of all those held in such facilities, and we must ensure that persons are only held in recognized facilities.”

    2021-03-15 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/2021/265 (2021) · source

  4. “We are also alarmed, as indicated in our latest annual report to the Human Rights Council (A/HRC/45/13), by numerous reports of several members of the same family being subjected to enforced disappearances, including children as young as seven. Forty years ago, the Working Group was established thanks to the relentless activism of the relatives of the disappeared. Within the remits of its mandate, the Working Group has worked with these relatives to help them ascertain the fate and whereabouts of their family members, raise awareness about enforced disappearance as an ongoing crime and bring about its end around the world. The Working Group recognizes a comprehensive and rights-based vision advanced by the Truth and Justice Charter, which was presented by five Syrian family associations on 10 February.”

    2021-03-15 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/2021/265 (2021) · source

  5. “The Working Group stresses the need to fully recognize that, in the case of enforced disappearances, the victims are not only those who disappear, but also those who suffer harm as a result of it. Indeed, in addition to the anguish and sorrow caused by the absence of their loved ones, those left behind also suffer grave consequences affecting their economic, social and cultural rights. Even when death is confirmed by the authorities, the remains of the victims and their belongings are rarely returned to their relatives for burial, thus further exacerbating their anguish and suffering. In the apparent absence of effective inquiries, a marked increase in the issuance of formal death notifications to relatives of the disappeared has further epitomized the rampant culture of impunity.”

    2021-03-15 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/2021/265 (2021) · source

  6. “The deprivation of liberty is normally followed by a refusal on the part of the Syrian authorities or non-State actors to disclose information about the fate or whereabouts of the concerned person, or even to acknowledge their existence. Reports suggest that many individuals have been subjected to torture and cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment, which has also led to deaths in custody. Their relatives describe desperate attempts to obtain further information about their loved ones, often over a prolonged period. In the absence of official mechanisms for obtaining further information, they must conduct the necessary inquiries on their own initiative, often in the face of intimidation and targeted reprisals.”

    2021-03-15 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/2021/265 (2021) · source

  7. “Common to all of these cases is the immense suffering of said relatives and the lack of an effective remedy to address their plight. The Working Group observes that enforced disappearances are perpetrated unabatedly and with impunity throughout Syria, in clear violation of international law. The cases documented by the Working Group illustrate an alarming pattern of arbitrary arrests of men, in particular. Often several individuals are arrested at the same time in single raids. The impression left on their relatives is that the intention behind the carrying out of mass public arrests is to suppress dissent and instil fear in the local community.”

    2021-03-15 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/2021/265 (2021) · source

  8. “Since then, we have reiterated our call every year in our annual reports to the Human Rights Council. The vast majority of cases reported to the Working Group relate to enforced disappearances perpetrated by Syrian Government forces or armed groups that operate with its support or acquiescence. In addition, the Working Group has also started examining cases of acts tantamount to enforced disappearances, perpetrated by non-State armed groups that exercise effective control and/or Government-like functions over parts of the Syrian territory. In doing so, the Working Group acts pursuant to its humanitarian mandate to address a growing protection gap affecting disappeared individuals and their relatives who have been denied information on the fate and whereabouts of their loved ones.”

    2021-03-15 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/2021/265 (2021) · source

  9. “In that respect, we recall Human Rights Council resolutions S-18/1 and 19/22, which call on the Syrian authorities to cooperate with the special procedures of the Human Rights Council, including by allowing country visits, and with the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, including through the establishment of a field presence. In 2014, the Working Group became increasingly concerned about the extent and scale of enforced disappearance in Syria and therefore decided to call on United Nations entities at the highest level to take action in order to tackle the issue. In particular, the Working Group requested that the President of the Security Council bring the matter to the Council’s attention in order to contemplate appropriate action, including considering a referral to the International Criminal Court.”

    2021-03-15 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/2021/265 (2021) · source

  10. “As is true for most countries, but particularly Syria, the number of cases registered with the Working Group represents only the tip of the iceberg of the phenomenon, which, according to a number of consistent and reliable reports, including the most recent report on arbitrary imprisonment and detention issued by the Independent International Commission of Inquiry on the Syrian Arab Republic (A/HRC/46/55), remains widespread and systematic. Since 2011, we have been requesting that the Syrian Government extend us an invitation to visit the country, in the context of our mandate. Unfortunately, we have received no response, in spite of several reminders.”

    2021-03-15 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/2021/265 (2021) · source

  11. “Since the start of the conflict, the Working Group has transmitted 509 individual cases to the Government of Syria concerning the alleged enforced disappearance of 478 men and 31 women, including children. These are reported to have occurred throughout the country. At present, 490 cases remain outstanding, which means that the Working Group has received very little or insufficient information from the Government or the respective sources to clarify the fate and whereabouts of the individuals concerned.”

    2021-03-15 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/2021/265 (2021) · source

  12. “The Working Group, as the oldest special procedure mechanism of the Human Rights Council, with a distinct humanitarian and human rights mandate, was created in 1980 to act as a channel of communication between relatives of disappeared persons and the relevant authorities with a view to clarifying their fate and whereabouts. To that end, the Working Group receives and examines reports of enforced disappearances submitted by the relatives — or human rights organizations acting on their behalf — and transmits them to the Governments concerned. The Working Group then requests those Governments to conduct independent and effective investigations into enforced disappearances, carry out searches for the disappeared or their remains and protect the rights to truth, justice, reparations and memory of the victims and their relatives.”

    2021-03-15 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/2021/265 (2021) · source

  13. “It is a great honour and privilege to address you all on behalf of the Working Group on Enforced or Involuntary Disappearances, as a member and former Chair-Rapporteur. Today we reflect on the tenth anniversary of the conflict in Syria, which has inflicted huge suffering on Syrian women and men and girls and boys across the country. As clearly stated in the 1992 Declaration on the Protection of All Persons from Enforced Disappearance, any act of enforced disappearance is an offence to human dignity. It is condemned as a denial of the purposes of the Charter of the United Nations and as a grave and f lagrant violation of the human rights and fundamental freedoms.”

    2021-03-15 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/2021/265 (2021) · source