YouSaid · the spoken record

Karkoutly

lines on the record
11
first
2022-04-13
most recent
2022-04-13
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1
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un-security-council

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  1. “When people in Syria watch conflicts rage in Ukraine and other parts of the world today, we are reminded of our own suffering and the abject failure of this body to stop the violence. I join my voice with those of the millions of girls and women from Syria who are not here with me today and call on the Council to take action. There can be no peace without justice.”

    2022-04-13 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.9016 (2022) · source

  2. “I urge the Security Council, States Members of the United Nations and the Organization itself to refer the situation in Syria to the International Criminal Court; adopt a resolution on the situation of detainees and missing persons that underlines the Syrian Government’s obligations under international law and reflects the priorities outlined by associations representing victims, survivors and their families, such as the Truth and Justice Charter, including support for the creation of a mechanism to clarify the fate of missing persons and to support their families; investigate and prosecute all perpetrators of sexual violence, and ensure that women’s rights are at their core of all accountability efforts; ensure women’s full, equal and meaningful participation in all ongoing and future political, peace or reconciliation processes; prioritize a survivor-centred, rights-based approach to prevention and mitigation of gender-based violence; ensure that the Special Envoy for Syria prioritizes human rights and international humanitarian law, including prohibitions against arbitrary detention, enforced disappearances, torture and gender-based violence, in political discussions, and that he convenes Syrian civil society on how to address these issues and regularly briefs the Security Council on these efforts; renew the cross-border mechanism for at least 12 months and reauthorize access via all original crossing points, as cross-border access is an indispensable lifeline for millions of people in Syria, the majority of whom are women and children; and pressure arms-exporting countries to stop arms proliferation and prevent the use of weapons against all civilians.”

    2022-04-13 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.9016 (2022) · source

  3. “This is often not because sexual violence has been inadequately criminalized, or because perpetrators are unknown, but owing to a lack of political courage. The Security Council must call on the Syrian Government to respect international law, end attacks on civilians and civilian infrastructure, and ensure an immediate and permanent nationwide ceasefire; immediately end torture, inhumane treatment and sexual violence, including in places of arrest and detention; release all arbitrarily detained persons and allow unconditional access to all places of detention by international humanitarian organizations; and release the names, status and locations of all detainees, and a timetable for their release.”

    2022-04-13 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.9016 (2022) · source

  4. “The universal jurisdiction cases currently being pursued against suspects for crimes committed in Syria, while positive, have also had limits, including how fear of retaliation for reporting to local authorities, as well as the trauma and stigmatization of survivors of sexual violence, affects the ability and willingness of victims to come forward. Syrians can no longer wait for justice. We encourage all States Members of the United Nations to continue to pursue accountability under universal jurisdiction. But we are also looking to the Security Council for help, in the form of referring the situation in Syria to the International Criminal Court. Despite 14 years of the Security Council’s condemnation of the use of sexual violence in conflict, impunity prevails, not only in Syria but in many other conflicts on the Council’s agenda.”

    2022-04-13 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.9016 (2022) · source

  5. “For instance, laws in Syria do not criminalize sexual or gender-based violence against women or marital rape. Syrian women cannot pass their nationality to their children, and even where laws have changed, social practices have not. Furthermore, sexual and gender- based violence against women does not end inside Syria, but continues in the camps, settlements and cities throughout the region, where millions of Syrian refugees face discrimination, poverty and lack of access to health care and education, all while experiencing pressure to return to a country that is not yet safe. Syrians are desperate for justice after more than a decade of war. Domestic accountability is impossible as long as the Al-Assad regime remains in power.”

    2022-04-13 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.9016 (2022) · source

  6. “The Syrian regime has taken advantage of this: it knew that by targeting women in this way, they were in fact targeting their communities as a whole. This is why arresting and detaining women, leaving their families with no information about their fate, has been a key tool used to suppress Syrian dissent since 2011. The systematic occurrence of these crimes across the country provides reasonable grounds to assert that the regime has weaponized gender-based violence as a matter of State policy. The Syrian regime’s actions have been possible because of a corrupt legal system and entrenched discrimination against women and girls in Syria, which affects their access to housing and land, property rights, custody of their children, and their protection.”

    2022-04-13 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.9016 (2022) · source

  7. “In places of detention, sexual violence is used to humiliate them, punish them for rebelling and force confessions. Women in detention have been subject to all kinds of sexual violence, including rape, torture, sexual harassment, electric shocks directed at genital areas, intimate searches, forced abortions and forced nudity. Survivors of rape and sexual violence in detention, estimated to number in the thousands, have largely been unable to report these crimes for fear of marginalization or further retaliation. Discrimination and violence against women and girls who have been detained, or who have faced sexual violence, have resulted in abandonment, divorce, so-called honour killings and suicide.”

    2022-04-13 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.9016 (2022) · source

  8. “I have worked as an independent investigator with the support of the Centre for Justice and Accountability since 2020 on case-building against members of the Al-Assad regime responsible for crimes against civilians. To date, we have documented 54 testimonies, including those of survivors of sexual violence. These are just some of the hundreds that have been documented out of tens of thousands of survivors. Over the last decade, at least 150,000 people in Syria are estimated to have been arbitrarily arrested, detained or disappeared; at least 9,700 women still are missing or being detained. These women — lawyers, journalists, activists and others — have been detained for opposing the regime, or often, to punish or threaten male relatives who have opposed the regime.”

    2022-04-13 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.9016 (2022) · source

  9. “My statement today will focus on three issues: the use of sexual violence against women; entrenched gender discrimination in Syria, and next steps for the international community to ensure accountability. As documented by the Commission of Inquiry on Syria, sexual and gender-based violence has been used against civilians during ground operations, at checkpoints and in detention, across the country since 2011, primarily by Government forces and associated militia, but also by other armed groups. It has been called a devastating and pervasive feature of the Syrian conflict and part of a widespread and systematic attack against civilians, amounting to crimes against humanity. This violence continues as we speak.”

    2022-04-13 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.9016 (2022) · source

  10. “Parties to the conflict have violated international human rights and humanitarian law, used chemical weapons and committed acts that amount to war crimes and crimes against humanity. Government forces and armed groups continue to murder, torture and use sexual and gender-based violence against civilians as a matter of policy. Yet despite discussing Syria for more than a decade, the Security Council has failed to take actions to hold perpetrators accountable. The Syrian Government has systematically violated not only international law, but many of the Council’s own resolutions. Meanwhile, members of the Council have blocked urgent action on Syria, shielded the Syrian regime from accountability, and vetoed resolutions on humanitarian assistance and investigating the use of chemical weapons against civilians 16 times.”

    2022-04-13 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.9016 (2022) · source

  11. “Ms. Karkoutly: My name is Mariana Karkoutly. I am a co-founder of Huquqyat, a membership-based organization of women lawyers and legal practitioners, advocating for accountability in Syria. I thank you, Mr. President, for the opportunity to deliver this briefing today. Let me start by saying that what drove me to study law was not love of the law, but the experience of injustice. While studying law under a dictatorship did not teach me much, witnessing women in Syria fighting for their rights did. Accountability, the theme of this open debate, is a difficult word to say in the Syrian context. We have experienced all sorts of atrocities for more than a decade, with more than 350,000 people killed, tens of thousands arbitrarily detained or disappeared, nearly 13 million displaced and another 14 million in need of humanitarian assistance.”

    2022-04-13 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.9016 (2022) · source