UN Security Council should take immediate action against brutality in Syria

Published: Jun 19, 2015 Reading time: 3 minutes

We the undersigned are a coalition of human rights and humanitarian organizations working to protect and assist the civilians of Syria. We wish to express our collective outrage at the never ending state of unchecked brutality in Syria and call on the UN Security Council to take immediate action.  Given continuing indiscriminate attacks against civilians within Syria, we urge that all UN Security Council Ambassadors use their Security Council membership to now take steps to implement further diplomatic measures given clear and ongoing non-compliance with Resolution 2139, specifically measures to establish a mechanism to track and publically expose indiscriminate attacks by any means against civilians, including barrel bombs or car bombs, and to lay down clear consequences for violators.   

UN Security Council should take immediate action against brutality in Syria
© Photo:

Syria is continuing to sink further into the abyss and Syrian civilians continue to pay for this with their lives: 66 percent of civilian deaths during May were attributable to airstrikes[1] and many others continue to die and are maimed as a result of indiscriminate attacks perpetrated by all parties to the conflict. Despite this shocking reality, the Syria conflict appears to be considered “business as usual”, as the UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon recently denounced. This is unacceptable.   

Sixteen months ago the UN Security Council demanded an end to “…all attacks against civilians, as well as the indiscriminate employment of weapons in populated areas, including shelling and aerial bombardment, such as the use of barrel bombs” in Resolution 2139. Yet since then the Council has stood by as this demand has been repeatedly violated month after month with unrelenting and brutal attacks against schools, markets, and hospitals and the deaths of thousands of Syrian civilians. This must not be allowed to continue. Expressing “deep concern” in statements to the press while Syrians are killed and maimed in attacks which violate International Humanitarian Law day after day is a woefully inadequate response. Syrians deserve to be protected from all indiscriminate attacks, not just those involving chemical weapons.  

We hope that this letter sent by 76 Non-Governmental Organizations working with and for Syrians, will prompt the Council to set up a mechanism to track and publically expose indiscriminate attacks by any means against civilians, including barrel bombs or car bombs, and to lay down clear consequences for violators.   

[1] According to Violations Documentation Center, May 2015 Monthly Statistical report – available here. 

This letter is signed by:

1. Action des Chrétiens pour l’Abolition de la Torture (ACAT)  

2. Algerian League for Defense of Human Rights  

3. Alkarama Foundation  

4. Alliance for Peacebuilding  

5. Amnesty International   

6. Andalus Institute for Tolerance and anti-Violence Studies  

7. Arab Coalition for Sudan  

8. Arab Network for Human Rights Information (ANHRI)  

9. Arab Organisation for Human Rights – Libya 

10. Arab Organisation for Human Rights – Mauritania  

11. Arab Program For Human Rights Activists  

12. Bahrain Human Rights Watch Society (BHRWS)   

13. Baytna Syria  

14. Broederlijk Delen  

15. CAABU (Council for Arab-British Understanding)  

16. CAFOD  

17. Cairo Institute for Human Rights Studies  

18. CARE International  

19. Caritas Czech Republic  

20. Center for Civilians in Conflict (CIVIC)  

21. CIVICUS   

22. Concern Worldwide  

23. Darfur Bar Association  

24. Development and Peace  

25. Euro-Mediterranean Human Rights Network (EMHRN)  

26. Fraternity Center for Democracy and Civil Society  

27. Friends Committee on National Legislation  

28. Global Center for R2P  

29. Handicap International  

30. Hand in Hand for Syria  

31. Human Rights & Democracy Media Center “SHAMS"  

32. Human Rights First Society - Saudi Arabia  

33. Human Rights Watch  

34. Humanist Institute for Development Cooperation (HIVOS)   

35. International Rescue Committee (IRC)  

36. Islamic Relief USA  

37. Karam Foundation  

38. Ligue des droits de l'Homme (LDH)  

39. Madani Organization  

40. Mayday Rescue  

41. Médecins du Monde/ Doctors of the World   

42. Montreal Institute for Genocide and Human Rights Studies   

43. Nonviolence Network in the Arab Countries  

44. No Peace Without Justice  

45. Norwegian People's Aid  

46. Norwegian Church Aid 

47. Norwegian Refugee Council  

48. NuDay Syria  

49. Omani Monitor for Human Rights  

50. Palestinian League for Human Rights - Syria  

51. Pax Christi Flanders   

52. People In Need  

53. Permanent Peace Movement  

54. Phenix Centre for Economic and Informatics Studies (Jordan)  

55. Physicians for Human Rights  

56. Refugees International  

57. Relief International  

58. Rethink Rebuild Society   

59. Save the Children 

60. Secours Islamique France  

61. SOLIDARITIES INTERNATIONALES  

62. Sudan Social Development Organisations (SUDO UK)  

63. Syrian American Medical Society (SAMS)  

64. Syria Civil Defence  

65. Syria Relief  

66. Syrian Relief and Development  

67. The Day After Association   

68. The Helen Bamber Foundation   

69. Trocaire  

70. Tunisian Forum for Economic and Social Rights  

71. United to End Genocide  

72. United for a Free Syria  

73. Violations Documentation Center in Syria  

74. Welthungerhilfe  

75. World Jewish Relief  

76. Zarga Organisation for Rural Development (ZORD) – Sudan 

Author: