Statement at the Human Rights Council on Syria, Egypt and Bahrain
On Syria: CIVICUS sincerely hopes that the mediated peace talks will finally get off the ground and lead to results. However, we are concerned that between the 1st and 11th of March, the Syria Ceasefire Monitor reported over sixty violations, including mortar attacks, airstrikes, barrel bomb attacks, sniper attacks and other attacks on the civilian population that continue to result in the deaths of children and adult civilians. CIVICUS calls on all parties to abide by its provisions and refrain from attacks on the civilian population. We also urge the COI to investigate these ceasefire violations within the scope of its mandate. CIVICUS also repeats our call to the Syrian authorities to immediately release all unlawfully detained civilians, civil society activists, journalists, human rights defenders and prisoners of conscience, to ensure the ‘tracking of missing victims of enforced disappearance and the independent ‘monitoring of places of detention’ as recommended by the COI in its current report.