Stance expressed at UN Human Rights Council meet

GENEVA, Sept 24, (KUNA): The State of Kuwait, addressing the United Nations Human Rights Council on Wednesday, backed a recommendation by the international panel for Syria to determine destiny of detainees and missing persons.

The Kuwaiti stance was expressed by the permanent representative at the UN and International Organizations, Ambassador Jamal Al-Ghunaim, addressing the council 45th session via video. The panel recommendation was in line with the Security Council resolution 2474, he said, calling for finding ways to communicate with families of missing persons to help them attain their rights and overcome psychological trauma.

It is also in tandem with concerns that have been expressed by the State of Kuwait regarding tragic consequences of the question of the missing, ambassador Al-Ghunaim said, noting that Kuwait last year adopted an initiative for this case within framework of the resolutions 2474. Kuwait, which had suffered from such trauma, reiterates the call upon parties of the strife in Syria to take necessary measures and tackle disappearance of persons, search for the missing and secure return of remains of the deceased to families, prosecute those involved in crimes against the missing during the strife, according to international laws.

Moreover, Kuwait calls anew on the parties to seriously consider plight of children who have been missing amid the armed strife in Syria. Ambassador Al-Ghunaim has affirmed Kuwait’s strong condemnation of dangerous and systematic breaches of human rights involving the brotherly Syrian people and calls for ending this protracted strife. The State of Kuwait is deeply concerned at ongoing explicit breaches of the international humanitarian and legal laws of the human rights in the Syrian conflict, namely continuous attacks on innocent civilians, intentional and random attacks on civil targets as well as employment of advanced weapons.

All parties of the conflict should abide by international conventions that tackle crimes that are tantamount to the level of crimes against humanity and war crimes, Ambassador Al-Ghunaim stated, also calling for safe and sustainable permit for entry of humanitarian aid into the embattled regions. Medics must be allowed to move to areas where they are needed for evacuation of casualties, he said, also calling for banning sieges of residential regions and abstaining from using hunger as a war tool. Moreover, ambassador Al-Ghunaim has declared the State of Kuwait support for the recent appeal by the UN secretary general to cease fighting all over the world to help facilitate delivery of humanitarian aid to those in need, for sake of opening windows to resolve strifes with diplomacy and creating a glimmer of hope for the weakest segments of peoples, amid the novel coronavirus spread. Regretfully in Syria, the UN secretary general appeal has fallen on deaf ears, as the fighting has pursued threatening to take lives of large numbers of civilians due to spread of the pandemic after collapse of the medical care system, he said, also alluding in this respect to dwindling numbers of hospitals and health centers due to armed attacks while 70 percent of the medical staff have left the country.

The State of Kuwait, furthermore, calls for facilitating delivery of humanitarian supplies to the relocated and the besieged without discrimination, he said, noting that the coronavirus pandemic has added to the hardships of the impoverished in the embattled country. It also calls for maximum attention to the plight of the Syrian refugees in neighboring countries and other regions of the world to spare them additional pain and hardships. Obviously, the estimated 13 million displaced Syrians and refugees have been “paying the tax” for heightening international and regional upheavals.

This situation, he continued, prompted the State of Kuwait over the past 10 years to shoulder the humanitarian responsibility in this respect, hosting three conventions for pledging aid for Syria. Moreover, Kuwait had taken part in two more conventions that were held later, pledging to help the Syrians with USD 1.7 billion, Al-Ghunaim continued. He reaffirmed Kuwait’s advocacy of a peaceful settlement to the conflict, urged the humanitarian rights council to act for averting further humanitarian deterioration and cooperate with the UN envoy for Syria in this regard. The UN Human Rights Council session is scheduled between September 14 and October 2nd.