New UN report brings prosecution of Syria war criminals closer

The Aleppo aerial campaign deliberately targeted hospitals and humanitarian convoys and constituted a war crime, a UN panel on Syria concluded yesterday.

“Between July and December 2016, Syrian and Russian forces carried out daily airstrikes, claiming hundreds of lives and reducing hospitals, schools and markets to rubble. Syrian forces also used chlorine bombs in residential areas, resulting in hundreds of civilian casualties,” said a report based on 291 interviews by the UN Commission of Inquiry on Syria in its probe of events in Aleppo.

“Throughout 2016, Syrian air forces launched airstrikes using chlorine bombs in eastern Aleppo city,” the report said.

Syrian aircraft used chlorine – a chemical agent prohibited under international law – against the civilian population of eastern Aleppo, causing significant physical and psychological harm to hundreds of civilians.

The new report will boost international efforts to hold Syrian President Bashar Al-Assad accountable for crimes in Syria. With an emphasis on prosecution, the UN Commission of Inquiry on Syria was the first major policy announcement by the new Secretary-General, Antonio Guterres.

The team was set up to investigate war crimes, crimes against humanity and genocide, and identify those responsible. Although the commission will not be able to prosecute, the unit will prepare files that could be used in future prosecutions by states or by the international criminal court in The Hague.

Legal experts and activists are optimistic that the report by the commission will lay the groundwork for prosecutions when the war ends.