UN Human Rights Council extends war crime probe in Syria

The United Nations Human Rights Council adopted a resolution Friday to extend the mandate of the independent international commission of inquiry on Syria and request it to report the latest findings at next session of the council. It requested the commission of inquiry to "continue to update its mapping exercise of gross violations of human rights in the Syrian Arab Republic since March 2011, including the assessment of casualty figures, and to publish it periodically." It also requested the Syrian authorities to fully cooperate with the commission, including by granting it immediate, full and unfettered access throughout the country. The council decided to transmit all reports and oral updates of the commission to all relevant bodies of the UN and the Secretary-General for appropriate action. The resolution strongly condemned "the continued widespread and systematic gross violations of human rights and fundamental freedoms by the Syrian authorities and the government controlled militia Shabbiha," and also mentioned the "human rights abuses by armed opposition groups." The 47-member council adopted the resolution, tabled by Kuwait and other Arabian countries, by a roll-call vote of 41 in favour, 3 against and 3 abstentions. Russia, China and Cuba voted against the resolution. Speaking as a concerned country, Syria condemned the resolution as "highly politicalized." The commission of inquiry was established in September 2011 by the Human Rights Council to investigate all alleged human rights violations since March 2011 in Syria, and was requested to probe into the Houla killings in a special session of the council on June 1. It conducted investigations mainly through interviews and did several written and oral updates. It published a report on its findings on the Houla killings in August and handed it to the 21st session of Human Rights Council. It concluded in the report that both sides committed war crimes though the "violations and abuses committed by anti-government armed groups did not reach the gravity, frequency and scale of those committed by government forces and the Shabbiha."