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	Harnessing advances in technology to enhance scrutiny of rights abuses in war by Ceasefire Centre for Civilian Rights, agencies   Advances in technology present a unique opportunity to revolutionize the civilian-led monitoring of rights abuses in armed conflict, say Minority Rights Group International (MRG) and the Ceasefire Centre for Civilian Rights, in a new report.   Using information gathered from a three year pilot in Iraq, the report, Eyes on the Ground: Realizing the potential of civilian-led monitoring in armed conflict, contends that local civil society can be enabled, with the help of modern technology, to become central actors in the processes of monitoring, documentation and reporting of violations of human rights and international humanitarian law (IHL).   'In Iraq, Syria, Yemen and many other armed conflicts in which widespread violations of the rights of civilians are taking place, the ability of the international community to monitor abuse is compromised precisely when such information is needed the most', says Miriam Puttick, MRG's Civilian Rights Officer and author of the report.   'In these situations, local civil society is best placed to ensure that violations are accounted for and the voices of victims are heard'.   Thanks to new media platforms, information uploaded from a conflict zone can reach an international audience almost instantaneously. Yet there is still a great deal of scepticism in official circles about the reliability of information produced by local civil society, say the rights organisations.   Drawing on an expert seminar held in Geneva in June 2017, bringing together senior representatives of international organizations working in IHL and human rights with NGOs pioneering civilian-led monitoring in the Middle East, the report recommends methods of strengthening civilian-led monitoring in the areas of verification, quality control, and security for both monitors and victims of violations.   The report also argues that information coming from traditional actors in conflict areas, such as local authorities, politicians or the military, often proves unreliable or ineffective at providing timely and complete information, while international monitors are frequently denied access. In this situation, civilians have a crucial role to play.   'Much of the most valuable information we get from the world's conflict zones now comes from civilians on the ground', said Mark Lattimer, MRG's Executive Director. 'The technology is there to hear their voices, but they need to be taken seriously, and to be supported'.   In five chapters the report examines the following issues:   An introduction to human rights monitoring, documentation and reporting. Traditional approaches of international investigative and fact-finding missions.   The rise of civil society and advancements in technology, how these are shaping the conduct of human rights work worldwide, and their potential for enhancing the monitoring of IHL.   Presentation of a model of civilian-led monitoring and a case study, showing how the model was deployed to enhance violations monitoring in Iraq.   The main challenges of civilian-led monitoring and how to address them.   How civilian-led monitoring can be used to support judicial processes and other means of securing reparation and accountability for violations.   Eyes on the Ground: Realizing the potential of civilian-led monitoring in armed conflict is available for download via the link below.   The recommendations of the report draw on an expert seminar that took in Geneva in June 2017, bringing together NGO leaders pioneering civilian-led monitoring in Syria, Iraq, Yemen and other armed conflicts with senior representatives from the UN Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights, the International Committee of the Red Cross, the International Humanitarian Fact-Finding Commission, Geneva Call, the Institute for International Humanitarian Law, academic and civil society experts and governments with an interest in promoting the implementation of international humanitarian law.   The Ceasefire Centre for Civilian Rights is an initiative to develop 'civilian-led monitoring' of violations of international humanitarian law or human rights, to pursue legal and political accountability for those responsible for such violations, and to develop the practice of civilian rights. Visit the related web page
	Syria: Find a political solution and put an end to grave violations against civilians by UN News, OCHA, UNHCR, ICRC, agencies   Mar. 2019   11.7 million Syrian people in need of humanitarian aid and protection - UNDP, OCHA, UN High Commissioner for Refugees   As the Syrian crisis enters its ninth year, humanitarian needs inside Syria remain at record levels with 11.7 million people in need of some form of humanitarian aid and protection.   Some 6.2 million people are internally displaced and more than 2 million boys and girls are out of school in Syria.   An estimated 83 percent of Syrians live below the poverty line, and people are increasingly vulnerable due to the loss or lack of sustained livelihoods.   “Without a substantial injection of funds, life-saving provisions of food, water, health care, shelter and protection services will likely be interrupted,” said UN humanitarian chief Mark Lowcock.   “It is vital that the international community remains by the side of every woman, man, girl and boy in Syria who need our help to meet the very basic requirements of a dignified life. If donors provide the funding, we can implement the plans to help achieve that.”   The situation is also driving the largest refugee crisis in the world. There are over 5.6 million Syrian refugees and up to 3.9 million impacted members of host communities in the neighbouring countries.   The UN is seeking funding to help people in need through for the response inside Syria, and for a refugee and resilience plan for the neighbouring countries.   “Having just visited Syria and Syrian refugees in Lebanon, I’m deeply troubled by the widening gap between their massive needs and the support being made available for the international refugee response. Eight years into the largest refugee crisis in decades, around 70 percent of Syrian refugees live a razor-edge existence below the poverty line,” said the UN High Commissioner for Refugees, Filippo Grandi.   “Reduced assistance due to funding cuts means that refugees are forced to make agonizing choices every day, such as taking children out of school to work or reducing meals. They are also vulnerable to exploitation and abuse.”   “It is essential that the international community stays the course in supporting the millions of Syrian refugees who live in neighbouring countries and still require protection and assistance. No less support needs to be extended to the local host communities and governments who have been sheltering millions of Syrian refugees for the past eight years,” said Grandi.   “Help is also needed for those refugees – and the much larger number of internally displaced people – who are choosing to return home, in very difficult circumstances.”   “In Syria, poverty is soaring, basic service infrastructure is damaged or destroyed, and the social fabric is strained to the limit,” said Achim Steiner, UNDP Administrator. “Host governments and communities in countries neighbouring Syria need our support to stay the course in extending their generosity to refugees while at the same time maintaining the momentum of their own development path. We need the international community to continue its support for resilience both in Syria and in neighbouring countries.”   * Save the Children - A Better Tommorow - Syrian Children have their say.   Almost eight years into the crisis in Syria, half of children have grown up knowing nothing but conflict and 5 million are in need of humanitarian assistance. Many live in areas where basic services are almost non-existent and the infrastructure they rely on has been decimated, and at least 2.5 million children are internally displaced.   Save the Children canvassed the views of hundreds of children in four governorates of Syria about their challenges, priorities for recovery and hopes for the future. The overwhelming message from children is that they want and need security and stability with their families.   More than half of children identify violence, family separation, the destruction of homes and vital infrastructure and lack of access to basic services like education and healthcare as “very serious” challenges facing them and their communities.   * Access the report: http://bit.ly/2tZXvmH   http://www.actionagainsthunger.org/story/syrian-refugee-children-share-dreams-future http://www.unhcr.org/news/press/2019/3/5c88e57d4/united-nations-calls-sustained-support-syrians-region-ahead-brussels-conference.html   April 2018   Syria is death trap for civilians, UN refugee chief warns. (Reuters, UNHCR, agencies)   Civilians can no longer flee fighting and bombing raids in Syria because borders are so tightly controlled and neighbouring countries are overwhelmed by refugees, creating some of the worst suffering in modern times, a top U.N. agency chief said.   U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees Filippo Grandi was warning of a new disaster if the rebel-controlled Syrian city of Idlib was the next target of the Syrian military.   "The country is becoming a trap, in some places a death trap for civilians," Grandi told Reuters during a donor conference for Syria.   "There is an entire population out there that cannot bear its refugees anymore, that is suffering from one of the worse ordeals in modern history."   The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a British-based war monitor, said last month about 511,000 people had been killed in the war since it began in March 2011.   Over 1.5 million Syrians are now living with permanent war-related disabilities.   Some 5.5 million Syrians are living as refugees in Iraq, Jordan, Lebanon and Turkey, and now account for a quarter of Lebanon''s population. Another 6.1 million people are still in Syria but have been forced to flee their homes.   Grandi is hoping to raise funding support from international donors for emergency humanitarian aid for Syrian refugees this year, to help host countries such as Jordan, Iraq, Egypt and Lebanon.   Meanwhile, the United Nations estimates that more than 400,000 civilians remain trapped in besieged areas throughout Syria.   That the number could rise dramatically because 2 million people live in northwestern Idlib region, the largest populated area of Syria in the hands of insurgents fighting Syrian President Bashar al-Assad''s government in Damascus.   Some aid agencies are predicting suffering on an even greater scale than during the siege of Aleppo last year and in eastern Ghouta if the Syrian army and its Russian and Iranian backers turn their full fire on Idlib.   Tens of thousands of fighters and civilians have fled to the area from parts of the country which the army has recaptured with the help of Russia and Iran.   "Idlib is where an area where a lot of fighters have transferred," Grandi said. "If fighting moves more decisively to that area, it could be very dangerous for civilians."   Grandi and other aid agencies predict they will have nowhere to flee to because Turkey''s southern border with Syria at Gaziantep is tightly controlled, mainly letting aid supplies through to Idlib, forcing refugees deeper into Syria.   "I think we are going to lose not only a generation but a population," Grandi said.   http://tmsnrt.rs/2Kf6A26 http://www.unhcr.org/news.html http://childrenofsyria.info/ http://www.unicef.org/emergencies/syria/ http://blogs.unicef.org/blog/category/children-in-emergencies/ http://news.un.org/en/story/2018/06/1011862   http://reliefweb.int/report/syrian-arab-republic/access-children-need-syria-continues-be-severely-restricted-enar http://hno-syria.org/#home http://reliefweb.int/country/syr http://www.unocha.org/media-centre/news-updates http://www.icrc.org/en/where-we-work/middle-east/syria http://www.icrc.org/en/media-room http://www.unicef.org/media/press-centre http://www.nrc.no/latest-news/   Mar. 2018   Thousands suffering amid harrowing conditions in east Ghouta and Afrin – UN News   The United Nations in Syria is appealing urgently for help to ease the catastrophic situation for tens for thousands of people impacted by fighting in Eastern Ghouta, outside Damascus, and the northern town of Afrin.   Having seen first-hand the desperate conditions of people from east Ghouta and Afrin, who are tired, hungry, traumatized and afraid, we need to provide them with urgent aid,” Ali Al-Za’tari, UN Resident and Humanitarian Coordinator in Syria, said Monday.   “These civilians are facing harrowing humanitarian conditions,” he continued. “Many remain trapped by conflict inside East Ghouta and Afrin. All are in desperate need.” The fighting in both places has killed hundreds of civilians in the past month and displaced tens of thousands.   Insecurity and fierce hostilities continue to endanger the people of East Ghouta, which UN Secretary-General António Guterres has referred to as “hell on earth.”   Meanwhile, nearly 100,000 people have been displaced by hostilities in Afrin District. The majority, some 75,000 people, have fled to Tal Refaat and the remainder to Nubul, Zahraa and surrounding villages.   The massive influx of internally displaced people is putting a strain on host communities, which are already overwhelmed.   The UN and its partners, notably through the tireless efforts of the Syrian Arab Red Crescent, are mobilized to deliver aid on the spot.   “We appeal to all parties to facilitate access to all people in need; and to protect civilians, medical workers, service providers and humanitarian workers”. http://bit.ly/2FNdgG0   http://bit.ly/2DGlJVF http://www.icrc.org/en/document/statement-icrc-president-peter-maurer-following-his-visit-syria http://sarc.sy/ http://reliefweb.int/report/syrian-arab-republic/1-million-children-idlib-increased-risk-due-violence-and-reports-17 http://uni.cf/2InwjnV http://www.unicef.org/emergencies/syria/ http://www.wfp.org/news/news-release/seven-years-syria-still-suffers http://www.msf.org/en/article/northwest-syria-two-airstrikes-cause-mass-casualty-influx-msf-supported-hospital http://www.wvi.org/publication/beyond-survival-0 http://bit.ly/2IcSegS   March 2018   Statement by Panos Moumtzis, Regional Humanitarian Coordinator for the Syria Crisis, on Implementation of UN Resolution 2401 calling for a one month humanitarian ceasefire. (OCHA)   I remain deeply concerned for the safety and protection of millions of civilians across Syria, one week after the UN Security Council voted in favour of Resolution 2401, calling for a one-month cessation of hostilities across the war-ravaged country.   Not only has this not happened, in some cases the violence has escalated, particularly for the close to 400,000 men, women and children of East Ghouta. Instead of a much needed reprieve, we continue to see more fighting, more death, and more disturbing reports of hunger and hospitals being bombed. This collective punishment of civilians is simply unacceptable.   Since February, over 1,000 people have reportedly been killed in air and ground-based strikes on the besieged enclave, while over 4,000 people have been injured. At the same time, ground-based strikes and mortar shelling from eastern Ghouta have killed and injured scores of civilians in neighbouring Damascus.   To the north in Idleb, fighting continues to kill and injure civilians, destroy civilian infrastructure, and result in large population movements. Since December, some 385,000 people have been displaced, many of them multiple times.   Thousands of ordinary Syrians, many with just the clothes on their backs, now live in make-shift camps or out in the open, while formal camps remain overwhelmed.   At the same time, we continue to receive disturbing reports out of Afrin of civilian deaths and injuries, and restrictions on civilian movement as a result of ongoing military operations.   I remain deeply concerned about tens of thousands of people stranded in Rukban in south-eastern Syria. We continue to seek the necessary agreements for convoys of life-saving assistance to them.   The UN and humanitarian partners stand ready to assist the 13.1 million of people in need inside Syria, but cannot do it alone. We certainly cannot do this while the fighting continues.   I continue to call on all parties to the conflict to facilitate unconditional, unimpeded, and sustained access to all people in need throughout the country, particularly for the close to 3 million people in hard-to-reach and besieged areas, and to take all measures to protect civilians and civilian infrastructure, including schools and medical facilities, as well as allow for the urgent medical evacuation of those in need, as required by international humanitarian law and international human rights law.   Last Saturday, the UN Security Council voted unanimously in favour of Resolution 2401 and an end to the human suffering of the Syrian people. It cannot be ignored. It was a call for action. I reiterate that call today. After close to seven years of conflict, we must not fail the Syrian people. We must act now to save lives. http://bit.ly/2oLUXqn   Jan. 2018   Intensification in hostilities across Syria is having a “devastating” impact on civilians, United Nations agencies in the war-ravaged country said this week, warning that the fighting is also severely limiting life-saving humanitarian operations.   “In the last few weeks, increasing indiscriminate bombing, shelling and fighting forced tens of thousands of people to be uprooted,” said the UN agencies in a statement.   “Accessing camps and other makeshift sites where internally displaced people are in dire need of aid is also urgently required. All affected civilians, wherever they are, must be protected, provided with assistance and accorded safe freedom of movement,” they added.   The violence has severely affected almost all life-saving and economic sectors and medical and healthcare facilities throughout the country are operating at a fraction of the pre-crisis level.   At the same time, the little resources that internally displaced persons and affected communities had have been exhausted, noted the UN agencies, calling on all parties – both inside and outside the country – to prevent further violence and enable humanitarian organizations to assist people in need.   “Agreement by all parties and their allies is needed to facilitate the immediate and safe delivery of UN and Syrian Arab Red Crescent humanitarian convoys to people in need across Syria including those in besieged and hard-to-reach areas,” they underscored.   “The UN in Syria reminds all parties of their obligation under international humanitarian and human rights law to protect civilians,” said the agencies, calling also for unrestricted humanitarian access to enable aid workers reach people in need with care, food and medical support.   “Nearly seven years into the conflict, children continue to be the hardest hit by unprecedented destruction, displacement and death. They have lost lives, homes and childhoods.. Wars have laws and these laws are being broken every single day in Syria,” said Fran Equiza head of the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) operations in the country, underscoring the need on all parties to the conflict to honour obligations to protect children at all times and to allow safe passage to all people wishing to leave areas under attack.   According to estimates, altogether 13.1 million people are in need of protection and humanitarian assistance, including 6.1 million people who are displaced within the country and a further 5.5 million people have become refugees in neighbouring countries. http://bit.ly/2prwhUm   http://www.unocha.org/story/syria-crisis-numbers http://reliefweb.int/country/syr   Oct. 2017   Syria: Harrowing civilian losses in most intense violence since battle for Eastern Aleppo. (ICRC News)   As several regions throughout Syria are witnessing the worst fighting of the year, the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) is alarmed by reports of hundreds of civilian casualties and the destruction of hospitals and schools.   "For the past two weeks, we have seen an increasingly worrying spike in military operations that correlates with high levels of civilian casualties," said the head of ICRC''s delegation in Syria, Marianne Gasser. "My colleagues report harrowing stories, like a family of 13 who fled Deir Ezzor only to lose ten of its members to airstrikes and explosive devices along the way."   The violence is not only taking place in Raqqa, Deir Ezzor, and western rural Aleppo, but also in many of the de-escalation areas, such as Idleb, rural Hama, and Eastern Ghouta. Taken together, these are the worst levels of violence since the battle for Aleppo in 2016.   "While recent months had provided some reasons to be hopeful, the return to violence is once again bringing intolerable levels of suffering to wide areas of the country, while at the same time decreasing access for humanitarian agencies," added Ms. Gasser.   As many as ten hospitals have reportedly been damaged during the last ten days, cutting hundreds of thousands of people from access to even the most basic healthcare.   Current fighting around the northeastern city of Deir Ezzor is endangering water supplies there. With swelling numbers of civilians fleeing military operations – some camps around Raqqa and Deir Ezzor are receiving over 1,000 women, children and men every day – humanitarian organizations are struggling to provide water, food and basic hygiene to the new arrivals.   "Military operations must not disregard the fate of civilians and of the vital infrastructure on which their survival depends," said ICRC''s regional director for the Near and Middle East, Robert Mardini. "Winning by any means is not only unlawful, but also unacceptable when it comes at such human cost. We call once again on all those fighting in Syria to show restraint, and to abide by the basic tenets of International humanitarian law." http://bit.ly/2kp5sjj   July 2017   Syria: "I repeat my call for the UN Security Council to act to protect civilians" - UN Humanitarian Chief   The conflict in Syria continues to grind on, day by day, month by month. A conflict where there can be no victory on the battlefield, a conflict which will not end by the use of force. All that this relentless and senseless fighting provides are hollow advances or retreats, leaving behind utter devastation for the civilians left in its wake. I don’t need to paint a picture, you have seen them along with the rest of the world, an outraged world – not an indifferent world, but an indignant, furious world that can’t understand why you, the Security Council, can’t fix it.   So, we must be clear: 13.5 million people are caught in a protection crisis that threatens their lives on a daily basis. It affects so many because we have seen time and again a complete disgraceful disregard for the rules of war, subjecting civilians to the horrifying reality of bombs raining down on schools, hospitals and residential areas every day.   The use of explosive weapons with wide-area effects in urban areas is unconscionable, with the utmost consequences for civilians in the immediate and long term. We know this. Those fighting know this. Those who support the different parties know it too. And, for sure, those civilians who have suffered years of war know this.   When explosive weapons are used in populated areas, 92 per cent of people killed or injured are civilians. Ninety-two per cent. And those who might be lucky enough to survive the bombs, but whose homes are destroyed and are forced to flee face a whole new set of protection challenges – from mines and unexploded ordinance, to forced conscription, sexual abuse and violence, to restrictions on basic rights such as freedom of movement.   It is our duty as fellow human beings to stand up and say enough. To demand an end to these practices. To stop the needless death, and to help those whose lives have already been destroyed.   Each month, the United Nations and humanitarian partners do all in our power, in the face of extreme difficulty, to reach those who are most in need. Again my admiration and tribute to the courage and persistence of the humanitarian aid workers on the ground – from the United Nations and our international humanitarian partners and knows no bounds. And they are not a target – or shouldn’t be – but sadly in Syria today they are..   http://reliefweb.int/report/syrian-arab-republic/syria-i-repeat-my-call-council-act-now-protect-civilians-un-humanitarian http://reliefweb.int/report/syrian-arab-republic/report-independent-international-commission-inquiry-syrian-arab-3   May 2017   Statement by ICRC President Peter Maurer on his recent Syria trip. (ICRC)   This is my 5th visit to Syria and each time I come, I see more suffering. Nearly half of the population has been displaced and all are exhausted by conflict. The humanitarian needs are enormous, and in parts of the country affected by ongoing fighting these needs are in fact rising sharply.   This is especially true in hard-to-reach places. The irregularity of help is exposing these populations to risks including poor nutrition, unclean water, or inadequate medical care.   Above all, what is clear to me is that even if the conflict ends tomorrow, the need for humanitarian aid will be daunting.   During my visit, I met with Syrian officials and we spoke about these humanitarian needs. I stressed my desire to expand further ICRC’s regular access to civilians and detainees and I emphasized the critical importance for all sides in the conflict to better facilitate our work on the ground, with swifter and unimpeded access.   On the ground, I was impressed by the dedication of thousands of the volunteers of the Syrian Arab Red Crescent (SARC) who work with us to help people in need. Together with the SARC, we are ready to boost our neutral humanitarian operations, we are ready to increase the delivery of vital aid. But access is absolutely critical. We cannot help people we cannot reach.   I am encouraged by the gradual progress we’ve made on delivering aid across the lines of conflict. In 2016 we carried out eight times as many crossline operations as in 2015, and since the beginning of this year have delivered aid in 19 such operations. We can do this because of our honest and direct dialogue with all parties to the conflict.   Yet it is very clear that short-term relief alone is not enough. As important is the long-term process of building resilience that we can support alongside. We will be scaling up our livelihood programmes to respond to the expectations of those who now need more sustainable solutions, like cash grants or small business projects, to rebuild their lives.   I have been fortunate in this trip to hear directly from people trying to survive under extremely difficult circumstances. Driving to Zabadani, the destruction is clear and devastating. In Ein Al-Fijeh I met school teachers – themselves displaced by fighting – concerned at what the lost years of education mean for the future of so many Syrian children. I was moved when 13-year old Manar, one of the young Syrian girls I met at SARC’s psychosocial centre in Al Tal, offered me a handmade gift.   The Syrian crisis is first and foremost a protection crisis and we must see the rules of war respected. We all need to keep helping Manar and others to deal with psychological scars of this conflict. We will continue to engage with Syrian authorities to address the needs of families whose relatives have gone missing, to help improve the treatment of detainees and their conditions, and to reach civilians trapped in the fighting.   It is also obvious that a political solution is essential to end this suffering. However, this solution cannot distract from the needs of people like those I met this week. Aid must be separate from the political process and this process must not blind the world to the suffering of the Syrian people.   http://www.icrc.org/en/where-we-work/middle-east/syria/syrian-people   April 2017   Syria: International law prohibits chemical attacks - UN Syria Commission Condemns Khan Shikhoun Attack   The Commission of Inquiry on the Syrian Arab Republic condemns in the strongest terms the attacks on the town of Khan Shikhoun in southern Idlib today which killed scores of civilians, including a number of children.   Reports suggesting that this was a chemical weapons attack are extremely concerning. The Commission is currently investigating the circumstances surrounding this attack including the alleged use of chemical weapons and reports of a subsequent attack on a medical facility where a number of injured persons were receiving treatment.   Both the use of chemical weapons, as well as the deliberate targeting of medical facilities, would amount to war crimes and serious violations of human rights law.   The Commission notes that the UN Security Council has passed resolutions specifically designed to investigate instances in which the use of chemical weapons has been alleged and to identify perpetrators.   In that respect, the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons fact-finding mission currently operating inside the Syrian Arab Republic and the independent Joint Investigative Mechanism should be given full support to investigate these incidents, in addition to the Commission of Inquiry. It is imperative for perpetrators of such attacks to be identified and held accountable.   The Commission would like to extend its heartfelt condolences to the families of the victims and wishes a speedy recovery to the injured. http://bit.ly/2nAKfPG http://bit.ly/2n9feHg   April 2017   ''Toxic gas attack'' in Syria kills at least 80 people, with many children among the dead. (Al Jazeera, agencies)   At least 80 people, including 11 children, have been killed in a "toxic gas" bombing raid on a rebel-held Syrian town, doctors and a monitor said, in an attack the United Nations quickly said it would investigate as a possible war crime.   The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said the attack on Khan Sheikhoun in Idlib province caused many people to choke or faint, and some to foam from the mouth, citing medical sources who described the symptoms as signs that gas was used.   It would mark the deadliest chemical attack in Syria since sarin gas killed hundreds of civilians in Ghouta near the capital in August 2013. Western states said the Syrian government was responsible for the 2013 attack. Damascus blamed rebels.   Locals said the attack began in the early morning, when they heard planes in the sky followed by a series of loud explosions, after which people very quickly began to show symptoms. They said they could not identify the planes. Both Syrian and Russian jets have bombed the area before.   Russia''s defence ministry denied it was responsible, telling the state-run RIA news agency that it carried out no bombing runs in the area on Tuesday.   The Syrian government has repeatedly denied using such weapons in the past. On three previous occasions, though, United Nations investigations have found it guilty of using chemical weapons.   In a statement, the UN Commission of Inquiry on Syria said the use of chemical weapons, as well as any deliberate targeting of medical facilities, "would amount to war crimes and serious violations of human rights law".   "It is imperative for perpetrators of such attacks to be identified and held accountable," said the independent panel led by Brazilian expert Paulo Pinheiro.   The AFP news agency, citing one of its journalists on the scene, said a rocket later slammed into a hospital where the victims were being treated, bringing rubble down on medics as they struggled to deal with victims.   Al Jazeera''s Alan Fisher, reporting from Beirut, said locals on the ground expected that the number of dead would increase and that many of the wounded were children.   "There were people fainting, they were vomiting, they were foaming at the mouth," Fisher said.   "In that situation, the treatment tends to be to try and strip people off, to get the chemicals away from their bodies, to hose them down as quickly as possible. But even then some of the pictures that have been posted on social media in the last couple of hours show very young people struggling for breath, many people dead where they fell."   Fisher reported that hospitals in the area were overwhelmed with the scale of the apparent attack and that footage showed them struggling to cope with the number of victims.   Medics reported that "nearly a third of the casualties they have seen are children, presenting at hospitals pale and unconscious or struggling to breathe after rockets were dropped from the air," according to Save the Children.   Save the Children reported that a second gas attack struck the area again midday. "A further rocket releasing a currently undetermined chemical substance was alleged to have been dropped in the same area at lunchtime today and many families are said to have fled desperate to escape a further attack," the charity said.   In a press statement, Sonia Khush, the organization''s director in Syria, described the scene.   "Doctors at a health clinic run by our partner Syria Relief told us they received three children under six years old today," Khush said. "They were struggling to breathe and barely conscious, with running noses and contracted pupils—doctors say these symptoms are consistent with the use of nerve agents such as sarin."   Khush further noted that if use of such a banned substance is confirmed, "this would be in clear violation of international law and a worrying indication that not all chemical weapons have been destroyed in Syria as UNSCR 2118 reached in September 2013 demanded." Both Save the Children and Amnesty International are calling for an immediate and impartial investigation into the attack.   A member of the White Helmets, a rescue group that operates in rebel-held areas, told Al Jazeera that over 400 people had been injured.   Medical workers in the town of Khan Sheikhun said that victims had been brought in vomiting and fainting after the air raid, and on top of the dead there were dozens of patients suffering respiratory problems. The Syrian Medical Relief Group, an international aid agency funding hospitals in Syria, said at least 500 people were injured in the attack.   Firas al-Jundi, a health official with the opposition-aligned Idlib medical council, said the symptoms were consistent with a gas attack.   "The symptoms were clear on the patients, suffocation, respiratory failure, foaming at the mouth, loss of consciousness, convulsions and paralysis," he said. "These symptoms usually appear as a result of poisonous gas leading to convulsions in body."   Leaders across the world condemned the Syrian government and its allies following reports of the attack, and called on Syrian President Bashar al-Assad to be held to account.   EU foreign policy chief Federica Mogherini said that the attack served as a "dramatic reminder of the fact that the first priority is, as in any conflict, stopping the fighting," adding that the Assad regime had the "primary responsibility of protecting its people and not attacking its people."   http://www.theguardian.com/world/2017/apr/06/the-dead-were-wherever-you-looked-inside-syrian-town-after-chemical-attack   April 2017   Dozens feared dead from Chemical Exposure in Syria, writes Ole Solvang, Deputy Director of Emergencies, Human Rights Watch   Dozens of people showed symptoms consistent with exposure to chemicals after aircraft attacked Khan Sheikhoun, a town in northern Syria, witnesses told us. While we are continuing to investigate, early reports suggest dozens were killed. Khan Sheikhoun is controlled by armed groups fighting against Syrian government forces.   International law prohibits chemical attacks. With 192 member states, the Chemical Weapons Convention is one of the strongest weapon bans in international law. Syria joined the convention and gave up its chemical weapons program in 2013 after a chemical weapons attack, likely carried out by government forces, killed hundreds in a suburb of Damascus.   The United Nations Security Council has condemned chemical attacks in Syria on several occasions, Russia and China have used their vetoes to block sanctions on the Syrian government. Those responsible for past chemical attacks might have taken the lack of consequences as a green light to conduct more attacks.   The continued use of chemical attacks in Syria by government forces and armed groups threatens to undermine the very strong ban against chemical weapons in international law, which may encourage their use by others.   The Security Council, including Russia and China, should condemn this latest attack and support steps to hold those responsible to account. http://bit.ly/2nTzpGj   http://www.un.org/en/genocideprevention/news.html Visit the related web page
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