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We have long lost count of the dead in the Syrian crisis. Quite a while ago, as we reached the 220000 deaths, we simply stopped counting. Probably, a unique case in the history of humanitarian crises. And Syria is the worst humanitarian crisis of this century. The Syrian government has failed miserably in its responsibility to protect. Not only that- it is a perpetrator of crimes against its own civilian population. This past May was the deadliest month yet in the Syrian conflict, some 7000 deaths, of which more than 1200 civilians. 66 percent of those civilian deaths were due to airstrikes by the  Syrian air force helicopters and fixed wing aircraft.

In February 2014 UN Security Council adopted Resolution 2139 demanding all parties to the conflict to end “…all attacks against civilians, as well as the indiscriminate employment of weapons in populated areas, including shelling and aerial bombardment, such as the use of barrel bombs”. The use of barrel bombs, a crude and blind weapon of war, aimed primarily at the civilians, has been widely condemned time and again by the international community. Just recently, on June 18, 71 countries, including Lithuania signed a letter expressing dismay at the violence caused by the systematic use of barrel bombs, underscoring that Syrian authorities must cease such indiscriminate aerial attacks.

The use of barrel bombs, made to kill and to inflict excessive injuries to human beings, is a hideous violation of the international humanitarian law. Also, of the legally binding provisions of relevant  Security Council resolutions. And yet they continue to fall with unrelenting and brutal persistence on  schools, on hospitals, on market places, streets and private houses of the Syrian people.

As the Chair of the Independent International Commission of Inquiry on Syria stated in Geneva on 12 March 2015: “The timing and duration of the attacks demonstrates that the aim of the Government’s campaign of barrel-bombing was to terrorise the civilian population present in the areas attacked, with the clear message that no civilian was safe anywhere at any time of the day or night”. Just last Tuesday, the Commission of Inquiry on Syria once again denounced,  in its report, the dropping of explosives by the Syrian government, and also the fact that the sieges of several towns and cities have led to famine. Add to that the use of chlorine attacks  against the Syrian population. What an array of  crimes against humanity and war crimes!

All that facilitated by the prevailing climate of total impunity that reigns over this conflict. The Security Council has taken some important steps in alleviating the humanitarian access to the people in utter, dire need of assistance. That did help, although the obstacles to humanitarian aid and medical assistance continue to be posed.  But progress on seeking accountability for the ongoing appalling crimes against civilian population is nowhere in sight. Civilians keep falling victims of  indiscriminate barrel bombings and chlorine attacks, starvation and sieges, abuse and torture, killings and the savagery of radical extremists. As the Syrian government shows no intention to protect its own population, it is up to the international community to live up to its responsibility to protect. 

Massive failures in the responsibility to protect, in Syria and elsewhere around the world, are particularly glaring today, as the UN marks the 70th anniversary of the UN Charter. As the Syrian crisis continued to expand and wreak ever more devastation and death, the veto right has been used repeatedly to protect the perpetrators, not the victims. The desperate plight of the Syrian civilian population reminds us once again of the urgent need to reign in the use of veto in cases of mass atrocities, genocide, war crimes, and crimes against humanity.

The onus is on the Security Council, as the foremost body dealing with issues of international peace and security, to rise up to the occasion and live up to the noble role it was given by the UN Carter. The Council must assume the responsibility to act to put an end to destruction and bloodshed and make sure that all the perpetrators of human rights violations, atrocities, crimes against humanity and war crimes in Syria are held to account.

Existing justice mechanisms must be allowed to play their role. The International Criminal Court must be enabled to play its role by referring the situation on Syria to its jurisdiction. We strongly support the efforts of the Independent Commission of Inquiry and human rights groups to continue documenting the atrocities committed by the various parties to this conflict, with a hope, that eventually all those responsible will see the day of reckoning. If we do not put an end to impunity, this crisis will continue to demand new victims, more blood, more lasting destruction, cancelling out the future of an entire nation. The Security Council cannot continue to be on the sidelines of this tragic course of events.