6 July 2021
The Situation in Myanmar Has Escalated to a Multi-dimensional Human Rights Catastrophe, High Commissioner Warns Human Rights Council
The Human Rights Council this afternoon held an interactive dialogue with the Independent International Commission of Inquiry on the Syrian Arab Republic and started an interactive dialogue with the High Commissioner for Human Rights on her oral update on the situation of human rights in Myanmar.
Paulo Pinheiro, Chair of the Independent International Commission of Inquiry on the Syrian Arab Republic, stated that the pandemic and the current economic crisis had inflicted new dimensions of suffering on Syrians. Five international armies, their proxies and a plethora of other non-State actors continued to fight in Syria – including the air forces of the Russian Federation, the United States and Israel. Civilians had to navigate through all of these actors to simply go about their lives. More than 2.7 million internally displaced persons remained stranded in increasingly desperate living conditions in Idlib governorate. Despite initial and encouraging reductions in violence following the March 2020 ceasefire, violence had escalated since January this year across northwest Syria. Despite the continued inadequate response at the Security Council, there now finally appeared to be some momentum behind the establishment of a mechanism on the missing. This was a priority.