Recent update from Human Rights Council on situation in Syria. The HRC noted:
"Condemning the grave situation of human rights across the Syrian Arab Republic, and demanding that the Syrian authorities meet their responsibility to protect the Syrian population and to respect, protect and fulfill the human rights of all persons within its jurisdiction;
"Condemning also any indiscriminate or deliberate targeting of civilians in violation of international humanitarian law, in particular by the Syrian authorities, and recalling the obligation of all parties to the conflict to take all feasible precautions to avoid, and in any event minimize, harm to civilians and civilian objects, such as medical facilities and schools, including by ceasing their use for military purposes, and the prohibition on attacking, removing, destroying or rendering useless objects or areas indispensable to the survival of the civilian population, including drinking water installations, supplies, irrigation works and agricultural areas for the production of foodstuffs and crops;
"Expressing deep concern at the situation of women, children, older persons and persons with disabilities, especially those who are internally displaced, who remain among the most vulnerable to violence and abuse, and noting in this regard relevant Security Council resolutions on the protection of civilians, including Council resolution 2475 (2019) of 20 June 2019;
"Expressing deep concern also that the human rights of women continue to be violated, in particular through sexual and gender-based violence and systematic discrimination against women and girls, and that women, in particular those belonging to certain religious and ethnic communities, have been disproportionately affected by the conflict;
"Deplores the fact that the conflict in the Syrian Arab Republic continues into its tenth year with its devastating impact on the civilian population, including the consistent patterns of gross violations and abuses of international human rights law and violations of international humanitarian law across the country, and urges all parties to the conflict to abstain immediately from any actions that may contribute to the further deterioration of the human rights, security and humanitarian situations;
"Demands that the Syrian authorities cooperate fully with the Human Rights Council and the Commission of Inquiry by granting the Commission immediate, full and unfettered access throughout the Syrian Arab Republic, and urges all Member States to cooperate with the Commission in the discharge of its mandate;
"Deplores the escalation of violence in the north-west of the country, and
strongly condemns the attacks by the Syrian authorities and their State and non-State allies on civilians and civilian infrastructure in the province of Idlib and surrounding areas, where violence, including airstrikes, has caused the death of more than 1,000 civilians, including first responders, since the beginning of December 2019, and devastating damage to civilian infrastructure, including health-care, educational and humanitarian facilities, as well as water stations, markets, camps for internally displaced persons and convoys of civilians trying to flee the violence, while noting that this has also caused the forced displacement of almost 1 million people since the start of December 2019, and that nearly 3 million people, half of whom children, are reliant upon humanitarian support..."
Read the entire report for more important information.