Syria: Every day brings more death and, more communities are torn apart by Syria INGO Regional Forum, WFP & agencies 11:15am 22nd Jan, 2014   20 Jan 2014    Failure of Geneva II talks would put millions of lives at risk, warns 35 member aid group calling for a peaceful solution to the Syria conflict.    Two days ahead of the scheduled Geneva II peace talks, the Syria INGO Regional Forum (SIRF), a coalition of leading global aid agencies responding to the Syria crisis calls on all parties to the conflict to double their efforts to reach a negotiated settlement. “The crisis in Syria will soon be entering its fourth year, and the plight of millions of Syrians must be seen as a catalyst to secure peace. Every day that passes, without a resolution to the conflict, more vulnerable people are pushed deeper into hunger and poverty. We must ensure that these talks result in action to bring an end to the suffering of millions of ordinary Syrians who have lived in misery far too long,” says Rob Drouen, chair of the SIRF board. While peace in Syria is the goal, SIRF calls on all parties to the conflict to halt violence against civilians and enable communities caught up in the fighting to access the humanitarian assistance they so desperately need.    “The war in Syria is impacting in horrific and irreversible ways on health, education and livelihoods of whole generations, not only in Syria but across the region. Conflict is also spilling into neighbouring countries and the ramifications of this are unconscionable,” adds Drouen.    Within Syria, a third of the entire population – around six million people, almost half of them children – have been displaced from their homes. Schools and hospitals have been damaged or destroyed, and the health system has collapsed across much of the country. The risk of what are normally easily preventable or treated diseases is rapidly increasing and outbreaks of polio, typhoid and measles are increasing threats. “Accessing those in need is increasingly difficult. The international community must do everything in its power to halt armed conflict and enable unhindered humanitarian access to those in need across Syria,” says Dina Morad, SIRF board member.    In addition to those in crisis within Syria, more than 2.3 million refugees have officially registered with the UN, but unofficial estimates of unregistered civilians indicate that the number in surrounding countries might already total around 4.5 million.    According to latest UN estimates, the number of people in need of humanitarian aid both within Syria and the region exceeds a staggering ten million. In recent weeks, Syrian refugees across the region have been hit hard by winter storms and plunging temperatures, heaping another layer of misery to their struggle to survive. “More and more families have no access to health care, have lost any source of income, and can no longer afford food, clothing, or adequate housing. A mother told me that she wakes up at night and checks on her children, afraid they might have frozen to death,” says Morad.    “Every day brings more death and, more communities are torn apart as hopes for reconciliation and recovery fade. Millions affected by this worst humanitarian crisis in decades will continue paying a heavy price if the peace talks fail,” adds Thierry Benlahsen, member of the SIRF board.    The Syria INGO Regional Forum’s members responding to the Syrian crisis inside Syria and in neighbouring countries include:    ACTED, Action Aid, Action Against Hunger, CAFOD, CARE, Danish Church Aid, Danish Refugee Council, Handicap International, HelpAge International, Intersos, International Medical Corps, International Catholic Migration Commission, Catholic Relief Services, International Rescue Committee, IRD, Islamic Relief, LIFE for Relief and Development, Lutheran World Federation, Medair, Medecins du Monde, Mennonite Central Committee, Mercy Corps, NRC, Oxfam, Première Urgence - Aide Médicale Internationale, Relief International, Save the Children, Secours Islamique Français, SNAP, Solidarités International, Terre des Hommes, Un Ponte Per, War Child UK, War Child Holland, World Vision.    http://reliefweb.int/report/syrian-arab-republic/failure-geneva-ii-talks-would-put-millions-lives-risk-warns-aid    Jan 2014    Plight of Syrian children must be top priority at peace talks.    Peace talks on ending the Syrian civil war should take the plight of Syrian children as their top priority, Save the Children and other leading humanitarian agencies said on Tuesday in an open letter to the meeting’s participants.    Among the letter’s 14 signatories are United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees Antonio Guterres, Archbishop Desmond Tutu, International Rescue Committee President David Miliband, U.N. Under-Secretary General for Humanitarian Affairs Valerie Amos and UNICEF Executive Director Anthony Lake.    “Every day in Syria, children are experiencing the brutality of war: injury, death and displacement. Scandalously, hundreds of thousands are trapped in besieged or hard-to-reach areas and receiving little or no aid,” said Roger Hearn, Save the Children regional director for the Middle East. “This tragedy is man-made, and it is within the power of the warring parties to stop it.”    More than 11,000 children have died in the conflict, 71 percent of them killed indiscriminately by explosive weapons used in towns and cities, Save the Children said.    Children also make up a large part of the 4.25 million people forced to abandon their homes as a result of the war, and some 2 million Syrian children have had to drop out of school, according to the United Nations.    The charity called on all Geneva II participants and parties to commit to three points:    Allow life-saving aid to reach children inside Syria; Protect schools and health facilities; Prevent the use of explosive weapons in populated areas.    http://childrenandarmedconflict.un.org/press-release/open-letter-to-geneva-ii-peace-talk/    Jan 2014    WFP Syria director says peace talks must address humanitarian aid. (WFP/Alertnet)    Syria’s warring sides must seize this week’s peace conference in Switzerland as a chance to allow humanitarian aid workers access to nearly 3 million people who have been under siege or cut off by fighting, the World Food Programme (WFP) says.    WFP’s Syria Country Director Matthew Hollingworth urged combatants to call a ceasefire in order to enable aid workers to reach trapped civilians, bring in aid and medical help, assess needs and carry out evacuations.    “The very least that these different fighters can provide is a pause to allow the humanitarians to get in and provide that emergency relief,” he said.    Hollingworth said the WFP had received credible reports of malnutrition-related deaths in besieged areas. Some communities have been cut off for more than a year.    “Although humanitarian assistance is not part of the political discussions, part of this peace process has to look at improving the lives of Syrians affected by the crisis - both inside Syria and seeking refugee status in neighbouring countries and beyond. Humanitarian issues need to be part of that Geneva 2 discussion,” Hollingworth said in an interview with Thomson Reuters Foundation.    Hollingworth said access was a huge problem for the WFP. Some 2.5 million people are stuck in hard-to-reach areas in the north where aid operations are severely compromised by fighting between government and opposition forces and between different rebel groups. Another 250,000 people are trapped in besieged areas. Opposition forces have surrounded two areas in the northwestern Aleppo region, while government forces have encircled 38 neighbourhoods around Damascus.    Hollingworth condemned besiegement as an indiscriminate tactic with appalling consequences for civilians. A few areas are tightly sealed with nothing going in. In others, limited supplies are getting in through tunnels or when troops allow controlled movement in and out, Hollingworth said, but he stressed the amount getting through was insufficient. The WFP has asked for an end to besiegements, but he said they were unlikely to stop any time soon.    This year Syria and neighbouring countries hosting refugees will account for about a third of the WFP’s entire budget.    Hollingworth said the WFP needed to raise £24 million ($41 mln) every week to help 4.25 million people inside Syria and more than 2.9 million who have fled to Jordan, Lebanon and elsewhere.    “One-third of the original population of Syria is homeless… and many have been displaced three, four, five times. The more people run from terror, war and frontlines, the more their ability to continue to survive is challenged. Families have very little left to sell. Their livelihoods don’t exist anymore,” he said.    In addition, inflation has skyrocketed since the crisis began. In some areas, Hollingworth said the price of bread had gone up 350 percent, dairy products and eggs cost six times more, and meat was now beyond the means of most people.    Hollingworth said everywhere you went you could see people camping in factories, warehouses or building sites with no electricity or water. Some are sharing apartments with 30 others. Many are surviving on what they can grow in back gardens or on rooftops. “Everybody in Syria today is facing a crisis. There are parts of Syria that I would imagine look very similar to Dresden in 1945. They are shells of what they once were,” he said, referring to the German city destroyed during World War II.    He said Syria’s population would be affected far into the future and reiterated U.N. warnings that the country could see “a lost generation” of children who had grown up on a poor diet and without an education.    http://www.trust.org/item/20140120064304-5a1bm/?source=hpeditorial    21 January 2014    United Nations Expert Group urges Human Rights-Based Peace Deal at Geneva Conference.    Representatives of the largest body of independent experts in the United Nations human rights system called for the upcoming Geneva II Conference on Syria to agree on measures to swiftly end the violence. In an open letter* published today, the United Nations experts also urged a durable peace that has the protection of the human rights of all as a core obligation and objective.    “The lives, future and fundamental human rights of millions of affected civilians are at stake in Syria,” said Chaloka Beyani on behalf the Committee which coordinates the work of Special Procedures’ experts.    The United Nations Experts pledged to support and assist all positive initiatives to end the conflict, re-establish the rule of law, and ensure protection of human rights and humanitarian assistance for all. They offered their expertise in a wide range of human rights issues and emphasized that relevant experts should be granted immediate access to the country to assess the human rights situation.    Mr. Beyani reminded all parties of their obligations to abide by international human rights and humanitarian law. “Civilians, regardless of their religion, ethnicity or political affiliation, must be protected by the Government and opposition groups in the areas they control,” Mr. Beyani underscored. “War crimes and crimes against humanity have been documented…perpetrators of such violations must be held accountable,” he emphasized.    The Experts expressed alarm at civilian deaths. “Protection of the right to life of civilians must be absolute and unconditional, yet the death toll from the conflict to-date is well over 100,000 people,” Mr. Beyani noted, while highlighting “the horrific impact of the conflict on civilian women, children and elderly persons on all sides.”    The group of human rights experts drew special attention to the situation of an estimated 6.5 million people, 30 percent of the Syrian population, who remain in the country as internally displaced persons, and 2.4 million who are refugees in neighbouring countries. They particularly highlighted the desperate plight of many who remain under siege close to the conflict and in areas where there is frequent change of control, who are facing deteriorating humanitarian conditions.    “The basic needs for security, physical integrity, food, healthcare, shelter, water and sanitation, and education, are almost impossible to meet,” Mr. Beyani warned. “Humanitarian actors must be able to operate freely and their security must be guaranteed by all sides. Humanitarian corridors should be immediately established by all parties to the conflict.”    “The hampering of aid to anyone based on their religious or any other affiliation is unacceptable and a grave violation of human rights,” he said.    According to the Experts, evidence suggests that sectarian tensions and attacks against specific religious and other population groups in Syria have increased and demonstrate a rapidly disintegrating social fabric and growing inter-communal tensions. They expressed concern that such sectarian elements to the violence could have implications for future peace and stability in both Syria and the wider region.    All legitimate actors and population groups must have a voice in shaping the future of Syria, the independent experts said. They particularly emphasized the need to ensure that Syrian women take part in the Geneva talks and all future discussion to end the conflict.    “It is imperative to secure the right of Syrian women to be heard so that the disproportionate consequences of the conflict suffered by them are adequately addressed,” Mr. Beyani said. “Women have a legitimate and critical role to play in rebuilding and reconciling Syria.”    “The Syrian people deserve a secure future with rights, dignity, justice and peace under a broad based representative leadership and national institutions and political bodies committed to human rights of all and reflecting fully the diversity of the Syrian population. No effort should be spared to cease the tragedy of war that has engulfed them,” they said.    (*) Open Letter by the UN Special Procedures human rights experts: http://www.ohchr.org/EN/NewsEvents/Pages/DisplayNews.aspx?NewsID=14188&LangID=E    31 December 2013    UN humanitarian chief decries ‘indiscriminate attacks’ in Aleppo.    The top United Nations humanitarian official today expressed concern about the deteriorating situation in the Syrian city of Aleppo, where hundreds of people have been killed or injured by indiscriminate attacks in recent weeks.    “I join UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon in strongly condemning the attacks against civilians in Aleppo and in many other parts of Syria,” said Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs Valerie Amos.    Mr. Ban last week voiced grave concern about the continued and indiscriminate use of heavy weapons and mortar shelling in the ongoing conflict, particularly in hard-hit Aleppo which the Government has targeted with “barrel bombs,” or oil drums filled with explosives and shrapnel and dropped by aircraft.    “People have suffered more than enough,” Ms. Amos said, adding that insecurity continues to have a major impact on efforts to reach people with life-saving assistance.    “I remind all parties to the conflict of their obligation under international humanitarian and human rights law, and their responsibility to ensure the protection of civilians,” she said.    Ms Amos underscored that humanitarian organizations operate in a neutral and impartial manner, and need unhindered access to safely reach all people.    Over 130,000 people have already been killed in Syria and 8 million driven from their homes, with 2 million of them seeking refuge in neighbouring countries, since the conflict first erupted in March 2011.    There is now an average of 127,000 people pouring out of Syria each month, according to the latest figures from the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), which added that the number of registered refugees is expected to surpass 4 million at the end of next year.    Across the region, some 400,000 refugees live in formal camps, but nearly 2 million reside outside formal settlements, the UN agency noted.    http://www.un.org/apps/news/story.asp?NewsID=46860&Cr=syria&Cr1=
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