RES/40/17 The human rights situation in the Syrian Arab Republic

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GE.19-06240(E)



Human Rights Council Fortieth session

25 February–22 March 2019

Agenda item 4

Resolution adopted by the Human Rights Council on 22 March 2019

40/17. The human rights situation in the Syrian Arab Republic

The Human Rights Council,

Guided by the principles and purposes of the Charter of the United Nations,

Reaffirming its previous resolutions on the Syrian Arab Republic,

Reaffirming also its strong commitment to the full respect of the sovereignty,

independence, unity and territorial integrity of the Syrian Arab Republic,

Demanding that the Syrian authorities meet their responsibility to protect the Syrian

population and to respect, protect and fulfil the human rights of all persons within its

jurisdiction,

Condemning the grave situation of human rights across the Syrian Arab Republic,

Condemning also the indiscriminate or deliberate targeting of civilians in violation of

international humanitarian law, 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 and persons with

disabilities, especially those who are internally displaced, who remain among the most

vulnerable to violence and abuse,

Reiterating that the only sustainable solution to the current conflict in the Syrian Arab

Republic is through an inclusive, Syrian-led and Syrian-owned political process under the

auspices of the United Nations, including with the equal voice and full and meaningful

participation of women in all efforts and decision-making, and in accordance with the Geneva

communiqué of 30 June 2012 and Security Council resolutions 2118 (2013) of 27 September

2013 and 2254 (2015) of 18 December 2015, with a view to establishing credible, inclusive

and non-sectarian governance and supporting the Special Envoy of the Secretary-General for

Syria in his efforts towards this end,

Recalling Security Council resolution 2336 (2016) of 31 December 2016, stressing

the continuing need to respect the de-escalation area of Idlib, acknowledging the signing by

United Nations A/HRC/RES/40/17

Turkey and the Russian Federation of the memorandum on the stabilization of the situation

in the Idlib de-escalation area on 17 September 2018, and emphasizing the need to establish

an effective and lasting nationwide ceasefire in the Syrian Arab Republic,

Reaffirming that States must ensure that any measure taken to counter terrorism

complies with any relevant rules of international law, in particular international human rights

law and international humanitarian law,

Recalling that, consistent with international humanitarian law and pursuant to relevant

Security Council resolutions, including resolutions 2165 (2014) of 14 July 2014, 2268 (2016)

of 26 February 2016 and 2401 (2018) of 24 February 2018, all Syrian parties to the conflict

are to enable the immediate and unhindered delivery of humanitarian assistance, and stressing

that the arbitrary denial of humanitarian access, depriving civilians of objects and assistance

indispensable to their survival, including wilfully impeding relief supplies, such as food aid

and life-saving medical supplies, may constitute a violation of international humanitarian

law,

Recalling also that deliberate attacks on civilians and civilian objects, such as schools

and educational facilities, cultural heritage and places of worship, as well as on medical

facilities, patients and personnel and on humanitarian personnel, may amount to war crimes,

Recalling further the statements made by the Secretary-General and the United

Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights that crimes against humanity and war crimes

are likely to have been committed in the Syrian Arab Republic,

Reaffirming that the use of chemical weapons constitutes a serious violation of

international law, reiterating that all those responsible for any use of chemical weapons must

be held accountable, regretting that the mandate of the Organisation for the Prohibition of

Chemical Weapons-United Nations Joint Investigative Mechanism was not renewed, and

welcoming that the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons is putting in place

arrangements to identify the perpetrators of the use of chemical weapons in the Syrian Arab

Republic,

Recalling the work of the International, Impartial and Independent Mechanism to

Assist in the Investigation and Prosecution of Persons Responsible for the Most Serious

Crimes under International Law Committed in the Syrian Arab Republic since March 2011,

including on instances of the use of chemical weapons,

Bearing in mind that the illicit transfer, destabilizing accumulation and misuse of

small arms and light weapons fuel conflict and affect negatively the enjoyment of human

rights,

Expressing its deepest concern at the findings of the Independent International

Commission of Inquiry on the Syrian Arab Republic,1 and deploring the lack of cooperation

by the Syrian authorities with the Commission of Inquiry,

Acknowledging the ongoing efforts of human rights defenders active in the Syrian

Arab Republic to document violations and abuses of international human rights law and

violations of international humanitarian law, despite grave risks,

1. Deplores the fact that the conflict in the Syrian Arab Republic continues in its

ninth year with its devastating impact on the civilian population, 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;

2. Calls upon all parties to the conflict and Member States, especially members

of the International Syria Support Group, to renew their efforts to create conditions, including

a comprehensive nationwide ceasefire, that support continued negotiations for a political

solution to the Syrian conflict, under the auspices of the new Special Envoy of the Secretary-

General for Syria and his office in Geneva, as only a durable and inclusive political solution

to the conflict can bring an end to the systematic, widespread and gross violations and abuses

of international human rights law and violations of international humanitarian law;

1 A/HRC/40/70.

3. Welcomes the work and the important role played by the Independent

International Commission of Inquiry on the Syrian Arab Republic, established by the Human

Rights Council in its resolution S-17/1 of 23 August 2011, in supporting future accountability

efforts by investigating all alleged violations and abuses of international human rights law

since March 2011 in the Syrian Arab Republic, to establish the facts and circumstances and

to support efforts to ensure that all perpetrators of abuses and violations, including those who

may be responsible for crimes against humanity, are held accountable;

4. 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;

5. Strongly condemns all violations and abuses of international human rights law

and all violations of international humanitarian law committed by all parties to the conflict,

including the continued systematic, widespread and gross violations and abuses of human

rights and all violations of international humanitarian law by the Syrian regime and its

affiliated State and non-State actors, including foreign terrorist fighters and those foreign

organizations fighting on behalf of the Syrian authorities, and expresses deep concern that

their involvement further exacerbates the deteriorating situation in the Syrian Arab Republic,

including the human rights and humanitarian situation, which has a serious negative impact

on the region;

6. Also strongly condemns the use by the Syrian authorities of banned munitions,

the indiscriminate use of heavy weapons in populated areas, barrel bombs, aerial

bombardment, incendiary weapons, ballistic missiles and cluster bombs, and the use of

starvation and siege directed against civilian populations as a method of warfare, and stresses

the situation of particular concern in Idlib, where violence continues to cause death and injury

among civilians;

7. Urges all the relevant parties, including the signatories to the memorandum on

the stabilization of the situation in the Idlib de-escalation area of 17 September 2018, to

ensure that the ceasefire in Idlib is upheld in order to prevent further death and injury among

civilians, including medical and humanitarian personnel, and damage to civilian objects, as

well as to avoid a potential humanitarian catastrophe;

8. Strongly condemns all attacks on medical and health personnel, first

responders, their means of transport and equipment, and hospitals and other medical

facilities, and deplores the long-term consequences of such attacks for the population and

health-care systems of the Syrian Arab Republic;

9. Also strongly condemns the attacks against all civilian objects and the negative

effects of the ongoing conflict on the rights and welfare of children, including their access to

medical care and other humanitarian assistance as well as to education, including schools,

decries the violations and abuses of international human rights law and violations of

international humanitarian law, as applicable, and deplores in particular the impact of the

denial of humanitarian access on their lives and well-being;

10. Expresses deep concern at the suffering of children resulting from the

escalation of violence, harsh weather conditions and lack of safe refuge, and calls upon all

parties fighting in the Syrian Arab Republic to allow at all times humanitarian workers to

reach children and families in need of life-saving assistance, and to prevent and protect

children from all exploitation, violations and abuses, including sexual and gender-based

violence and child, early and forced marriage, by, among other actions, ending and

preventing the recruitment and use of children in the armed conflict, immediately, safely and

unconditionally releasing children and handing them over to civilian child-protection actors

and ensuring that such authorities have access to detained children associated with armed

groups;

11. Urges all parties to the conflict to comply with their respective obligations

under international human rights law and international humanitarian law, and demands that

all parties, particularly the Syrian authorities and their State and non-State allies, refrain from

carrying out attacks against the civilian population and civilian objects, such as schools, as

well as on medical units, personnel, patients and transport and personnel involved in

humanitarian assistance;

12. Expresses deep concern about the human rights situation and humanitarian

access throughout the Syrian Arab Republic, particularly in areas that have come under the

control of the Syrian authorities, and urges them and their allies to ensure unimpeded and

sustained humanitarian access and respect for international human rights law and

international humanitarian law;

13. Expresses its profound concern at the findings of the Commission of Inquiry

that sexual and gender-based violence against women, girls, men and boys has been a

persistent issue in the Syrian Arab Republic since the uprising in 2011, and that women and

girls have been disproportionately affected and victimized on multiple grounds;

14. Notes the findings of the Commission of Inquiry that such acts of sexual and

gender-based violence were committed most commonly by Syrian authorities and associated

militia, as well as by the so-called Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant (Daesh), that they

represent a widespread and systematic attack directed against the civilian population,

amounting to crimes against humanity, and that such acts constitute the war crimes of rape

and other forms of sexual violence, including torture and outrages upon personal dignity;

15. Strongly condemns all acts of sexual and gender-based violence and abuse,

calls for immediate medical and psychosocial support to be provided to all survivors of such

crimes and for every effort to be made to ensure justice for those who have suffered as a

result of such crimes, and urges all parties to the conflict to respect and protect women’s and

girls’ full enjoyment of human rights and to heed the recommendations made by the

Commission of Inquiry;

16. Also strongly condemns the continued widespread practices of enforced

disappearance and arbitrary detention, notably widespread in areas where the Syrian

authorities retook control in 2018, and notes that the Commission of Inquiry has highlighted

that the arbitrary detention of tens of thousands of individuals represents an urgent and large-

scale crisis of human rights protection, and also strongly condemns the use of sexual violence,

torture and ill-treatment, particularly in detention facilities run by the Syrian authorities,

including those acts referenced by the Commission of Inquiry in its reports and those depicted

in the evidence presented by “Caesar” in January 2014, and recalls that such acts may

constitute violations and abuses of international human rights law or violations of

international humanitarian law;

17. Further strongly condemns the reported killing of detainees in Syrian Military

Intelligence facilities, in particular in the Mezzeh airport detention facility, and Military

Security Branches 215, 227, 235, 248 and 291, and the reported killing of detainees in

military hospitals, including Tishreen and Harasta, and expresses deep concern at reports of

mass executions of prisoners at the Saydnaya penitentiary complex as well as reports that the

Syrian authorities used a crematorium to conceal the mass killings;

18. Expresses deep concern about the number of deaths among individuals

detained by the Syrian authorities, as evidenced by their issuing of thousands of death

notifications, which provides further indication of systematic violations of international

human rights law and international humanitarian law, and urges them to provide families

with death certificates and the remains of their relatives whose fate has been disclosed,

including those who have been summarily executed, to take all appropriate measures

immediately to protect the lives and rights of all persons currently detained or unaccounted

for, and to clarify the fate of those who remain missing or are still in custody;

19. Notes the continued functioning of the Working Group on the release of

detainees/abductees, the handover of bodies and the identification of missing persons,

composed of Turkey, the Russian Federation and the Islamic Republic of Iran, as well as the

United Nations, positively notes reports of the simultaneous release, facilitated by the

Working Group, of detainees by the conflicting parties on 24 November 2018 and 12

February 2019, underlines the need for further concrete steps forward on this issue, and

reiterates that all parties to the conflict must abide by their obligations under international

humanitarian law and international human rights law, as applicable;

20. Recognizes the permanent damage that torture and ill-treatment, including

sexual abuse and violence, causes to its victims and their families, and condemns the denial

of medical services in all prisons and detention facilities;

21. Calls upon the Syrian authorities and all other parties to the conflict to ensure

the effective implementation of Security Council resolutions 2139 (2014) of 22 February

2014 and 2254 (2015) and to adhere to their obligations under international law, in particular

to end arbitrary detention, torture and sexual and gender-based violence in the Syrian Arab

Republic, notably in prisons and detention facilities, and kidnappings, abductions and forced

disappearances, as demanded by the Council in its resolution 2139 (2014) and by the

Commission of Inquiry in its recommendations;

22. Urges all parties to take heed of the recommendations on the issue of detainees

by the Commission of Inquiry, in particular the calls for the appropriate international

monitoring bodies to be granted immediate access without undue restriction to all detainees

and detention facilities, and for all parties, in particular the Syrian authorities, to publish a

list of all detention facilities, to allow access to medical services for all detainees and to

provide information on those whom they have detained to their families;

23. Demands the immediate release of all persons arbitrarily detained, including

women, children, older persons, persons with disabilities, human rights defenders,

humanitarian aid providers, medical personnel, the wounded and sick, and journalists, and

notes the importance of ensuring justice for those arbitrarily detained;

24. Condemns the reported forced displacement of populations in the Syrian Arab

Republic, expresses deep concern at reports of social and demographic engineering in areas

throughout the Syrian Arab Republic, and calls upon all parties concerned to cease

immediately all activities that cause these actions, including any activities that may amount

to war crimes or crimes against humanity;

25. Gravely concerned that, according to the Commission of Inquiry in its latest

report,1 more than 1.5 million civilians were forced to flee their homes during 2018, and that

thousands more were forcibly displaced pursuant to “evacuation agreements” negotiated

among warring parties;

26. Expresses deep concern at the situation of the 6.2 million internally displaced

persons across the Syrian Arab Republic, and urges all parties to take note of the

recommendations on this matter in the latest report of the Commission of Inquiry and to

ensure that any evacuation and movement of civilians is consistent with international

humanitarian law and international human rights law, as applicable;

27. Deplores the existence and application of national legislation, in particular

Law No. 42/2018, which has a significant detrimental impact on the rights of Syrians

displaced by the conflict to claim their property and to return to their homes in a safe,

voluntary and dignified manner when the situation on the ground allows it, and calls for its

immediate repeal;

28. Expresses concern that the hostilities have restricted access to or resulted in

the loss of civil documentation, thereby limiting freedom of movement and access to essential

services, particularly for women, children and persons with disabilities;

29. Also expresses concern at reports that the Syrian authorities are arbitrarily

preventing internally displaced persons from accessing and returning to their homes, with no

apparently valid security reason and without providing alternatives to the displaced

communities, which may amount to forced displacement;

30. Urges all parties to take note of the recent recommendation of the Commission

of Inquiry on ensuring that the right of return is fully respected and facilitated by guaranteeing

that all return movements are voluntary, safe and dignified and subject to informed consent

to the places of origin, and protect all property and tenancy rights;

31. Strongly condemns violence against persons based on their religious or ethnic

affiliation, demands that all parties take all appropriate steps to protect civilians, including

members of ethnic, religious and confessional communities, and stresses that, in this regard,

the primary responsibility to protect the Syrian population lies with the Syrian authorities;

32. Also strongly condemns the damage and destruction of the cultural heritage of

the Syrian Arab Republic, in particular that of Palmyra and Aleppo, and the organized looting

and trafficking of Syrian cultural property, as outlined by the Security Council in its

resolution 2199 (2015) of 12 February 2015, affirms that attacks intentionally directed

against historic monuments may amount to war crimes, and underlines the need to bring the

perpetrators of such crimes to justice;

33. Further strongly condemns the terrorist acts and violence committed against

civilians by the so-called Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant (Daesh), Al-Nusrah Front (also

known as Hay’at Tahrir al-Sham) and other terrorist organizations designated by the Security

Council, and their continued gross, systematic and widespread abuses of international human

rights law and violations of international humanitarian law, reaffirms that terrorism,

including the actions of the so-called Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant (Daesh), cannot

and should not be associated with any religion, nationality or civilization, and stresses the

importance of the full implementation of Security Council resolution 2170 (2014) of 15

August 2014;

34. Expresses deep concern about the documented cases of civilians, including

women and children, being taken hostage by the so-called Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant

(Daesh), calls for their immediate release and notes that hostage-taking and the murder of

civilians may constitute a war crime, and condemns the recently reported mass arbitrary

arrests and detention of civilians by Hay’at Tahrir al-Sham and notes that imprisonment or

other severe deprivation of physical liberty in violation of international law, when committed

as part of a deliberate widespread or systematic attack directed against any civilian

population, may amount to a crime against humanity;

35. Condemns in the strongest possible terms the repeated use of chemical

weapons by the Syrian authorities, in violation of its obligations under the Convention on the

Prohibition of the Development, Production, Stockpiling and Use of Chemical Weapons and

on Their Destruction and Security Council resolution 2118 (2013), and all use of chemical

weapons in contravention of well-established international standards and norms against such

use, and welcomes in this regard the decisions made on 27 June 2018 at the fourth Special

Session of the Conference of the States Parties to the Convention and on 20 November 2018

at the twenty-third session of the Conference of States Parties to the Convention and looks

forward to the Technical Secretariat of the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical

Weapons completing the arrangements to identify the perpetrators of the use of chemical

weapons in the Syrian Arab Republic by identifying and reporting on all information

potentially relevant to the origin of those chemical weapons;

36. Recalls the relevant reports of the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical

Weapons-United Nations Joint Investigative Mechanism, in which it found that the Syrian

authorities were responsible for the use of chemical weapons on four occasions, and that the

so-called Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant (Daesh) was responsible for two chemical

weapons attacks between 2014 and 2017;

37. Expresses grave concern at the findings by the fact-finding mission of the

Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons that sarin and chlorine were very

likely used in separate attacks in Ltamenah on 24 and 25 March 2017, and that chlorine was

likely used in an attack in Saraqib on 4 February 2018;

38. Also expresses grave concern that, according to the Commission of Inquiry,2 a

vast body of evidence suggested that chlorine had been dropped by helicopter on a residential

building and it had received information on the death of at least 49 individuals and the

wounding of up to 650 others in Duma on 7 April 2018, and at the findings of the Commission

in the same report that, in a series of ground attacks in Duma on 22 January and 1 February

2018, the Syrian authorities and/or affiliated militias had committed the war crime of using

prohibited weapons following a pattern previously documented by the Commission

concerning the use of chemical weapons;

2 A/HRC/39/65, para. 92.

39. Further expresses grave concern at the findings by the fact-finding mission of

the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons that, on the basis of their

evaluation and analysis of all the information gathered, there are reasonable grounds to

believe that a toxic chemical was used as a weapon in Duma on 7 April 2018, and that the

toxic chemical was likely molecular chlorine;

40. Expresses grave concern at the reports of the Technical Secretariat of the

Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons of July 2016, March 2017, July 2017,

October 2017, March 2018, July 2018 and October 2018, in which it reported that it had been

unable to verify that the declaration made by the Syrian authorities regarding their chemical

weapons programme was accurate and complete in accordance with the Chemical Weapons

Convention, and calls upon the Syrian Arab Republic to cooperate fully with the Organisation

to provide further clarification relating to the gaps, inconsistencies and discrepancies that

remain concerning the declaration;

41. Demands that all parties desist immediately from any use of chemical weapons

in the Syrian Arab Republic, expresses its strong conviction that those responsible for the use

of chemical weapons must be held accountable, and expresses its support in this regard for

the objectives and commitments of the International Partnership against Impunity for the Use

of Chemical Weapons to support accountability for all those responsible for the proliferation

or use of chemical weapons;

42. Reaffirms the importance of establishing appropriate processes and

mechanisms to achieve justice, reconciliation, truth and accountability for gross violations

and abuses of international law, and reparations and effective remedies for victims, in

particular victims of sexual and gender-based violence, detainees, internally displaced

persons and disappeared persons, and stresses the prerequisite role that accountability can

play in any effort to bring about a sustainable, inclusive and peaceful conclusion to the

conflict;

43. Recalls that the International Criminal Court was established to help to end

impunity for applicable crimes in which a State is unwilling or unable to genuinely carry out

investigations or prosecutions;

44. Emphasizes the need to ensure that all those responsible for violations of

international humanitarian law or violations and abuses of international human rights law are

held to account through appropriate, fair and independent national, regional or international

criminal justice mechanisms, and stresses the need to pursue practical steps towards this goal,

while noting the important role that the International Criminal Court can play in this regard;

45. Welcomes the work of the International, Impartial and Independent Mechanism

to Assist in the Investigation and Prosecution of Persons Responsible for the Most Serious

Crimes under International Law Committed in the Syrian Arab Republic since March 2011,

as mandated by the General Assembly in resolution 71/248 of 21 December 2016, including

its close cooperation with the Commission of Inquiry and Syrian civil society, so that the

voices of victims are heard, any evidence of crimes is collected and criminal prosecution

proceeds;

46. Invites Member States to actively support the International, Impartial and

Independent Mechanism, including by considering the provision of information and data on

the most serious crimes under international law committed in the Syrian Arab Republic, and

to provide adequate financial means for its functioning, and at the same time highlights the

importance of sustainable funding and notes the steps taken by the Secretary-General in this

respect;

47. Welcomes the steps taken by Member States to prosecute the most serious

crimes under international law committed in the Syrian Arab Republic in national courts

under the principles of universal jurisdiction and extraterritorial jurisdiction as an important

contribution to end impunity and to ensure justice for victims, and notes the contribution that

the International, Impartial and Independent Mechanism and other accountability

mechanisms can make in this regard;

48. Deplores the grave humanitarian situation in the Syrian Arab Republic and

expresses deep concern at the plight of the 11.7 million people in need of full, immediate and

safe humanitarian assistance, including the over 5 million Syrians whose needs are

particularly acute;

49. Strongly condemns the Syrian authorities’ removal of humanitarian aid from

United Nations-approved convoys, including medical aid and supplies intended to reach

desperate populations deprived of food, medical aid and vital necessities;

50. Demands that the Syrian authorities facilitate, and all other parties to the

conflict do not hinder, the full, immediate and safe access of the United Nations and

humanitarian actors, and that they ensure that the delivery of humanitarian aid reaches all

those in need, including in hard-to-reach areas, in accordance with relevant Security Council

resolutions, and calls upon Member States to fully fund the United Nations appeals;

51. Expresses deep concern for the more than 5.3 million registered refugees in

the region fleeing the violence in the Syrian Arab Republic, welcomes the efforts of the

neighbouring countries, Turkey, Lebanon, Jordan and Iraq, as well as of Egypt, to host Syrian

refugees, acknowledges the socioeconomic consequences of the presence of large-scale

refugee populations in those countries and urges the international community to provide

urgent financial support to enable the host countries to respond to the growing humanitarian

needs of Syrian refugees, including the particular needs of women, girls and persons with

disabilities, while emphasizing the principles of responsibility and burden-sharing;

52. Notes those States outside the region that have put in place measures and

policies to assist and to host Syrian refugees, encourages them to do more, and also

encourages other States outside the region to consider implementing similar measures and

policies, also with a view to providing Syrian refugees with protection and humanitarian

assistance;

53. Welcomes the relevant international conferences on supporting the Syrian

people, notably the third conference entitled “Supporting the future of Syria and the region”

hosted by the European Union in Brussels from 12 to 14 March 2019, and renews its call for

the international community to deliver in full all pledges;

54. Reaffirms that there can only be a political solution to the conflict in the Syrian

Arab Republic, demands that all parties work towards a genuine political transition based on

the Geneva communiqué and Security Council resolution 2254 (2015), within the framework

of the United Nations-led intra-Syrian talks in Geneva and with the equal voice and full and

meaningful leadership and participation of women in decision-making and in all efforts

consistent with Council resolution 1325 (2000) of 31 October 2000 and subsequent

resolutions on women, peace and security, that meets the legitimate aspirations of the Syrian

people for a civil, democratic and pluralistic State, in which all citizens receive equal

protection, regardless of gender, ethnicity, religion or belief, and welcomes the inclusion of

civil society in this process;

55. Decides to extend the mandate of the Commission of Inquiry for a period of

one year;

56. Requests the Commission of Inquiry to provide an oral update to the Human

Rights Council during the interactive dialogue at its forty-first session, and to present an

updated written report during an interactive dialogue at its forty-second and forty-third

sessions;

57. Decides to transmit all reports and oral updates of the Commission of Inquiry

to all relevant bodies of the United Nations, recommends that the General Assembly submit

the reports to the Security Council for appropriate action, expresses its appreciation to the

Commission for its briefings to members of the Security Council, and recommends the

continuation of future briefings;

58. Also decides to remain seized of the matter.

53rd meeting

22 March 2019

[Adopted by a recorded vote of 28 to 5, with 14 abstentions. The voting was as follows:

In favour:

Afghanistan, Argentina, Australia, Austria, Bahamas, Brazil, Bulgaria,

Burkina Faso, Chile, Croatia, Czechia, Denmark, Fiji, Hungary, Iceland, Italy,

Japan, Mexico, Peru, Qatar, Rwanda, Saudi Arabia, Slovakia, Spain, Togo,

Ukraine, United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, Uruguay

Against:

China, Cuba, Egypt, Eritrea, Iraq

Abstaining:

Angola, Bahrain, Bangladesh, Cameroon, Democratic Republic of the Congo,

India, Nepal, Nigeria, Pakistan, Philippines, Senegal, Somalia, South Africa,

Tunisia]