UN: Increased number of human rights violations in Syria

Brazilian expert Paulo Pinjeiro said this during the presentation of his latest report to representatives of 47 member countries of the UN Human Rights Council in Geneva.

The UN commission of inquiry has confirmed that an increasing number of "foreign elements", including fighters for jihad (holy war), are now operating in Syria, the AP agency reports. The commission says some of those fighters are now joining anti-government forces while others are operating independently. Pinjeiro said that these elements have a "tendency to lead anti-government forces to act more radically."

"We proposed that our report be forwarded to the UN Security Council so that it can take appropriate measures given the seriousness of human rights violations and crimes committed by government forces and the Shabih (pro-regime militia), as well as anti-government groups," Pinjeiro said. He did not explicitly mention the International Criminal Court, to which the Security Council can exclusively address.

Diplomatic sources state that there is no consensus on referring the matter to the International Criminal Court. The commission of inquiry has produced several reports over the past year, but it has never had permission from the Syrian authorities to come to Syria.

In the latest report, the commission's experts condemn the "war crimes" committed in Syria and accuse the government and its armed forces, and to a lesser extent the armed opposition. They state that a list of those responsible for the crimes has been drawn up, but that it is confidential.

Pinjeiro said that the list of names will be submitted to the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights until it is possible for some international legal mechanism to consider and assess whether someone should be tried for these crimes. Pinjeiro said that the commission considered that the names should not be published because the level of evidence used by the commission was weaker than that used by a court and that the presumption of innocence could be violated.

"Major shell rights violations have increased in number, frequency and scope," Pinjeiro said, noting that the frequency of these violations is so high that his panel cannot investigate them all. He stated that "civilians, many of whom are children, bear the brunt of this spiral of violence."

According to Syrian human rights activists, at least 23.000 people have been killed in Syria in the past 18 months since the uprising against President Bashar al-Assad began. Damascus considers the rebellion, which began in March last year, to be the result of a foreign conspiracy and has accused some countries in the Gulf and the West of financing and training the rebels, whom it claims are terrorists.