Impunity reigns in Aleppo with civilians in dire need of safe corridors

Impunity reigns in Aleppo with civilians in dire need of safe corridors
CICC Global Justice Newsletter, 13 Dec 2016

Civilians in Allepo are in urgent need of safe corridors and humanitarian assitance said civil society today as pro-Syrian regime forces make what some call the final advance on the city’s rebel-held districts. Shameful global inaction and widespread impunity are giving perpetrators of mass crimes a free hand, rights groups reported.
“Safe spaces for civilians – for men, women and children – are shrinking as neighbourhood after neighbourhood is captured by the Syrian army and its allies,” said No Peace Without Justice Secretary-General Niccolò Figà-Talamanca. “As if the shelling and destruction were not enough, these forces are now reportedly carrying out executions of both combatants and civilians, particularly those suspected of having ties to opposition groups. This is a travesty: both the laws of war and ordinary decency require that civilian men, women and children be given safe passage, not have their lives taken from them. Combatants should not be executed, but captured and treated in accordance with the law.”
“Syrian government authorities and armed opposition groups should immediately and without condition facilitate the delivery of humanitarian aid to opposition-controlled parts of Aleppo city,” Human Rights Watch said.
“In recent months the world, including the UN Security Council, has watched from the side-lines as civilians have been slaughtered on a daily basis and eastern Aleppo has been flattened and transformed into a mass grave. The global inaction in the face of such inhumanity is shameful. The lack of accountability for war crimes and crimes against humanity has allowed the parties, particularly government forces, to commit such crimes on a mass scale,” said Lynn Maalouf, Research Deputy Director at Amnesty International’s Beirut office.

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