Urgent Need to Lift Unjustified Unilateral Coercive Measures Imposed on Syria Reiterated
GENEVA, (ST)- Syria’s Permanent Representative to the United Nations in Geneva Husamuddin Ala has stressed that some countries’ imposing of siege, embargo or unilateral coercive economic and financial measures on other countries is an illegal behavior that violates the UN Charter and the International Law and contradicts these countries’ legal commitments and obligations.
In a statement during the 39th session of the Human Rights Council dedicated to discuss the report of the Special Rapporteur on the negative impacts of unilateral coercive measures on the enjoyment of human rights, Ala said that Syria welcomed the Rapporteur’s reiteration that there is an urgent need to lift the unjustified unilateral coercive measures imposed on Syria.
Stressing that these measures affect the country’s most economic, financial and services sectors and they have negative impacts on the Syrians enjoyment of their basic rights as well as on their humanitarian and living conditions.
Ala went on to say that lifting the unilateral coercive measures would sustainably solve the humanitarian situation in Syria and help move from the phase of relief to that of development . It would also facilitate the process of reconstruction and the return of the refugees who left their homeland because of the difficult circumstances resulted from terrorism and the coercive measures, he added.
He affirmed the need to overcome the restrictions imposed on banking and financial transfers and to find ways as to free the frozen Syrian funds abroad.
Ala asserted that the continuity of these measures and linking them to unacceptable political conditions raise ethical questions on the reality of the alleged humanitarian concerns that some countries in this council have been expressing and on their objectives which contradict their behavior of imposing coercive economic measures that aggravates the humanitarian conditions of the Syrians and impedes national and international efforts to respond to the humanitarian needs of citizens.
He pointed out the countries which impose coercive measures against other states should be held accountable for their violations of human rights in the targeted states, stressing that these violations amounts to crimes against humanity.
Hamda Mustafa