OCHA appeals to Security Council for respect for international humanitarian law in Syria

A UN delegation including OCHA speak to households who received WFP food vouchers and IOM winter kits with the support of the NGO, IYD at Ali Bin Abi Taleb camp in Sarmada town in Idleb. 15 November 2023. Photo credit: OCHA/Mohanad Zayat

Briefing to the Security Council on the humanitarian situation in Gaza by Ramesh Rajasingham Director Coordination Division, OCHA, on behalf of Martin Griffiths, Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs and Emergency Relief Coordinator

As delivered

Thank you, Madam President.

Events in recent weeks, as Special Envoy Geir Pedersen has just highlighted, have provided a stark warning of how real the threat is of an expansion of conflict in the region.

This would have devastating, unthinkable implications for the people of Syria.

As we have informed this Council repeatedly, humanitarian needs in Syria are already at record levels, and continue to accumulate by the day. At the same time, our ability to help alleviate them grows ever more constrained by serious shortfalls in resources.

In the past month, civilians have been killed and injured in a range of attacks across the country. In multiple incidents, children were among those killed.

Nor have humanitarian workers been spared. On 26 March a member of a World Health Organization team providing water and sanitation assistance in Deir ez-Zor was killed when an airstrike hit his building.

Madam President,

Earlier this month, we marked the International Day for Mine Awareness and Assistance in Mine Action. For Syria, it was an important reminder that an estimated one third of communities across the country are affected by explosive remnants of war. Agricultural land is particularly impacted, with significant consequences for food production and livelihoods.

We continue to receive regular reports of civilians being killed or injured by explosive ordnance in communities across Syria. Indeed, last year, there were more civilian casualties from landmines, explosive remnants of war and improvised explosive devices reported in Syria than in any other country. Again, tragically, children are too often the victims.

Landmines and explosive remnants of war also make the work of humanitarian organizations much more difficult. In more than half of all sub-districts across Syria, the presence of unexploded ordnance is considered a major impediment to the safe delivery of humanitarian assistance.

As we have stressed repeatedly, all parties to the conflict must respect international humanitarian law. This includes taking constant care to spare civilians and civilian objects, including humanitarian personnel and their assets, in the course of military operations.

Madam President,

Years of conflict have also rendered the people of Syria particularly vulnerable to climate shocks, which remain a persistent threat. In the past month, heavy flooding at several displacement sites in Idleb and northern Aleppo affected more than 15,000 people in the space of two days.

As we approach the summer months, the risk of drought, cholera and other health risks will increase. The prevalence of heatwaves will further stretch already limited water and sanitation services. This will in turn increase sexual and reproductive health and protection risks for women and adolescent girls, who tend to be exposed to higher levels of gender-based violence due to lack of privacy at and around sanitation facilities, and the need to venture further to retrieve water.

Madam President,

The UN and our humanitarian partners continue to provide critical assistance to millions of people across Syria. But as we have warned repeatedly, our ability to deliver is steadily being eroded by alarming reductions in funding.

We have already had to make extremely difficult decisions on prioritizing life-saving assistance for the most vulnerable, targeting 10.8 million people out of a total 16.7 million in need. In 2024, we are appealing for $4 billion in funding, a significant reduction from 2023 despite an increase in needs.

Unfortunately, many of these people are likely to go without vital assistance if current levels of underfunding persist.

Hundreds of medical facilities and mobile health teams are at risk of closure in the coming months, affecting access to life-saving care for millions of people, including urgently needed maternal, sexual and reproductive care for 4.1 million women and girls of reproductive age.

More than 1.8 million people will not get the safe water they need in the next two months to avoid increased health risks in the coming summer.

Millions of people in moderate food insecurity risk going without any assistance, threatening further increases in the number of severely food insecure people.

Many of the 500,000 children with acute malnutrition could miss out on life-saving treatment this year.

And without more resources, efforts to survey and clear landmines and other explosive ordnance will not meet the scale of the challenge I described earlier.

Funding for assistance to Palestinian refugees affected by the Syria crisis has also fallen dramatically in the past year. This has affected UNRWA’s ability to provide emergency cash, food, and other support to over 400,000 Palestinian refugees in Syria.

Madam President,

Growing resource constraints only underscore the importance of delivering assistance in Syria through all available means, including cross-line and cross-border.

The cross-border operation from Türkiye continues to enable vital aid to enter north-west Syria, in addition to the provision of health, nutrition, protection, education and other critical services. And let me take this opportunity to welcome His Excellency the incoming Permanent Representative of Türkiye.

But as in other areas of the country, the level of UN assistance to north-west Syria has had to be scaled back significantly in the face of funding shortfalls.

Food assistance has been particularly impacted. Humanitarian partners are targeting 625,000 severely food insecure people with the resources we have available, but some 3 million others assessed as moderately food insecure are unfortunately having to go without any food assistance.

We welcome the continued authorization of these cross-border deliveries into north-west Syria. We are currently engaging with the Government of Syria for the use of the Bab al-Salam and Al Ra’i crossings beyond 13 May.

We also continue to engage relevant actors on expanding the delivery of cross-line assistance throughout Syria, including into the north-west. We urge all parties to facilitate such access.

Madam President,

Our calls for Syria are not new, but they do bear repeating.

We need respect for international humanitarian law, including the protection of civilians and unhindered humanitarian access, including cross-line and cross-border.

We urgently need the resources to allow us to continue providing critical assistance to millions of people who desperately need it.

Finally, we yet again join Mr. Pedersen in calling all parties to renew their commitment to a political solution to end the conflict, without which we cannot end this humanitarian crisis and allow the people of Syria the opportunities they so desperately want.