In addition, the developments since late November, culminating with the overthrow of the Assad regime added new dimensions to the crisis, including population displacements as well as return of Syrian refugees from neighbouring countries. Since November 2024, over 882,000 Syrians have been displaced amid surging violence, further straining the country’s...
In parallel, the International, Impartial, and Independent Mechanism for Syria (IIIM) concluded a historic visit to Damascus, emphasizing the urgency of preserving evidence related to the most serious international crimes before it is irretrievably lost. Fuel shortages, disrupted roads Essential services, including hospitals and health centres, are severely impacted, particularly...
A team from the Independent International Commission of Inquiry (CoI) on Syria visited former prisons and detention centres, including the notorious Sednaya and the Military Intelligence Branch 235 prisons. It is the first time the team has been able to access Syria, as the former regime denied all previous requests...
“We are not promoting large-scale returns; the communities frankly are just not ready to absorb the people who are displaced and would come home…it will overwhelm the country,” said Amy Pope, Director General of the International Organization for Migration (IOM). “Many have returned to find their find their homes reduced...
UN Spokesperson Stéphane Dujarric told reporters at the daily briefing on Thursday that bakeries in Aleppo are at near full capacity – “but partners report that they have seen long queues and crowding.” The UN aid coordination office, OCHA, reports that the rehabilitation of key facilities has begun in the northwest of Syria...
“It’s early days,” Geir Pedersen said referring to the dramatic events of less than two weeks ago that ended decades of dictatorship. “But I think it is important to say that there is a lot of hope that we can now see the beginning of a new Syria.” He emphasised...
The historic shift of power in Syria and the possibility of finally accessing evidence of horrific human rights violations could bring accountability closer than ever – if only proof can be preserved – a top UN investigator said on Tuesday....
Senior UN officials have been meeting representatives of the new caretaker government in Damascus, following the end of the Assad regime. Later today, the Security Council in New York will hear updates from the UN Special Envoy for Syria, Geir Pedersen, and the UN’s emergency relief chief, Tom Fletcher. Meanwhile in...
However, according to a core Security Council resolution on Syria adopted at the height of the civil conflict, HTS is regarded as a terrorist group. Resolution 2254, which was adopted unanimously by the Council in 2015, calls on Member States “to prevent and suppress terrorist acts committed specifically by” HTS’s...
The Secretary-General’s Special Envoy for Syria, Geir Pedersen, arrived there a week after President Bashar al-Assad was overthrown by rebel forces led by the Islamist group Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTC). Responding to questions from the press upon his arrival, Mr. Pedersen noted the “immense” change since the fall of the...
Geir Pedersen is due to confer with Arab foreign ministers, the Foreign Minister of Türkiye, US Secretary of State and other senior officials who will be present at a meeting in Aqaba, said UN Spokesperson Stéphane Dujarric, briefing reporters in New York. Mr. Pedersen has held “numerous phone consultations”, including...
In a note to correspondents issued on Thursday, António Guterres said he was “deeply concerned by the recent and extensive violations of Syria’s sovereignty and territorial integrity.” Airstrikes, incursions Since the de facto authorities of the HTS armed group took control of Damascus on Sunday, Israeli forces reportedly took over...