The United Nations (UN) Human Rights Council is holding its 38th Human Rights Sessions at the UN Geneva office. The session entered its second week. 

In this part of the sessions, the Independent Syrian Investigation Commission presented the Syrian report for Eastern Ghuta.

The rapporteur presented the report and underlined the human tragedy lived by people of Eastern Ghuta. "The siege is the longest running siege in modern history" said the report calling it “barbaric and medieval.” 

Following the presentation of the report by the Independent Syrian Inquiry Commission, state representatives and international non-governmental organizations made their own comments and evaluation of the report.

The Syrian representative asked the Independent Syrian Inquiry Commission why it would not say a word about Turkey's presence on Syrian soil. 

The Syrian representative also draw attention to the war crimes committed by Turkey in  Syrian territory. Noting that Turkey is in violation of international law when entering Syrian territory the representative added: "At this commission you are talking about war crimes in violation of international law carried out by Syria. What about Turkey's crime against humanity in Afrin? Are those living in Afrin not civilian?"

Backround

The Independent International Commission of Inquiry on the Syrian Arab Republic was mandated by the UN Human Rights Council and is responsible for investigating and recording all violations of international law in Syria since the beginning of its bloody civil war in March 2011.

The final report appeared to be different from the draft which circulated. In relation to some incidents the commission stated in the final report that it was “unable to obtain sufficient material evidence to conclusively identify the weapons delivery systems.”

Hanny Megally, an Egyptian human rights lawyer and one of the three members of the commission, talked to the Times and explained that many of the details in the earlier version of the report required additional verification.

“We thought we need to do some more work on this, it’s an ongoing investigation,” Megally said. “So we thought, let’s keep it short.”

He also said there was no outside pressure to withhold any of the information included in the draft.