Scene of devastation in Eastern Ghouta: the walls full of bullet holes and a hill of rubble. The war passed from here. 
Photo: Tareq Mnadili/NRC
Scene of devastation in Eastern Ghouta: the walls full of bullet holes and a hill of rubble. Photo: Tareq Mnadili/NRC

Syria: A damning indictment of the inaction of world powers

Published 13. Mar 2020
Statement by the Norwegian Refugee Council’s Regional Director for the Middle East, Carsten Hansen.

“The United Nations Security Council has met to discuss Syria for 222 hours over the past nine years. For every hour of discussion, 27,385 Syrians have had to flee for their lives. We are appalled at the inaction of world powers that has allowed the warring parties to continue displacing, maiming, and killing millions of civilians for almost a decade.

Twenty-five resolutions, 102 Secretary General reports, 144 meetings and 47 press statements have been issued by the Security Council. But none of this has stopped the carnage. Countless families are today trapped in a war zone with no way out, while millions of others are far from home with little hope of returning anytime soon.

The men in suits sitting in New York have failed to use their power and influence to stop Syria’s warring parties from using civilians as pawns on a chessboard. The UN has proved itself unable to do anything for the millions of Syrians who have lost so much.

The Syrian people’s resilience and determination to survive and rebuild their lives in the face of this is truly astonishing. We should be standing in solidarity with them, not watching them suffer with no end in sight. We and our colleagues who work in Syria and with refugees will continue doing whatever we can to help them survive, but we join them in the denunciation of a damning indictment for humanity.”