Lord Hylton – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Foreign and Commonwealth Office
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Hylton on 2016-02-08.
To ask Her Majesty’s Government whether there is a central point in the UK, or elsewhere, for recording war crimes in Syria, in particular the starvation of civilians and the deaths under attack of medical personnel.
Baroness Anelay of St Johns
War crimes and other atrocities in Syria are dealt with at the international level. The Government supports the UN Commission of Inquiry on Syria, which is mandated by the Human Rights Council to investigate all alleged violations of international human rights law and humanitarian law in Syria with a view of ensuring perpetrators are held to account.
We also support other bodies that are collecting evidence in the region such as UN Joint Investigative Mechanism on Chemical Weapons in Syria.
The Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, my right hon. Friend the Member for Runnymede and Weybridge (Mr Hammond), has called for a halt to the indiscriminate use of weapons on medical and educational facilities, calling on parties to ensure rapid, safe and unhindered humanitarian access. The UK supported UN Security Council resolution 2254, which was unanimously adopted in December calling for an end to indiscriminate attacks and unrestricted humanitarian access.
