Syria

On 6 September Syrian government forces were accused of dropping barrel bombs filled with chlorine gas on the Al-Sukari neighborhood in eastern Aleppo. These accusations come one week after the UN Security Council met to discuss the report of the UN-Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) Joint Investigation Mechanism (JIM) on responsibility for chemical weapons use in Syria, and less than a month since at least three people were killed during a reported chlorine attack on the opposition-held Zubdiya neighborhood of Aleppo on 10 August. It was reported that at least 70 people were injured during Tuesday’s attack, including women and children. The recent JIM report concluded that Syrian government forces had carried out at least two chemical weapons attacks since 2013. The use of chemical weapons constitutes a war crime and is in clear contravention of Security Council Resolution 2118, which threatened possible Chapter VII measures in the event of non-compliance.

The latest report of the Human Rights Council-mandated Commission of Inquiry (CoI) on Syria was published on 6 September. The CoI condemns the increase in indiscriminate attacks on civilians and medical facilities following the breakdown of February’s cessation of hostilities and asserts that “without a return to the peace process, the Syrian conflict, and the violations and abuses it has nourished, will continue.”

South Sudan

Following renewed fighting in Juba during July and the UN Security Council’s authorization of the deployment of a Regional Protection Force (RPF), South Sudan is at a critical juncture for the prevention of further mass atrocity crimes. The UN Security Council visited South Sudan from 2 to 5 September to discuss with government officials, UN representatives and civil society how to improve the security and humanitarian situation across the country. The Transitional Government of National Unity and UN Security Council members issued a Joint Communique on 4 September in which the government consented to the deployment of the RPF as part of the UN Mission in South Sudan (UNMISS). UN Security Council Resolution 2304 threatened an arms embargo on South Sudan if the government impeded the deployment of the RPF. Ensuring UNMISS’ free movement and establishing the Hybrid Court for South Sudan, in cooperation with the African Union, are other essential commitments that the Transitional Government of National Unity should uphold in order to prevent further atrocities.

Iraq

On 30 August The Associate Press (AP) published a report asserting that the so-called Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) has scattered more than 72 mass graves across locations in Iraq and Syria. According to the AP’s report, there are between 5,200 and 15,000 victims buried in mass graves in territories recovered from ISIL control.  Many of the mass graves are located in the Sinjar region of Iraq, where ISIL launched an attack in August 2014 on the Yazidi population. The UN-mandated Commission of Inquiry on Syria has found that ISIL has committed genocide, crimes against humanity and war crimes against the Yazidis. According to the AP report, evidence of ISIL’s atrocities extend “well outside the Yazidi region in northern Iraq” with at least one mass grave holding hundreds of members of “a single tribe all but exterminated when IS extremists took over their region.” An inability to systematically investigate and recover evidence from these mass graves will inhibit efforts to hold perpetrators accountable for mass atrocity crimes.

Wathiq Khuzaie / IRIN Photos

Syria

On 24 August the Leadership Panel of the UN-Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) Joint Investigation Mechanism (JIM), mandated by the UN Security Council in 2015 to identify those responsible for the use of chemical weapons in Syria, issued a report with “sufficient evidence” of three cases of chemical weapons use. The report marks the first international investigation attributing responsibility for perpetrating chemical weapons use in Syria. The JIM attributed two cases of chlorine gas attacks during 2014 and 2015 to the Syrian Airforce and one sulfur-mustard attack during 2015 to ISIL. The use of chemical weapons constitutes a war crime and is in clear violation of international humanitarian law and the Chemical Weapons Convention, which Syria acceded to in 2013.

Following a sarin gas attack on the Ghouta area of Damascus in August 2013 that killed an estimated 1,400 people, the UN Security Council passed Resolution 2118 endorsing a plan by the OPCW for the expeditious destruction of Syria’s chemical weapons program and asserting that in the event of non-compliance it would impose measures under Chapter VII of the UN Charter. Following a Security Council meeting regarding the JIM report on 30 August, the Council has yet to take measures in response to the investigation.