Deputy Special Envoy of the Secretary-General for Syria, Claudio Cordone - Briefing to the Security Council (15 May 2026)

Country: Syrian Arab Republic Source: UN Office of the Special Envoy for Syria Please refer to the attached file. AS DELIVERED Thank you Mr. President (Ambassador Fu Cong, China) 1. Since I briefed the Council from Damascus three weeks ago, we have seen progress towards accountability and sustained international and regional engagement, while unresolved tensions, economic hardship, and repeated violations of Syria’s sovereignty persist. 2. Let me start by highlighting developments of critical importance in the fight against impunity. On 10 May, Atef Najib appeared in court on trial for crimes committed at the outset of the revolution in Daraa in 2011. Bashar al-Assad, Maher al-Assad and others are being tried in absentia in the same case. The charges include the violent repression of peaceful demonstrations, arbitrary detention, torture, including of children, and killings in custody. The indictment invokes both Syrian and international law, as incorporated into the Syrian legal system by the Constitutional Declaration. It is a commendable effort to situate accountability within a broader legal framework which reflects Syria’s international human rights commitments. 3. In other highly symbolic developments, on 24 April, Amjad Yusef, a principal suspect in the 2013 Tadamon massacre, was arrested. And on 29 April, former Major General Adnan Abboud Hilweh was arrested in connection with the 2013 Eastern Ghouta chemical attack. 4. Let me pause here and express my deep solidarity with all the victims and survivors of the atrocities committed during the conflict in Syria. I pay tribute to their suffering, patience and dignified pursuit of justice. It may not have seemed possible that perpetrators would one day appear before a court of law. Yet we are now seeing that justice, however del...

Original source: Relief Web