US, Turkey, Qatar seek UN rights debate on Syria

GENEVA: The United States, Turkey and Qatar called yesterday for an urgent debate on Syria at the UN’s top human rights body next week, citing the escalating conflict and the regime’s assault on the central town of Qusayr. “We ... request the Human Rights Council to hold an urgent debate on the deteriorating situation of human rights in the Syrian Arab Republic, and the recent killings in Al Qusayr,” the ambassadors of the three countries wrote in their request to council president Remigiusz Henczel.

The UN human rights council is due to open its next three-week session on Monday, and the three countries called for the urgent debate to be held during the first week, lamenting “the escalating grave human rights violations” in Syria. Council spokesman Rolando Gomez told AFP that president Henczel and other administrators would now examine a possible date for the debate, adding that Tuesday or Wednesday looked likely.

This would not be the first time the UN’s top rights body meets to discuss the spiralling violence in Syria. The council has previously held one urgent debate on Syria and four special sessions outside its usual four annual meetings and is already set to hear during the coming session a report from UN investigators into the human rights situation in the war-torn country.

That report will be presented on June 3. The request for an urgent debate on the situation in Syria comes after the Friends of Syria group of governments that back the rebels met in Amman this week as part of the diplomatic efforts to convene a peace conference in Geneva next month.