Press release

Minister condemns human rights abuses in Syria

Latest UN report shows appalling human rights violations in Syria.

The UN Commission of Inquiry has released its latest report into human rights violations in Syria, after hundreds of hours of detailed investigations. Once again the Inquiry has found evidence of appalling human rights abuses and violations taking place in Syria, particularly those of the Syrian regime.

Commenting on the report, Foreign Office Minister Tobias Ellwood said:

This latest UN report describes appalling human rights violations in Syria. The Assad regime is responsible for abuses on a vast scale, with continued indiscriminate use of barrel bombs, artillery, chemical weapons and unlawful detention and torture. ISIL and other extremist groups are brutal and inhumane, with abuses including multiple summary executions, the sexual slavery of Yazidi women and forced recruitment of child soldiers. The report makes clear that women and girls are regularly targeted by various sides to the conflict solely on the basis of their gender.

The UK condemns in the strongest possible terms all human rights violations that are taking place in Syria on a daily basis. We need to hold the perpetrators to account. And we need to see a political settlement to this conflict, ridding Syria of dictatorship, and to help to defeat the scourge of ISIL.

Further information

Follow Foreign Office ministers on Twitter:

Media enquiries

For journalists

Published 4 September 2015