A/HRC/RES/42/27
likely used in separate attacks in Ltamenah on 24 and 25 March 2017, and that chlorine was
likely used in an attack in Saraqib on 4 February 2018;
46.
Recalls with grave concern the finding by the Commission of Inquiry of a
vast body of evidence suggesting that chlorine was dropped by helicopter on a residential
building in Duma on 7 April 2018, that the Commission had received information on the
deaths of at least 49 individuals and the wounding of up to 650 others, and at the findings of
the Commission in the same report that, in a series of ground attacks in Duma on 22
January and 1 February 2018, the Syrian authorities and/or affiliated militias had committed
the war crime of using chemical weapons, following a pattern previously documented by
the Commission;
47.
Recalls the findings of the fact-finding mission of the Organisation for the
Prohibition of Chemical Weapons in its report of 1 March 2019 that, on the basis of its
evaluation and analysis of all the information gathered, there were reasonable grounds that
a toxic chemical was used as a weapon in Duma on 7 April 2018, and that the toxic
chemical was likely molecular chlorine;
48.
Demands that all parties desist immediately from any use of chemical
weapons in the Syrian Arab Republic, expresses its strong conviction that those responsible
for such use must be held accountable, and expresses its support for the objectives and
commitments of the International Partnership against Impunity for the Use of Chemical
Weapons to support accountability for all those responsible for the proliferation or use of
chemical weapons;
49.
Strongly condemns the terrorist acts and violence committed against civilians
by so-called Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant (Daesh), Al-Nusrah Front (also known as
Hay’at Tahrir al-Sham) and other terrorist organizations designated by the Security
Council, and their gross, systematic and widespread abuses of international human rights
law and violations of international humanitarian law, reaffirms that terrorism, including the
actions of so-called Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant (Daesh), cannot and should not be
associated with any religion, nationality or civilization, and stresses the importance of the
full implementation of Security Council resolution 2170 (2014) of 15 August 2014;
50.
Expresses deep concern about the documented cases of civilians, including
women and children, taken hostage by so-called Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant
(Daesh), calls for their immediate release, notes that hostage-taking and the murder of
civilians may constitute a war crime, condemns the recent reported mass arbitrary arrests
and detention of civilians by Hay’at Tahrir al-Sham, and notes that imprisonment or other
severe deprivation of physical liberty in violation of international law, when committed as
part of a deliberate widespread or systematic attack directed against any civilian population,
may amount to a crime against humanity;
51.
Reaffirms the importance of establishing appropriate processes and
mechanisms to achieve justice, reconciliation, truth and accountability for gross violations
and abuses of international law, and reparations and effective remedies for victims, in
particular detainees, internally displaced persons and disappeared persons, and victims of
sexual and gender-based violence, and stresses the prerequisite role that accountability can
play in any effort to bring about a sustainable, inclusive and peaceful conclusion to the
conflict;
52.
Recalls that the International Criminal Court was established to help to end
impunity for applicable crimes in which a State is unwilling or unable to genuinely carry
out investigations or prosecutions;
53.
Emphasizes the need to ensure that all those responsible for violations of
international humanitarian law or violations and abuses of international human rights law
are held to account through appropriate, fair and independent national, regional or
international criminal justice mechanisms, and stresses the need to pursue practical steps
towards this goal, while noting the important role that the International Criminal Court can
play in this regard, and noting the authority of the Security Council to refer such situations
to the Court;
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