Statement by: James Larsen, Australian Ambassador and Permanent Representative to the United Nations
As delivered

Thank you Chair.

The most recent report paints a bleak picture of the situation in Syria. 
Humanitarian needs are at their highest since the start of the conflict and meanwhile, grave violations and abuses of international human rights law and violations of international humanitarian law persist across the country with impunity.

We condemn deplorable attacks on civilians and civilian infrastructure and we deplore the regime's unguided rocket attacks on residential areas and its shelling of markets and other facilities.

Australia also condemns atrocities committed by the regime's Russian enablers, including the sickening attack on an Idlib market that left nine civilians dead.

Chair, countless Syrians are missing and unaccounted for. This underscores the importance of the recently established Independent Institution on Missing Persons in Syria.

Those detained by the Syrian regime and other armed actors face a harrowing fate. Detainees are routinely subject to torture, and cruel and inhumane punishment.

We are also appalled by reports of sexual and gender-based violence in detention facilities.

Australia asks the Commission: how can the international community better work collectively to hold Syria to account for its repeated attacks on civilians and civilian infrastructure?

Thank you Chair.