GENEVA (18 November 2022) – UN Human Rights Chief Volker Türk condemned the heinous killing of two young Egyptian girls at a displacement camp in northeastern Syria this week, and called the international community as well as Kurdish-led forces controlling the area to redouble efforts to ensure the protection of thousands of women and children still being held in the camps.
“The deaths of these young sisters who had already endured so much misery is deeply distressing. The circumstances behind their deaths, and the manner in which they were killed, beggar belief,” said Türk.
The bodies of the girls, both aged under 15, were found with stab wounds in a sewage ditch at the Al-Hol camp on 15 November. According to reports received by the UN Human Rights Office, the girls had been raped a few days earlier. A group of radicalised women in the camp then reportedly harassed the girls and their mother because of the stigma associated with having being subjected to sexual violence.
Displacement camps in northeastern Syria hold Syrians, Iraqis and other ‘third country nationals’, including many with suspected family or other links to ISIL, and are a known hotbed for violence, exploitation and abuse, and fresh radicalisation. Since the start of the year, the UN Human Rights Office has verified the killing of no fewer than 42 people at the Al-Hol camp, including 10 Iraqi men, six Syrian men, four Iraqi women, 18 Syrian women, one Iraqi boy, one Iraqi girl and the two Egyptian girls.
It is estimated that at least 53,000 individuals are held at Al-Hol, of whom more than half are estimated to be children. Thousands more remain in other camps in northeast Syria.
“These two girls were trapped in the desperate circumstances of this camp through no fault of their own,” said Türk. “Like children everywhere, every child has the right to grow up in an environment protective of their dignity and best interests, without exposure to pain, suffering and violence.”
Children, including those who were indoctrinated or forcibly recruited by ISIL, should be regarded primarily as victims and treated in a manner consistent with their rights, dignity and best interests in accordance with applicable international law, in particular the Convention on the Rights of the Child.
The High Commissioner welcomed that an increasing number of States had recently repatriated women and children from camps back to their own countries of nationality or origin, but said the vast majority continued to be held with no sign of progress.
“This most recent incident must serve as a wake-up call to the international community to immediately repatriate the thousands of women and children – some of whom have been detained for years – from these camps back to their home countries,” said Türk.
Many of those remaining in the camps are left in legal limbo with limited access – if any – to consular services, in potentially life-threatening conditions. Knowingly leaving nationals outside the protection of the rule of law is both a possible contravention of obligations under international human rights law, and risks being counterproductive as the desperate conditions in these camps provides a fertile ground to exploit people’s suffering as a recruiting tool by armed groups and other violent elements, the High Commissioner said.
Türk added that the Syrian Democratic Forces, who exercise de facto control over Al-Hol camp, should comply with their responsibilities and obligations under international law. “They must adopt urgent measures to guarantee the safety, security and well-being of the people held in the camps. This includes protecting them from violence and other criminal acts,” he said.
He emphasised the obligations on the SDF also to ensure children are provided a safe and healthy environment, including access to education and recreational activities, and together with the rest of the population in the camps access to humanitarian assistance.