UN Human Rights Council and Atrocity Crimes in Syria (2011-2018)

The United Nations Human Rights Council, by UN General Assembly resolution, substituted the Human Rights Commission on March 15, 2006. A new initiative that distinguishes Council from the former Commission is the mechanism of Universal Periodic Review to assess the human rights situation all over the world. One of the main tasks of the Council is to monitor the implementation of human rights requirements in order to promote and protect human rights. To this end, the Council reviews the state's bounding to human rights and makes decisions. One of the main agendas of the council is to assess situations that require immediate attention throughout the year. Holding special sessions on Syria and warning of human rights violations and humanitarian rights violations was also one of the main actions of the Council between 2011 and 2018. In this regard, the Council warned of the start of the Syrian crisis and its unrest in committing atrocity crimes including crimes against humanity and war crimes. In the meantime, the Council's deep concern, the issuance of resolutions at special sessions, and the establishment of the Commission of Inquiry to prosecute the commission of atrocity crimes, highlighted the role of the Council in raising international notice towards Syria and putting and end to these crimes. Accordingly, this study aimed to examine the content of special sessions of the Council and the reports of the Commission of Inquiry into atrocity crimes in Syria. In addition, the Council's assessment of developments in the Syrian civil war was evaluated and the strengths and weaknesses of the Council in relation to atrocity crimes were demonstrated. The method of this study was descriptive-analytical which was done in the form of library. In addition, Resolutions, reports, and legal documents were reviewed based on contextual analysis .Important and relevant resources were also collected and analyzed. Despite the classification of international crimes, introducing the perpetrators, and the obligation to investigate, prosecute and punish them at the International Criminal Court, the Council has identified the Syrian government as the main violator and did not refer to supporters of terrorists and anti-Government armed groups. It should be noted that by holding special sessions, the Council was able to create a global consensus against the commission of atrocity crimes in Syria, but this consensus turned into a sharp reprimand against the Syrian government. According to the results of this study, Human Rights Council has played an important role in turning international notice to atrocity crimes in Syria ,however, the political framework and intergovernmental nature of the Council hindered to define these crimes clearly and adopt an impartial approach toward these crimes.