Parliamentary Assembly

Draft resolution

1Since the beginning of the conflict in Syria, more than 2.5 million people have found themselves in a perilous situation, suffering from want of food, hygiene and essential goods. Over 1.2 million people have been displaced within the country, and 294 005 have taken refuge abroad in order to avoid the shootings and bombardments and to save themselves from attacks and acts of violence.

2The situation is thus becoming more and more critical, since each day brings further acts of bloodshed and violence against civilians, medical workers and the staff of humanitarian organisations.

3The Parliamentary Assembly recalls its Resolution 1878 (2012) on the situation in Syria and regrets the persistence of this crisis and its continuing grievous threat to security and stability in the entire region and in particular the bordering countries.

4In this context, the Assembly resolutely condemns the acts of violence and the military operations whose victims have been the civilian populations, many thousands of whom have lost their lives.

5The situation in the refugee camps in Turkey, Lebanon, Jordan and Iraq is also becoming drastic owing to shortages of food, supplies, hygiene products and lack of accommodation. The approach of winter aggravates further the situation.

6Indeed, for the last six months an upsurge in the number of refugees has been noted in the border regions as well as in certain member States (France, Germany, Sweden, etc.), 75% of them being women and children.

7The Assembly thanks the Turkish authorities, together with Jordan, Lebanon and Iraq, which have received these refugees, despite the organisational and security problems associated with this task.

8Unfortunately the reception capability of these countries has very quickly been overwhelmed following the mass influx of refugees, and the Assembly appeals to the solidarity of the international community to make a generous and most urgent response to the calls for funds to assist the refugees from Syria and the neighbouring countries receiving them, as requested in the last revised plan of the United Nations.

9The Assembly regrets that Turkey, notwithstanding its generous reception of refugees from Syria, continues to maintain the geographic reservation restricting its obligations under the 1951 United Nations Convention relating to the status of refugees only to people uprooted by events in Europe.

10The Assembly considers that the international community’s relative silence and inaction vis-à-vis the influx of refugees to neighbouring countries has lasted too long and that it is time to react and take the measures necessary to ensure that the refugees are provided with suitable reception facilities and that they are given the opportunity to move back once the conflict has ended.

11Accordingly, the Assembly asks the parties to the conflict to:

11.1arrive as rapidly as possible at a ceasefire, the necessary precondition for any political solution, and to that end to avail themselves of the good offices of the international mediator, Mr Lakhdar Brahimi;

11.2allow the humanitarian organisations and the non-governmental organisations (NGOs) to help displaced persons in Syria and accordingly to abide by humanitarian law for the access of all humanitarian workers;

11.3ensure that those who have fled from their homes can benefit from housing and adequate medical care;

11.4permit the establishment of humanitarian corridors or buffer zones to let convoys deliver whatever humanitarian aid is necessary for the survival of the displaced population.

12The recommends that the member States of the United Nations Security Council take measures to establish an air exclusion zone in order to prevent bombing of the civilian population;

13The Assembly recommends that the Council of Europe member States and the countries bordering on Syria:

13.1do not send asylum seekers back to Syria, in compliance with the fundamental principle of non-refoulement, and ensure that pushbacks do not take place at their borders;

13.2provide proper facilities for the reception of refugees and provide them with all necessary assistance;

13.3enable all asylum seekers to obtain international protection, in the form of temporary, subsidiary or full refugee status under the United Nations Convention relating to the status of refugees;

13.4take the requisite measures to ease and shorten the procedures for obtaining asylum;

13.5where required, move the refugee camps further away from the border with Syria in order to ensure the safety of those in the camps, as already requested in its Resolution 1878 (2012) on the situation in Syria;

13.6ensure that appropriate assistance is provided to refugees previously living in Syria seeking protection a second time, or third country nationals having fled Syria looking to return to their home countries;

13.7lay down an action plan providing in particular for a programme of resettlement operating from the host countries, possibly enlisting the aid of the Council of Europe Development Bank;

13.8ask the Governor of the Council of Europe Development Bank to consider a donation from the Selective Trust Account aimed at reinforcing the action of the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) for the benefit of refugees from Syria.

14The Assembly also recommends that the bordering countries, including Israel, open all border crossings to refugees from Syria.