Liechtenstein was shocked by the findings of the Secretary General's recent r...

Liechtenstein was shocked by the findings of the Secretary General's recent report on Children and Armed Conflict in Syria, which listed a number of horrendous violations and abuses against children, including arbitrary detention, sexual violence, torture, recruitment and use of child soldiers, maiming and killing, just to name a few. We are deeply concerned about these ongoing violations and abuses by both parties to the conflict and ask them to immediately put an end to them. The recent adoption of Security Council resolution 2139 is of particular importance for the situation of children, who suffer disproportionately from the armed conflict in Syria. We were relieved to see the Council take meaningful, albeit long overdue, action on the humanitarian situation in Syria and look forward to improvements on the ground. We hope that the Council will continue acting with resolve and impose appropriate sanctions should the parties fail to comply with the resolution. In addition, the Council should finally live up to its responsibility to ensure that those committing atrocity crimes in Syria, in particular crimes against children, are brought to justice. In the current circumstances, only a referral to the International Criminal Court could jumpstart accountability in Syria.