The Speech Of The President Of The International Committee Of The Red Cross, Peter Maurer, At The Syria Conference Plenary Session

Excellencies,
Ladies and gentlemen,

When my colleagues arrived in Madaya three weeks ago, Fatma, a little girl, maybe six years old, walked up to them and said ‘We have been waiting for you. Did you bring any food?’

Anyone who has been to Syria knows the peoples’ extraordinary hospitality and great pride. For a six year-old girl to walk up to a stranger, to ask for food; this shows in a nutshell what the crisis has done to the spirit of the people of Syria.

So how did we get here?

The answer is alarmingly simple. Constant violations of international humanitarian law: use of illegal weapons and the illegal use of weapons, an epidemic of sieges, urban warfare destroying electricity and water infrastructure, deliberate attacks on schools and hospitals have cumulated into full system failure, forcing more than half of the Syrian population from their homes.

Over four and a half million Syrians have fled abroad, the vast majority to countries neighbouring Syria. But twice as many are displaced inside Syria, until the next attack forces them to flee yet again. These people need help, they need protection; they need you to work for their safety, urgently.

Let me be clear: attacks on civilians are not collateral damage. Bombing civilians is a standard practice of warfare in Syria today – but that does not make it acceptable. While the front lines have hardly moved over the last years, the civilian population’s suffering has surged. The letter and spirit of international humanitarian law – that all parties to the conflict care and are obliged to respect and ensure respect for the law and aims to protect people from direct and indiscriminate attacks and to preserve their dignity in war – it does not outlaw the war but it outlaws the deliberate creation of humanitarian catastrophes.

Last year, the ICRC and the Syrian Arab Red Crescent aided over 16 million people inside Syria, but we can’t reach everyone.

Humanitarian aid is always just a quick fix, and never enough. Therefore, as long as this goes on, people will lack food. So they will get weak. They will have no fuel for heating. So they get sick. They have no medicine. So they get sicker. And they have no hospitals. So, eventually, they die. The indirect consequences of warfare add to the direct impact.

So how do we get out of here?

Ladies and gentlemen,

Lift all sieges immediately.

Start putting Syrians first, and your own interests second.

Find a political solution, urgently.

In the meantime, ensure that international humanitarian law is respected by you and your partners, whoever they are.

And give us access so we can bring food and medicine to Fatma and all the other children, women and men in Syria.

We got to today’s catastrophe also because of the lack of the political action and ambition to resolve the crisis, and because the humanitarian aid is being used as a bargaining chip in political negotiations. We’ll need you to show more political ambition to open impartial humanitarian spaces and less political meddling in humanitarian work.

The Red Cross and Red Crescent Movement is by far the foremost humanitarian actor in Syria today. Movement partners also need your support to help more Syrians in the region, and beyond.

In five years only, more than 60 of our colleagues died while they tried to save people, three of them as recently as yesterday in the Aleppo region. Our principles have not changed, neutrality, impartiality, independence.
We cannot abandon the Syrian people. We are ready to do more but we need your support.

I thank you.