UN rights chief condemns ‘brutal killing’ of girls in Syrian camp

By Peter Kenny

GENEVA (AA) – The UN human rights chief on Saturday condemned the “heinous killing” of two young Egyptian girls at a displacement camp in northeastern Syria this week.

“The deaths of these young sisters who had already endured so much misery are deeply distressing. The circumstances behind their deaths and the manner in which they were killed beggar belief,” said the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Volker Turk.

The UN human rights chief “called on the international community and 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 Al-Hol camp is run by the YPG/PKK terror group and houses 55,000 suspected Daesh/ISIS members and their families from Syria, Iraq, and 60 other countries, with more than half of the residents being children.

The bodies of the girls, both aged under 15, were found with stab wounds in a sewage ditch at the Al-Hol camp on Nov. 15.

“These two girls were trapped in the desperate circumstances of this camp through no fault of their own,” said Turk.

- Children’s rights

“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,” he said.

Turk said that the Syrian Democratic Forces, which have de facto control over the 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.

According to reports received by the UN Human Rights Office, the girls had been raped a few days earlier.

The rights office said a group of radicalized women in the camp reportedly harassed the girls and their mother because of the stigma associated with having been 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 Daesh/ISIS.

They “are a known hotbed for violence, exploitation and abuse, and fresh radicalization,” said the UN statement.

Since the start of 2022, the UN Human Rights Office has verified the killing of at least 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.

The UN Human Rights office said children, including those who were indoctrinated or forcibly recruited by Daesh/ISIS, should be regarded primarily as victims.

They should be treated in a manner consistent with their rights, dignity, and best interests under applicable international law, particularly the Convention on the Rights of the Child.

Turk 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 Turk.