UN Panel Welcomes Syria–SDF Ceasefire, Urges Civilian Protection and Aid Access

Overview

• The ceasefire provides for withdrawals from contact lines, Interior Ministry security in Hasakah and Qamishli city centers, integration of several SDF brigades into a Syrian division linked to Aleppo, and the absorption of autonomous institutions into state structures with provisions for Kurdish civil and educational rights and the return of displaced people.
• The Commission welcomed a presidential decree recognizing Kurdish cultural, language and citizenship rights after decades of denial under successive governments.
• Investigators cited reports of killings of surrendered fighters and civilians and desecration of bodies, urging strict compliance with international humanitarian law and prompt, transparent, impartial probes into potential war crimes.
• Officials warned that winter shortages of electricity, water, food and heating could be catastrophic, noted limited aid deliveries resuming to Al Hol since January 23, and pressed for the voluntary, safe, dignified return of roughly 16,500 Syrian women and children and for states to urgently repatriate their child nationals.
• The Commission highlighted disturbing accounts of more than 100 children arbitrarily held and ill-treated at al-Aqtan prison and over 17,000 children and young adults confined in Al Hol, Rawj or rehabilitation centers, and cautioned that detainee transfers to other states must avoid refoulement and ensure lawful review of detention.