New York, NY, October 24, 2024 — As Delivered
IRC'S Regional Vice President for MENA, Su'ad Jarbawi stated,
Excellencies, Ladies and Gentlemen,
Last September I addressed this Council, warning that the humanitarian situation inside Syria continues to plunge to unfathomable depths. A further year has passed, and the devastating truth is that we are still yet to reach the bottom.
Much of what I warned of in this room a year ago still holds true:
Last year we warned that without concerted action to address the drivers of crisis, yet even more Syrians would be pulled into poverty and despair.
Today, as you have already heard from OCHA, the number of people in need of humanitarian assistance has risen to unprecedented levels.
Last year we warned that with an economy in freefall, many of those we served were having to make impossible choices. Such as whether to eat or send their children to school.
Today, we are seeing cases of acute malnutrition increasing at alarming rates. Unheard of in Syria before the conflict began, malnutrition now threatens the lives and the long-term development of thousands of children.
Last year we warned how a substantial funding gap was forcing humanitarian organizations to make difficult decisions about which vulnerable families to serve.
Today we have a humanitarian system simply incapable of keeping pace, all while Syrians continue to call out for tangible support to become genuinely self-reliant.
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I join you tonight from Amman, Jordan, having just returned from visiting the IRC team and partners in Idlib in northwest Syria.
While there I heard firsthand how Syrian civilians continue to suffer the effects of perpetual conflict. In the last month alone, we have witnessed a significant escalation of violence in areas we work. Airstrikes, shelling and drone attacks have caused the deaths and injury of scores of civilians, and yet again, the displacement of thousands in search of safety. Just last week airstrikes damaged residential areas, agriculture lands and a power station, affecting the water station that serves 30,000 people.
With perpetual conflict, comes perpetual uncertainty. Syrians I spoke to in Idlib explained to me how they are living in a constant state of limbo. When they wake, they do not know if today will be a day that they are able to plough their fields, or a day where they are forced to flee attacks again.
It had been 10 years since I was last in Idlib, and I think what has struck me most is just how normalized negative coping mechanisms have become. Parents no longer realize they are eating one meal a day instead of three. The reality is that Syrian families now find themselves suspended between their ability to survive daily challenges, and their ability to recover and rebuild. Stripping away their basic dignity of being able to make their own choices, good choices, regarding their lives and futures.
I asked a Syrian displaced from Dier Zor if he is optimistic about a political solution to the crisis and he answered before I even got to finish the question: “Absolutely not”, he told me, “We have lost faith and confidence a long time ago.”
The failure to bring about any meaningful progress towards a political solution has with it stifled any meaningful effort to address the drivers of humanitarian need. As a result of this failure, we have no choice but to change the paradigm of how we collectively respond in Syria.
While many Syrians have given up on the international community to facilitate political solutions, they have not given up on maintaining their social fabric in support of each other. For too long we have been focused on providing the band aid. When in fact Syrians consistently tell us that what they really need are collective efforts to support their recovery. One Syrian woman I spoke to this week summed it up better than I can: “We want to take care of ourselves, and we need a different kind of assistance to get there, one that rests on cooperation between all of us.”
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As we think about the need for greater investment in recovery, it is important to note, that what is happening in Syria today is not happening in a vacuum. It has truly been a devastating year for many of us in the middle east region. We continue to watch in horror the catastrophic impact of death and destruction in the occupied Palestinian territory, and now in Lebanon.
The escalation of conflict in Lebanon has led to the mass forced displacement of more than 425,000 Lebanese and Syrians into Syria. With those crossing the border fleeing one crisis, only to find themselves in another.
This movement occurs at the same time as some international actors increasingly look to promote the prospect of large-scale returns to Syria. It is crucial that we recognize this latest wave of displacement for what it is: not a safe, voluntary, sustainable or dignified choice, but again a false choice. A choice between being caught in either an active conflict zone or a perpetual crisis now 14 years in the making.
Unless there is genuine movement on the political file then both tangible improvements to the humanitarian situation, as well as the conditions needed for large-scale voluntary returns in safety and dignity, will continue to allude all of us.
It is not lost on me, as I am sure you all, that 12 months ago I sat here and delivered a very similar message. I hope that if I am offered the opportunity to brief this Council again in the future, that we will have finally passed the nadir and will be able to look together towards Syria’s recovery.
I end today to urge all in this room to not forget those in need in Syria, and to once again emphasize the responsibilities of this Council to protect Syrians wherever they are. Thank you.