UN Security Council renewed Humanitarian aid to Syria for 12 Months

United Nations Security Council (UNSC) on 17 December 2014 renewed its authorization for humanitarian aid to Syria for 12 months without Syria’s government consent. The resolution, pursuant to resolution 2165 passed in July 2014, extends the humanitarian assistance for Syrian civilians until 10 January 2016.

Main highlights of the Resolution
• The humanitarian aid renewed is for conflict lines and four border crossings in Syria from Turkey, Iraq and Jordan.
• The four border crossings namely are Al Yarubiyah on the Iraq border, Al-Ramtha from Jordan, Bab al-Salam and Bab al-Hawa from Turkey.
• It called on UN humanitarian aid agencies and their partners to scale up humanitarian deliveries into hard-to-reach and besieged areas, including by using, as effectively as possible, (the authorized) border crossings.
• It expressed grave concern over the ineffective implementation of its previous resolutions 2139 and 2165 and demanded increased aid access to civilians in hard-to-reach areas.
• It called on all parties to the Syrian domestic conflict to cease attacks against civilians and the targeting of schools and hospitals, as well as the indiscriminate use of weapons and use of starvation of civilians as a method of combat.
• It strongly condemned the arbitrary detention and torture of civilians and kidnappings and demanded the immediate end of these practices and the release of all arbitrarily detained persons starting with women, children, the wounded and elderly.
• It called for continuing monitoring mechanism for loading aid convoys in neighbouring countries, which confirms for Syria that aid consignments are in fact humanitarian relief.
• It also supported UN mediator for Syria Staffan de Mistura's action plan to implement local ceasefires in some regions of Syria by voice.

According to UN estimates, at present some 12.2 million people of Syria need humanitarian aid, an increase of 2.9 million people in just 10 months. Nearly half of the population of Syria is displaced with more than 7.6 million internally displaced and over 3 million refugees in neighbouring countries of Syria.