SACD’s advocacy efforts in April focused on the use of chemical weapons by the Syrian regime against the civilians with the aim of entire communities. We recognized the importance of the OPCW report recognizing the use of chemical weapons by Assad regime as an important milestone on the path to justice for Syrians and a fuller understanding of the Syrian regime’s strategy of forced displacement.

For the first time in nine years of the Syrian conflict, the Organization for Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) published a report explicitly confirming the Assad regime used chemical weapons to attack civilians in Ltamenah, in Hama governorate. SACD welcomed the report as a watershed moment for the international community’s dealing with the ongoing conflict in Syria. The report, in our eyes, made it impossible for the key countries to ignore their responsibility of working towards creating and guaranteeing a safe environment for all Syrians in Syria, and abandoning any and all policies seeking to normalize Assad’s regime, while seeking full accountability for those responsible for such hideous crimes. In our meetings and diplomatic outreach we made clear points:

– The OPCW report clearly confirms that chemical attacks by the Assad’s forces were used with the sole purpose of terrorizing civilians and forcing them to abandon their homes, and had no military justification whatsoever. The sole aim of such terror was and still is to forcibly displace the majority of Syrian population which was seen as anti-regime and affect a demographic change in the country.

– Accountability for war crimes and crimes against humanity such as attacks with chemical weapons must be considered one of the crucial pre-conditions and confidence-building measures before organized, safe, voluntary and dignified return of the displaced people to Syria can be considered.

– It is impossible to consider any of the currently ongoing elements of the political process without addressing the key issue — creating a safe environment under international sponsorship and supervision for a voluntary and dignified return of the displaced. Elections are impossible without this. Verification of the new constitution is impossible without this. Reconstruction is impossible without this. Organized return is impossible without this.

– A regime which has been proved to have used chemical weapons against its own people cannot under any circumstances be relied on to provide safe environment for the Syrian people and cannot have legitimacy to provide any guarantees to this effect. Only a robust international presence, with a clear mandate to supervise and enforce a political settlement which will guarantee the rights and safety of all Syrians, including returnees, can guarantee minimal conditions for a safe, voluntary and dignified return.

However, SACD reports and advocacy efforts did not only focus on the need to establish clear accountability and to stop such crimes, but also to expose how this systematic use of chemical attacks on civilian population are used to provoke demographic change through forced displacement.

On the 3^rd anniversary of the Khan Sheikhoun chemical attack, SACD stressed that the use of chemical weapons by the Syrian regime and the systematic attacks conducted from joint air bases with Russian and Iranian forces has been a part of the wider strategy of demographic change in Syria, which has resulted in the displacement of millions of Syrians.

Lastly, the Association addressed the dehumanizing language used by the Russian MFA against the people trapped in the Rukban camp, in atrocious humanitarian conditions due to the siege laid by the Syrian regime and Russian and Iranian forces. Russian MFA used the language of threats and “elimination” in referring to the displaced Syrians in Rukban. SACD used different platforms and means of communication to inform of the real situation facing Rukban, where people were starved due to the siege which prevented humanitarian aid from reaching them regularly.