A panel called: "Human Rights in Northern Syria" is scheduled for today at the UN building in Geneva as part of the fringe meetings to the UN Human Rights Council Session.

The panel is scheduled for 4 pm.

Speakers include: Bedran Ciya Kurd, Rappresentative of Autonomous Administration of North and East Syria; Carlo Sommuruga, lawyer; Vicken Cheterian,  PhD (The Graduate Institute of International and Development Studies - IHEID) University of Geneve.

Among the written statements examined will be that submitted by Institut International pour les droits et le Dévelopement, a non-governmental organisation in special consultative status.

The statement deals with the escalation of violence in 2019.

"In the first part of 2019, - it said - hostilities have intensified in the North-West of the country. In the   Idlib and Northern Hama governorates, several villages and cities are still under control of  rebel groups, including the Hay’at Tahrir al-Sham group, former al-Nusra Front.

These  areas, filled up with millions of civilians, have been targeted by the Russian-backed Syrian governmental forces with airstrikes and shelling, yet again in abject disregard of international humanitarian and human rights law. The UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) reported that from 29 April to 5 May over 50 villages in the area were attacked, causing the destruction of several civilian buildings, including schools, healthcare facilities and infrastructures, and the death of at least 80 persons."