Partners for Transparency, a non-governmental organization in special consultative status, submitted a written statement to the forty-six session of the Human Rights Council related to the issue of ‘weaponizing’ water by Turkey in North and East Syria.

The statement reminded that Turkish-backed armed factions are cutting off water from the Syrian city of Heseke in North and East Syria in an attempt to gain a comparative advantage in the war at the expense of the other party.

The statement added that “people have been denied access to clean sufficient water”, amid fear for the outbreak of Coronavirus. Water scarcity has also jeopardized citizens’ food security due to the severe decline in the production of various food commodities.

The NGO urged the UN Human Rights Council to “investigate extrajudicial killings in northern Syria carried out by Turkish armed factions, with the necessity to stop them; to release all forcibly detainees in the prisons of the Turkish-backed armed factions, and to stop targeting citizens; to stop the practices of forced displacement practiced by the factions against the native citizens in the occupied territories and to stop using water in political conflicts.”