Dr. Annie Sparrow:

There are things that are being done that are pragmatic and will mitigate the disaster while providing a way forward. One of the most important is cross-border aid, the bulk of which goes through Turkey. The Syrian regime was able to assert sovereignty to control aid because it has a seat at the UN and sovereignty is a primary principle of the organisation. Syria is backed by Russia and China. Thanks to the persistent work of many governments and other key organisations in July 2014 cross-border resolution 2165 was put in place, which is a binding resolution of the Security Council and carries the most weight. That provides the legal authority for all cross-border aid. It is important to renew this because the assistance provided through cross-border aid is not obvious. More than 2 million people in Idlib can be easily accessed from Turkey still while Dahal in the south is accessible from Jordan. As the war appears to wind down, now that Ghouta has fallen, although the pattern of extermination or oppression of the civilians left in hospitals continues in Idlib, there has been talk of reconstruction and rehabilitation. There is a massive need in the country where life expectancy has fallen from 71 years before the war in 2010 to 55 years. That is a measure of the devastating public health crisis, which was not created by the sanctions, as is claimed by some people. That is a measure of the pre-existing policies, which were compounded by the weaponisation of healthcare and an inability to do surveillance of these most important global threats.

Renewing a cross-border resolution provides the possibility not only for Irish NGOs, such as Trócaire, Concern, Goal and Catholic Relief Services, to work from Syria but to provide direct support and funding to the massive health services provided by the Syrians themselves with much greater accountability. It is important to do that as well because it offers a pragmatic way to do the surveillance of infectious disease, which Turkey is behind because of the potential regional spread of diseases such as polio, TB and cholera. Ireland can get behind cross-border renewal, which is important, and instead of Damascus asking Russia to put pressure on Turkey to shut it down, it is good governance to keep it open. If that leverage is lost, more control will be in the hands of Damascus. When the resolution came into effect, SARC, as an International Red Cross agent, was allowed to dramatically increase the number of cross-line convoys because the government wanted to take back control. The resolution offers the leverage to make sure the government will give more aid in order that it can maintain control but if the government is permitted to have full control of aid by taking away the cross-border authority, it will not have to do anything.

Some of the sanctions were offset by the financial support of Russia, China and Iran. It is an interesting question. The US designated Syria as a state sponsor of terrorism in 1978 and it cut off aid. The EU tried hard to use financial incentives and access to the European market. By the time the war happened, the Union was Syria's most important trading partner. Economic sanctions had no impact on curbing Assad's atrocities. He got through the first couple of years with the aid and support of Iran, China and Russia and then the massive multi-billion infusion of UN aid money was incredibly important. As well as the legitimacy it gave to a dictator surrounded by war criminals, it converted them into a state and a government. The fact that the UN has imposed no sanctions because of the Russian veto means the Syrian Government uses the UN to bypass all the sanctions. Countries or agencies will still work with the government such as ABET in America or companies that partnered with Russia recently. It is a form of economic prostitution. Politically, we can still call them out. These are war crimes committed by war criminals and the UN has agreed a special prosecutor to investigate war crimes. That was established in December 2016. Clearly it is a slow effort but the precedent for this is Kosovo where criminals were, ultimately, brought to justice with international endorsement, which we all believe in. We must still find ways to make the UN stronger. By endorsing and working with Assad, it brings the level of acceptable behaviour down to the lowest common denominator.

Ireland is an important state, which has good governance, is democratic and believes in basic human rights. The debate this committee is having now is important. The influence it has to talk about the conflict still is incredibly important. The country can get behind innovations. For example, even if the healthcare system is rebuilt, including all the hospitals and clinics, there is no one left to staff it. More than 15,000 doctors have left Syria with 1,000 killed and hundreds more incarcerated or disappeared. None of them will return and there are no resources for the system. Ireland can support an innovative and a pragmatic policy such as the accreditation of healthcare workers because the Syrian Government will not accredit anyone working as a doctor. There are medical students there who are the equivalent of vascular surgeons because of the experience they have gained but they cannot ever be recognised or paid. The only way to bring professionals back to Syria is to recognise them, give them status and allow them to be paid as such. That will require innovative but pragmatic tools. This also applies to teachers, architects and engineers who are required for the water systems. Medicine, in particular, is always controlled by the government.

The WHO has the authority, as a body, to get behind that and every country in the world has medical schools. Last night I was at the Royal College of Surgeons to support a curriculum and an accreditation system that allow people to return.

There are some positive things that can be done. In a world of pandemics and the threat of infectious disease, germs are frequent flyers and do not respect sovereignty. The only way we can provide care to people, especially children, and alleviate their misery by controlling their disease, is with resources. No one has access to health unless they have a doctor. This is why the weaponisation of healthcare works - no man stays where there is no doctor to safely deliver his wife's baby or no place to educate children.

A radical but effective sanction would be targeted sanctions against the sons and daughters of the regime so that they cannot access the desirable colleges across Europe and Great Britain. Bashar Jaafari's daughter applied to Columbia University in New York. People say we do not want to punish the children of the regime but Assad is British educated and his wife is British born, and also highly educated. They would respond much more quickly to a ban on their children attending prestigious Ivy League colleges. They would stop their war crimes, bombing schools and hospitals more quickly if we said they had to educate their children in their own country. It is a controversial suggestion but students at Columbia lobbied hard and said they did not agree with this.

Harnessing the power of solidarity and finding things we all agree on are important. Health and education are massively important in this and there are partners in Lebanon who provide health and education to Syrians using Syrian teachers. There are enough teachers in the refugee population to teach the Syrian curriculum, which cannot be done in Lebanon because it wants to teach its own curriculum. One cannot teach Syrian kids science through French because they do not know the language.

There are many things that can be done but the cross-border resolution allows aid to be provided and for NGOs to be put in directly and to establish innovative programmes like accreditation, which will bring people back as everyone wants. It also allows the surveillance of infectious disease which is an issue of global governance. The advent of blockchain can ensure a much greater level of accountability and donors will get the chance to direct their funding with clear knowledge of where their money is going, which will help the UN accommodate these things. There are pragmatic, political and financial tools we can still use.