Ann Phelan (Carlow-Kilkenny, Labour) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Ceann Comhairle for allowing me to raise this issue for the third time in the House. While all our energy goes to dealing with the economic situation here and across Europe, we must maintain the view that we are all human beings and we must do something about the humanitarian issue in Syria. Thousands have died in brutal attacks and many more have been severely injured or forced to flee their homes. Schools and health centres have closed down or have become too dangerous for families to contact. Many have been traumatised by the torture and upheaval inflicted upon them, in particular having to leave their family home to seek refuge in neighbouring countries of Jordan, Iraq, and Turkey. According to the Jordanian Government, more than 200,000 Syrian refugees have entered the country and are living in appalling conditions. We are all acutely aware of the humanitarian aspect to the Syrian conflict. It is our duty to support the countries now receiving a large influx of refugees, such as Turkey and Jordan.

As a Government, we must call for an immediate end to the violence, stress the responsibility of Syria to protect its population and continue to monitor the situation closely.

The United Nations needs to ensure that all measures possible are adopted to stop human rights violations and establish a commission to investigate these violations. Humanitarian corridors needed to be focused on. We, as a nation, must highlight that we are united with our European counterparts in aiding the protection of the people of Syria.

Systematic and gross violations of human rights continue to be committed under the Assad regime on its own people in Syria on a daily basis. When children are being used as pawns and sought out as targets in warfare it is incumbent upon us, as a member state of the United Nations, to try to protect their interests and maintain their safety.

In the devastating massacre in Houla in May, more than 100 people lost their lives, including 49 children. On Monday, yet again we saw this civil war claim the lives of further innocent children. Syrian rights activists claimed Syrian Government warplanes bombed the northern town near the Turkish border, killing 21 people, as heavy fighting spread within the old city of Aleppo. The British-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said the death toll from Monday's air strike in Salqin included eight children. The observatory said nationwide fighting between Government and rebel forces on Monday killed at least 100 people.

The harsh reality is that the Syrian crisis has reached genocidal proportions and is one of the greatest challenges faced by the United Nations Security Council. However, while I acknowledge that we are limited in our capacity as a member state of the UN, we are not doing enough to abate this disaster which has reached a monumental scale. While we and our EU counterparts have been afforded the opportunity to raise this issue in our national parliaments, and this is the third occasion I have raised this issue, we are still merely talking about it and very little action has been instigated. While we continue to discuss Syria, children are been callously slaughtered. Procrastination is opportunity's natural assassin

We need look at the statistics to get an understanding of the extent of inactivity that prevails. Up until July 2012, over 1,300 children had been killed, 49 children were massacred in one incident alone, 635 children were put into detention centres where torture has been repeatedly testified and girls and boys as young as eight have been forcibly involved in hostilities. An estimated 470,000 children and young people have been affected by the crisis. It is estimated that around 50% of all displaced Syrians are children and young people, and girls and boys as young as 12 had been sexually abused

Amnesty International visited 26 towns and villages between 31 August and 11 September and carried out on-the-ground field investigations into indiscriminate attacks which killed 166 civilians, including 48 children and 20 women, and injured hundreds of others. In recent days Amnesty International has continued to receive information from residents of several villages about ongoing air and artillery attacks, some of which have resulted in yet more civilian casualties.

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