Mr President,
I would like to thank Mr Ebo for his presentation.
Eleven years ago, this Council unanimously adopted resolution 2118, a few weeks after the use of chemical weapons in the suburbs of Damascus.
On 21 August 2013, the inhabitants of Ghouta, including many children, were the victims of one of the most devastating chemical attacks on civilians since the Second World War.
Syria subsequently acceded to the Convention on the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons. And yet, over the last 11 years, the obligations arising from this Convention and Resolution 2118 have been violated on at least 25 occasions in chemical attacks documented by the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW).
Over the course of 11 years, significant work has been carried out by the OPCW to clarify all the issues surrounding the Syrian chemical weapons programme. Syria's initial declaration had to be amended 20 times. At the same time, the OPCW raised and reported a total of 26 issues, 19 of which are still outstanding. The fact that two of these points were only raised this year is worrying.
Switzerland therefore calls on Syria to continue cooperating with the OPCW and all its missions fully and in good faith. In addition, we call on Syria to provide verifiable and scientifically plausible explanations that will clarify all unresolved issues. To this end, the 28th round of consultations between the Declarations Assessment Team (DAT) and Syria is necessary.
In the meantime, we are counting on the forthcoming visit of a reduced DAT team in mid-September, and look forward to receiving its report.
Switzerland reiterates here its full confidence in the OPCW and our support for all its missions, whose integrity and professionalism are beyond doubt.
Mr. President,
For eleven years, the regular meetings of this Council have served to remind us of a crucial issue: preventing the production, stockpiling, proliferation and use of chemical weapons in Syria, and ensuring their destruction.
This regularity also confirms the Council's universal commitment to the fight against impunity, on which our collective security depends. Those who manufacture, possess and even use such weapons must not go unpunished.
Indeed, there will be no peace in Syria unless justice is done for the victims of violations of international law.
For this reason, Switzerland will continue to support any international organization or initiative whose work consists of documenting such crimes under international law and preventing them from being perpetrated by parties to conflicts, including States and non-state armed groups.
In this spirit, we welcome the formal cooperation between the OPCW and the International, Impartial and Independent Mechanism for Syria.
This cooperation is an important step towards the implementation of Council Resolution 2118 and respect for relevant international law, to which Switzerland is deeply attached and to which it will continue to commit itself - in this forum as elsewhere.
Thank you.