GENEVA, Sept 10 (Reuters) – The U.N. High Commissioner for
Human Rights blamed on Monday both sides in the Syrian conflict
for human rights violations and said that justice would
eventually catch up with them.

Addressing the 47-member U.N. Human Rights Council in
Geneva, Navi Pillay reiterated that the Syrian government’s
actions might amount to war crimes and crimes against humanity.

GENEVA (Reuters) – United Nations emergency relief coordinator Valerie Amos arrived in Syria on Tuesday to seek agreement on increasing humanitarian aid to Syrian civilians trapped or displaced by intensifying fighting between government and rebel forces.

Hundreds of people are fleeing Syria daily to neighboring countries with some arriving wounded or reporting having been shelled or fired on in border areas, according to the U.N. refugee agency.

GENEVA, July 27 (Reuters) – U.N. rights chief Navi Pillay
urged both Syrian government forces and rebels on Friday to
spare civilians in Aleppo, voicing deep concern at the
“likelihood of an imminent major confrontation” in the city
reminiscent of other deadly assaults.

A “discernable pattern” had emerged as President Bashar
al-Assad’s forces attempt – using intense shelling, tank fire
and door-to-door searches – to clear areas of Syria’s biggest
urban centres they say are occupied by insurgents, she said.

GENEVA (Reuters) – International envoy Kofi Annan is still trying to forge a political solution to the Syria crisis despite being made a scapegoat for the failure of the two sides to agree, a source close to the mediation effort said on Friday.

Annan and U.N. Secretary General Ban Ki-moon were meeting in London on Friday to discuss the future of mediation efforts and the U.N. observer mission, and the Syria “Action Group” may meet again soon, but not at ministerial level, the source said.

GENEVA (Reuters) – The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) is evacuating some expatriate aid workers from Syria due to the worsening security situation, moving them temporarily to Beirut, a spokesman said on Friday.

Such withdrawals are rarely announced by the independent agency, whose staff have crossed front lines throughout the 16-month-old conflict. The ICRC’s move follows a partial evacuation by U.N. aid workers earlier this week.

GENEVA (Reuters) – United Nations human rights experts called on Kenya on Thursday to investigate fully all cases of violence after 2007 elections and denounced a “climate of impunity” still shielding suspects.

Kenya should “as a matter of urgency, pursue all cases of post-2007 election violence to ensure that the perpetrators are brought to justice and that victims are adequately compensated”, the U.N. Human Rights Committee said.

GENEVA (Reuters) – The United Nations has halved the number of international aid workers deployed in Syria in the past week due to the deteriorating security situation in Damascus, a U.N. source said on Wednesday.

The decision to “relocate” staff deemed non-essential for humanitarian operations was taken by U.N. security officials last Thursday, a day after an explosion killed four members of President Bashar al-Assad’s inner circle in the capital.

GENEVA (Reuters) – Up to 30,000 Syrian refugees may have crossed into Lebanon in the past 48 hours, in a sharp increase of people fleeing fighting in the country, the United Nations refugee agency UNHCR said on Friday.

That would match the number of Syrians who already fled to Lebanon during the 16 months of fighting.

GENEVA (Reuters) – Up to 30,000 Syrian refugees may have crossed into Lebanon in the past 48 hours, in what would be a sharp increase of people fleeing fighting in the country, the United Nations refugee agency UNHCR said on Friday.

Syria’s borders remain open, it said, but the agency was not able to confirm reports Syrian rebels took control of two major crossings on the border with Turkey and the main Abu Kamal post on the border with Iraq on Thursday.

GENEVA, July 16 (Reuters) – Syria is refusing to grant visas
to Western aid workers but the United Nations is trying to
overcome its objections so as to expand its humanitarian
operation in the face of growing needs, a senior U.N. aid
official said on Monday.

The world body currently deploys 60 expatriates in Syria,
where some 1.5 million people are deemed in need of assistance
amid escalating violence, he said.