U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said Monday that resolutions issued by the Security Council "are only meaningful if they are effectively implemented," while reiterating that Syrians in the besieged area of eastern Ghouta "cannot wait" for humanitarian aid.
The council on Saturday demanded a nationwide cease-fire in Syria for 30 days, while calling for a lifting of sieges and allowing access for medical and rescue workers.
"I expect the resolution to be immediately implemented and sustained, particularly to ensure the immediate, safe, unimpeded and sustained delivery of humanitarian aid and services, the evacuation of the critically sick and the wounded, and the alleviation of the suffering of the Syrian people," Guterres said.
But violence has not halted, with the U.N. and a Syrian war monitor reporting fresh airstrikes Monday in eastern Ghouta, a rebel-held suburb of Damascus where more than 500 people have been killed during the past week.
WATCH: New Fighting Breaks Out in Syria, Despite UN Cease-fire
"We insist on its full implementation without delay, however we have every reason to remain cautious as airstrikes on eastern Ghouta continue this morning," U.N. human rights chief Zeid Ra-ad Al Hussein said.
Zeid also cast a level of doubt on the prospects for the resolution, saying it "must also be viewed against a backdrop of seven years of failure to stop the violence, seven years of unremitting and frightful mass killing."
Various efforts to bring an end to the war in Syria, which began in 2011 as peaceful protests against President Bashar al-Assad before turning into a multi-party conflict, have been largely unsuccessful, including several attempts at U.N.-brokered peace talks.
Throughout the conflict, there have also been several proposals at the Security Council to hold human rights violators accountable, but those resolutions have been blocked by Russia and China utilizing their veto power.
The five permanent members of the council, which also include Britain, France and the United States, can veto any resolution.
During his opening statement Monday at the start of the U.N. Human Rights Council's annual session, Zeid spoke generally about a failure of the council to address suffering in the world, saying the permanent members are responsible "for the continuation of so much pain."He specifically faulted China, Russia and the United States for their use of vetoes on a variety of issues.
"So long as the veto is used by them to block any unity of action when it is needed the most, when it could reduce the extreme suffering of innocent people, then it is they the permanent members who must answer before the victims," Zeid said.
European Union foreign policy chief Federica Mogherini also expressed her concern and that of European foreign ministers about an increase in violence across Syria, "from different actors, obviously first and foremost by the regime and its supporters."
Read More UN Chief Expects Implementation of Syria Cease-Fire : http://ift.tt/2sV48cx
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