THREAD: today, Office of the UN Secretary-General released a summary of the #BoardOfInquiry (BOI) investigation into 7 attacks in NW #Syria against facilities on the UN deconfliction list and other UN-supported facilities: http://un.org/sg/sites/www.un.org.sg/files/atoms/files/NWS_BOI_Summary_06_April_2020.pdf 1/7

The #Syria deconfliction list shared information & location of humanitarian objects with parties to the conflict "to remove obstacles to humanitarian action and avoid potential hazards for humanitarian personnel." Deconfliction was meant to facilitate compliance with #IHL 2/7

The summary says "plausible" or "highly probable" that 5 of the attacks are "attributable to the Government of Syria and/or its allies", 1 attributable to HTS. No specific mention of Russia in attribution sections; others have found differently ↓ 3/7 http://nytimes.com/2019/10/13/world/middleeast/russia-bombing-syrian-hospitals.html

Unsurprisingly, the Assad government of #Syria did not cooperate with the Board of Inquiry. According to the summary, "a number of Member States" were "in a position to provide crucial information" had promised cooperation. Only 4 Member States gave limited info in the end 4/7

As predicted, the recommendations provide more of a review of the functions of the deconfliction mechanism, rather than an assessment of parties that chose to violate IHL and disregard deconfliction. There are no recommendations related to accountability or victims ↓ 5/7

This conclusion is very troubling: powerful States are well aware of #IHL obligations. No matter how deconfliction was interpreted, indiscriminate bombing of civilian objects is ALWAYS a war crime. If BOI found this was unclear for warring parties, it should have reported so. 6/7

Summary does not once mention accountability as a way to prevent violations; ignores broader context that these actors show brazen disregard for intl law, no matter the "mechanism". A missed opportunity for UNSG to finally engage on accountability for war crimes #EndImpunity 7/7