Foreign Affairs committee  Oh, sorry, yes. The Russians were extremely helpful until they pushed to the point that the Syrians said, “We know the Russians have told you they're trying to help us, but in the end it's our country.” So it's a limited effect, and of course, Russia has its own objectives in t

Foreign Affairs committee  The fact is the majority of refugees in neighbouring countries are not in camps. A hundred per cent of those who go to Lebanon are not in camps. They're in communities. For 80% to 90% of those in Jordan, it's the same thing. They have to be registered refugees. The two and a ha

Foreign Affairs committee  Yes.

Foreign Affairs committee  There are currently no sanctions specified in the resolution.

Foreign Affairs committee  It's basically that the Security Council will remain seized of the situation and it will take further actions—

Foreign Affairs committee  —should its recommendations not be followed. So if it has teeth, I would say it's milk teeth rather than wisdom teeth. I think it's something where we need to follow up aggressively with them.

Foreign Affairs committee  No member of the United Nations likes to have a Security Council resolution written up on it, because they see this as impinging on their sovereignty. If you look in past conflicts, Sri Lanka, for example, they always tried to avoid a Security Council resolution at all means beca

Foreign Affairs committee  It's a Kurdish area, and there has been an informal agreement between the Syrian authorities and the Kurds that the Kurds in a sense can have fairly free rein in that part. It is, I would say, compared with other groups, other areas, controlled by opposition elements. I would say

Foreign Affairs committee  We have to hope. I think what we hope.... Let's say the Security Council resolution is not as strong as we would like. The Security Council resolution still requires us to request authorization from the Syrian authorities for any cross-border or cross-line activity, but what we w

Foreign Affairs committee  I'm afraid that's incorrect. At the first Kuwait pledging conference in mid-January 2013, about $1.5 billion in pledges were made. By the end of the calendar year 2013, we had in fact received about $4.5 billion. There were some countries that made pledges that did not fulfill

Foreign Affairs committee  Yes. The No Lost Generation initiative has arisen in an attempt to ensure education for Syrian children, especially Syrian refugee children. Before the conflict, Syria had one of the highest literacy rates and highest school enrolment rates. Our fear is that three years into the

Foreign Affairs committee  I must say coordination is improving. Within the country we have to try to maintain solidarity in facing the Syrian regime because, for example, in the past OCHA has been very critical of the regime, and the regime's response has been to tell our other agencies, “We don't have a

Foreign Affairs committee  We're pushing all the time. You may have seen an incredible photo of people waiting for assistance in Yarmouk camp, a Palestinian camp. We are pushing all the time and we meet resistance all the time. Our colleagues are in constant danger. One of the points of light is that we

Foreign Affairs committee  I think we just cannot stop applying pressure insisting on Syria's compliance with international humanitarian standards and human rights law. As I said, Syria is always very insistent about its sovereignty, but under established practice of international humanitarian law, it has

Foreign Affairs committee  There was a pledging conference that took place on the 15th of January in Kuwait. Almost $2.5 billion was pledged. Since that pledge, Canada has added $150 million to commitments for this year, which makes it one of the top donors for the Syria crisis. At present, a very small p