Geneva, March 19th (RHC) Children are starving to death in besieged Syrian towns and villages according to the International Commission of Inquiry looking into human rights violations in the country.

In its latest report to the UN Human Rights Council, the Commission says there is an overwhelming sense of hopelessness amongst Syrians as the international community remains paralyzed over how to bring the war to an end.

The Commission says a negotiated political solution, must be pursued with renewed vigour both by the parties and by influential states.

The report is calling on States, with influence over the warring parties, to stop the transfer weapons that were being used in the commission of war crimes or crimes against humanity.

Sérgio Pinheiro is the Chair of the Commission of Inquiry on the Syrian Arab Republic.

"Compassion does not and should not suffice. We cannot continue to sit for years in these rooms, writing reports and making speeches lamenting the blood that is running in Syria's streets. A negotiated political solution, which the commission has consistently held to be the only solution to this conflict, must be pursued with renewed vigour both by the parties and by influential states. We have an enormous volume of testimony – over 2700 interviews as well as a wealth of documentary material. We do not lack information on crimes or on perpetrators. What we lack is a means by which to achieve justice and accountability. we have established a list of individuals and entities – military units and security agencies as well as armed groups and their battalions – responsible for violations and crimes we have documented throughout our reports. No one can claim ignorance of what is occurring in Syria. Those that believe in a military solution to the Syrian war – or to the proxy wars being fought inside Syria – are compromising the prospect of a political solution."  

The Commission says over nine million Syrians or a third of the country's population have now fled their homes.