GENEVA — The United Nations Human Rights Council convened an emergency session Sunday to debate accountability measures for Syria following a landmark report documenting more than 1,700 deaths in sectarian violence along the country's coastal regions. The report, released Friday by UN investigators, found that the transitional government of President Ahmed al-Sharaa had done little to prevent or prosecute attacks targeting Alawite and Christian communities in Latakia and Tartus governorates.

Western delegations, led by France, Germany, and the United Kingdom, introduced a draft resolution calling for the establishment of an independent accountability mechanism with the power to collect evidence for future prosecutions. The proposal stopped short of demanding an international tribunal but laid groundwork for referral to the International Criminal Court if the Syrian government failed to act within 90 days.

Syria's interim foreign minister rejected the resolution as premature interference, arguing that the transitional government was still consolidating control and lacked the institutional capacity to pursue complex prosecutions. Damascus accused unnamed foreign actors of arming spoiler militias responsible for the worst atrocities documented in the report, a claim UN investigators said they could neither confirm nor deny based on current evidence.

Russian and Chinese envoys indicated they would not support any binding resolution, effectively blocking the most punitive measures. Human rights organisations including Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch released coordinated statements Sunday urging the Council to adopt at minimum a monitoring mission with unrestricted access to the coastal provinces where most of the violence occurred.

The session underscored the fragility of Syria's post-Assad transition and the international community's limited leverage over a government that controls major population centres but has not established credible rule of law. Analysts noted that the Council's response would set a precedent for how transitional authorities across the Middle East are held accountable during periods of political reorganisation.