UN rights chief slams Syria 'paralysis' as death toll tops 191,000

More than 191,000 people have died in Syria, United Nations rights chief Navi Pillay said Friday, hitting out at "international paralysis" on the nearly three-and-a-half year conflict.
      
Pillay said the death toll of 191,369, recorded between March 2011 when the war broke out and April this year, was nearly double that given a year ago, and was likely an underestimate.
      
The South African wraps up her six-year stint as UN rights chief at the end of this month, and has criticised world leaders for their lethargy on a wide range of conflicts.
      
After on Thursday lashing out at the UN Security Council for what she called a lack of resolve in ending crises, Pillay said in a statement the dwindling global interest in Syria was "scandalous".
      
"I deeply regret that, given the onset of so many other armed conflicts in this period of global destabilisation, the fighting in Syria and its dreadful impact on millions of civilians has dropped off the international radar," said Pillay.
      
She said "the killers, destroyers and torturers in Syria have been empowered and emboldened by the international paralysis."       

The Syrian conflict erupted in March 2011 when security forces cracked down on protesters, sparking an uprising against President Bashar al-Assad's regime.        

Pillay said there had been "serious allegations that war crimes and crimes against humanity have been committed time and time again with total impunity" but that the deadlocked UN Security Council had failed to refer the case of Syria to the International Criminal Court "where it clearly belongs."       

The UN last gave a death toll on the conflict in July 2013 when...