Views: Double Standards, the Stances of Arab Human Rights Organizations on the Humanitarian Catastrophe in Syria

Abstract

There can be no doubt that the ongoing crisis in Syria is the worst humanitarian catastrophe of the 21st century. The country has been the site of unprecedented destruction and displacement since the Syrian revolution began in March 2011, with peaceful demonstrations demanding radical political reforms. Over 400,000 people have been killed[1] according to UN statistics; nearly seven million Syrians have been made refugees and another six million are internally displaced. More than thirteen million people, including six million children, are in need of assistance.[2] At the end of 2017, over half of the country’s hospitals, clinics, and primary healthcare centers were either operating only at partial capacity or had been damaged beyond repair.[3] Syria was discussed over 33 times by the United Nations Security Council (UNSC) in 2017; and it is the most frequent topic of discussion in unofficial talks. Since 2012, the UNSC has adopted 23 resolutions wholly or largely related to Syria. Russia has used its veto 13 times to prevent condemnation of the Syrian regime or an investigation by the International Criminal Court (ICC) into war crimes and crimes against humanity in Syria.[4] The United Nations General Assembly (UNGA), where there is no veto, has issued seven resolutions on human rights in Syria. This is extremely rare, as member states are typically reluctant to condemn one another politically in the UNGA. Yet the magnitude of the human rights atrocities committed in the country since 2011 has induced states to speak out in one voice against these violations.[5] As the Syrian government’s wide-scale practices of extrajudicial killing, torture, and repression of peaceful dissidents continues, the UNGA has taken to annually issuing a resolution that strongly condemns the continued use of heavy weapons and aerial bombardments by the Syrian authorities against the Syrian population[6].In July 2012, the state regime under Bashar al-Assad began using aircraft to drop barrel bombs[7] on civilians,[8] the most extensive aerial bombardment of civilians in a civil war. From 2013 to 2016, UN resolutions also came to include sections condemning various militias and armed groups—particularly the Islamic State (ISIS)[9]—for their use of violence and human rights violations. In December 2016, the UNGA, motivated by the failure of the UNSC to refer war crimes and crimes against humanity to the ICC, created the International Impartial and Independent Mechanism (IIIM) to assist in the investigation and prosecution of persons responsible for the gravest crimes under international law committed in the Syria since March 2011.[10] The mandate of the IIIM is “to collect, consolidate, preserve and analyse evidence of violations of international humanitarian law and human rights violations and abuses; and to prepare files in order to facilitate and expedite fair and independent criminal proceedings, in accordance with international law standards, in national, regional or international courts or tribunals that have or may in the future have jurisdiction over these crimes, in accordance with international law.”[11] I will not go into detail regarding the Syria resolutions issued by the UN Human Rights Council (HRC), which now number 25,[12] the first one issued in April 2011.[13] Of course, the Syrian authorities have not allowed the HRC to enter Syrian territory. Citing the report of the commission of inquiry, which found that “gross and systematic violations of human rights have been committed by the Syrian authorities and members of the Syrian military and security forces in different locations in the Syrian Arab Republic since March 2011 that may amount to crimes against humanity,”[14] the Geneva-based HRC formed an independent international commission of inquiry. Headed by Brazilian Paulo Sérgio Pinheiro, the commission has thus far issued more than twelve reports documenting war crimes and crimes against humanity in Syria.[15]