17th Special Session of the Human Rights
Council
Situation of Human Rights in the Syrian Arab Republic
22 August 2011
Delivered by: Radwan Ziadeh
Director of Damascus Center for Human Rights Studies
(DCHRS)
Thank you Madam
President,
Four months ago we had the same meeting we have today, on
the grave human rights abuses committed in my country Syria. It is obvious that
since that date, the situation got gravely worse , the number of the people who
died has reached 2500 (it was 700 in last April), thousands have been
killed during protests or even funerals most often by snipers, hundreds also died as a result of
torture while detained . The ongoing and systematic use of force and violence
against civilians, the dire humanitarian situation in some targeted areas, and
the blackout on the human rights violations committed by the Syrian
authorities, as the latter continue to refuse territorial access to independent
monitors including the UNHCHR mission of inquiry mandated by your respectful
body leave Syrians in unprecedented
distress. Today Syrians are looking for
this Council to unequivocally urge Syria to put an end for a regime clear
shoot-to-kill policy:.
Since the uprising broke out, most of gross human rights
violations and crimes against protesters and more generally civilians have been
perpetrated and coordinated mainly by the Syrian Security Forces which are
ultimately under the control of president Bashar al-Asad. Arbitrary arrests and
detentions of civilians, torture and ill-treatments at the time of arrest and
in front of the family of the arrested, shooting of members in the family
without any warning,? and even several cases of rapes are amongst crimes
documented as perpetrated against civilians including those who never
participated in protests. Violence and crimes against civilians are also
perpetrated by “Shabiha” ( thugs), armed groups who have been seen recurrently
attacking demonstrators, raiding homes, etc. There is no doubt at all about the
connivance of these armed groups with the Security forces.
Moreover, the national army has been involved since the
early beginning of the repression in harsh military operations using heavy
artillery by tanks, helicopters
etc. and besieging entire cities. These
operations also aim at to spreading the fear among the residents. Populations
in these besieged cities are facing deteriorating humanitarian and sanitarian
conditions, in addition to the rampant risks of being killed or arrested. In
these cities, The whole population is
punished, electricity ,water and communication means are regularly cut for long
period of time up to two weeks and sometimes more, as it has happened in Daraa
in April, after in Homs and later on in Hama , Der elzore and Latakia over the
last three weeks.
Such acts have been perpetrated with impunity. None of those
responsible have been taken accountable.
Madam President,
I will not talk more about these tactics which became a
state policy of al-Asad regime today since the report of High commission of
Human rights documented all these systematic and widespread human rights
abuses, but I want to mention only one example :
Maan Odat is an engineer and activist from Daraa, the flash
point of the protest against Bashar al-Asad, he is 43 years old, well respected
among his friends and the people of his city, he has been beaten many times
during his participation in the demonstrations, and detained twice where he was
under sever torture left a lot of signs on his body, but he never give up, he was among the
emerging leaders today in Syria who believe that the freedom is taken not
given, he was participating in a funeral of one of his friends who killed by
the Syrian security forces, inside the cemetery the security start shooting the
people to spread the mourners who were only 50, they stat chanting with long
live of the martus who just burn him, a
sniper suddenly shot Maan in his head, he fallen and his life ended, a security
officer started opening fire on the people who trying to help Maan, other six
have been died
A tragedy we lived everyday in Syria, everyone from these
fallen heroes has family, everyone has love for his country, everyone has a
dream to see his country a free and democratic, everyone has one demand from
the international community to enforce al-Asad to stop the killings.
Finally I would like to end my testimony with these two
specific recommendations:
The
Human Rights Council member states should recommend the UN Security Council to
refer the situation in Syria to the prosecutor of the International Criminal
Court for international crimes committed by the Syrian government against its
citizens. Leadership and impartiality must be strongly demonstrated with
regards to Syria as it was in the case of Libya.
Ensure the implementation of the recent resolution on Syria,
particularly concerning the dispatching of an independent commission to hold
investigation into the crimes committed by the Syrian government in recent
months.