AMNESTY INTERNATIONAL
PUBLIC STATEMENT
18 August 2011
Syria: Human Rights Council must act on crimes against
humanity
As the Human Rights Council prepares to hold a special
session on Syria next Monday, 22 August, Amnesty International urges that UN
body to add its voice to calls for the UN Security Council to refer the
situation in Syria to the International Criminal Court.
Amnesty International believes that, given what it considers
to be a growing body of crimes against humanity, the Human Rights Council
should support a move which would demonstrate to Syria’s leaders that the
international community intends to hold those who have committed such crimes
individually criminally responsible for them. This is particularly crucial
given the Syrian authorities’ ongoing failure to bring an end to such crimes in
response to the international community’s repeated expressions of concern.
More than 1,750 people have been killed since mass protests
began in mid-March, according to a list of names compiled by Amnesty
International. Many of them were reportedly killed by live ammunition used by
the Syrian army and security forces during generally peaceful protests. Syrian
“security” operations have also involved shelling of residential areas.
The Syrian authorities have arrested thousands and held many
incommunicado at unknown locations where torture and other ill-treatment are
reported to be rife. Dozens of people have died in custody, some, it seems, as
a result of torture or other ill-treatment. Some persons detained have been
subjected to enforced disappearance. Many appear to have been detained simply
for expressing their support for protests or their opposition to the regime
orally or in writing. Human rights
defenders are among those arrested and allegedly tortured in detention.
Since the protests began, the Syrian government has denied
access to the country by the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights
(OHCHR), international media and independent human rights organizations, such
as Amnesty International, in an apparent attempt to prevent the full horror of
what is occurring from reaching the outside world.
Amnesty International welcomes proposals for the Human
Rights Council to:
• strongly
condemn the grave human rights violations being committed by the Syrian
authorities;
• call for
the Syrian authorities to stop immediately further violations and to release
those detained arbitrarily
• urge the
Syrian authorities to allow humanitarian actors and international media access
to the country;
• transmit
the findings of an OHCHR fact-finding mission to the Security Council;
• set up an
independent international commission of inquiry to investigate human rights
violations since July 2011.
Amnesty International urges the Human Rights Council, in
addition, to:
• call on
the Security Council to impose an arms embargo on Syria, to freeze the assets
abroad of President Bashar al-Assad and his senior associates, and to refer the
situation in the country to the Prosecutor of the International Criminal Court;
• call on
the Syrian authorities to allow immediate, unfettered and sustained access for
international media and international human rights monitors.
Background
In resolution S-16/1 adopted by the Human Rights Council at
its sixteenth special session on 29 April 2011, the Council already
unequivocally condemned the use of lethal violence against peaceful protesters
by the Syrian authorities and called on the authorities to immediately put an
end to all human rights violations. The Council also requested the Office of
the High Commissioner for Human Rights to urgently dispatch a mission to Syria
to investigate alleged violations of human rights. Syria has denied the OHCHR
mission access to Syria to this day.
The UN Security Council issued a presidential statement on 3
August 2011 expressing “grave concern at the deteriorating situation in Syria”,
condemning “the widespread violations of human rights and the use of force
against civilians by the Syrian authorities” and calling for “an immediate end
to all violence”. However, it has not adopted a legally binding resolution on
Syria since mass protests began in mid-March.