<\/p>\n
\nApril 28, 2011\n<\/p>\n
\nArab governments and the Arab League must absolve \nPress release\n<\/p>\n \nThe Cairo Institute for Human Rights Studies, the Damascus \nThe member states who called the Special Session, which \nIn turn, the OIC submitted an amended resolution which not \nThe undersigned organizations wholly denounce the OIC’s \nOn April 26, the General Secretariat of the Arab League \nThe undersigned organizations believe that for the sake of \nThe undersigned human rights organizations hope that the \nCairo Institute for Human Rights Studies\n<\/p>\n \nCommittees for the Defense of Democracy Freedom and Human \nDamascus Center for Human Rights Studies\n<\/p>\n \nEgyptian Initiative for Personal Rights<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" \nArab governments and the Arab League must absolve \nThe Cairo Institute for Human Rights Studies, the Damascus
\nthemselves of OIC efforts to shield Syria from accountability<\/strong>\n<\/p>\n
\nCenter for Human Rights Studies, the Committees for the Defense of Democracy
\nFreedom and Human Rights in Syria, and the Egyptian Initiative for Personal
\nRights, strongly condemn the shameful stance taken by the Organization of the
\nIslamic Conference (OIC), <\/span>during the
\npreparatory meeting for the UN Human Rights Council Special Session to be held
\ntomorrow, convened to examine measures and recommendations to be adopted by the
\nCouncil to put an end to the massacres and brutal crackdown by the Syrian
\nauthorities against peaceful popular protests calling for freedom and an end to
\nthe repressive police state in Syria. Thus far, some 500 people have been
\nkilled and thousands injured, detained, or subjected to involuntary
\ndisappearance.\n<\/p>\n
\nincludes the United States, European states, and several Latin American and
\nAfrican states, proposed a resolution upholding the right of Syrians to life,
\nsafety, and personal security, as well as their right to freely express their
\nopinions and exercise their rights to assembly and peaceful protest. The draft
\nresolution strongly condemns the use of lethal force by the Syrian authorities
\nto suppress the peaceful protests and recommends that the UN Office of the High
\nCommissioner of Human Rights send an international fact-finding mission to
\ninvestigate the widespread killing of demonstrators.\n<\/p>\n
\nonly ignores the well-recognized human rights on which the original resolution
\nwas based, but attempts to give immunity to the Syrian authorities from any
\nform of accountability for the massacres, even moral accountability, using the
\noft-heard pretexts of sovereignty and the inviolability of domestic matters.
\nThe OIC resolution contains a general condemnation of what it describes as
\nkillings, attacks on property, and violence, effectively suggesting that the
\nSyrian people, or the demonstrators at the very least, bear the responsibility
\nfor these acts. The OIC rejected the initiative to send an international
\nfact-finding mission unless it is invited by the Syrian government, and
\nproposed instead an internal investigation conducted by what it termed “a
\nnational inquiries commission,” without specifying how any national commission
\nwould be able to conduct its work independently given the enormous pressure and
\nbrutal repression exercised by the Syrian regime against its citizens, as well
\nas the lack of freedom of independent association and expression in the
\ncountry.\n<\/p>\n
\ndeclared stance, which aims to shield the Syrian regime not only from
\naccountability for its crimes, but even from criticism and moral condemnation.
\nWe call on the member states of the Arab League and its General Secretariat to
\ndrop all recommendations submitted by the OIC and publicly reject such
\nproposals, which themselves constitute an additional crime against the Syrian
\npeople and an insult to the blood of martyrs of democratic uprisings in Egypt,
\nTunisia, Libya, Yemen, and Bahrain.\n<\/p>\n
\nexplicitly condemned the use of live ammunition against demonstrators and
\nprotesters in several Arab states, and indeed endorsed the claims of freedom
\nand democracy called for by Arab peoples, saying that such demands should be
\nsupported instead of bullets being fired against those making the claims. The
\nGeneral Secretariat also declared its intention to put the issue of the suppression
\nof demonstrations with live ammunition on the agenda of the next meeting of
\nArab foreign ministers, scheduled for May 8.\n<\/p>\n
\nits credibility, the General Secretariat of the Arab League and the Arab group
\nof states within the UN must not only reject the draft resolution proposed by
\nthe OIC, but must also throw their support behind a campaign launched by NGOs
\nto block Syria’s bid for a seat on the UN Human Rights Council in the vote
\nscheduled for next month. Syria’s inclusion in the Council would not only be a
\nbreach of the norms used in the selection of members of the Council, but at the
\npresent time, it would be tantamount to a reward for the Syrian regime for the
\ncrackdown and massacres committed against its people.\n<\/p>\n
\nEgyptian and Tunisian governments in particular will take leadership in this
\nregard, encouraging Arab states and the General Secretariat of the Arab League
\nto adopt stances more in keeping with the aspirations of the Syrian people and
\nall the region’s peoples for democratic transition and respect for human
\nrights.\n<\/p>\n
\nRights in Syria\n<\/p>\n
\nthemselves of OIC efforts to shield Syria from accountability<\/strong>\n<\/p>\n
\nCenter for Human Rights Studies, the Committees for the Defense of Democracy
\nFreedom and Human Rights in Syria, and the Egyptian Initiative for Personal
\nRights, strongly condemn the shameful stance taken by the Organization of the
\nIslamic Conference (OIC).<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-230","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dchrs.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/230","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dchrs.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dchrs.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dchrs.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dchrs.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=230"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dchrs.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/230\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dchrs.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=230"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dchrs.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=230"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dchrs.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=230"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}