<\/p>\n
\nPUBLIC STATEMENT\n<\/p>\n
\n28 April 2011\n<\/p>\n
\nTHE SYRIAN ARAB REPUBLIC: A CRISIS THAT DEMANDS ACTION BY \nAmnesty International has submitted the following statement \n <\/span>For six weeks \n <\/span>Amnesty \n <\/span>Many of those \n <\/span>The most \n <\/span>Up to a third \n <\/span>The security \n <\/span>The Syrian \n <\/span> <\/span>Amnesty International has informed the \n <\/span>The lack of \n <\/span>The large \nAmnesty International urges the Human Rights Council to:\n<\/p>\n \nDemand that the Syrian authorities:\n<\/p>\n \nCease all repression of peaceful protesters, including \nTake steps to ensure full accountability for the human \nInvite visits by and facilitate prompt access to relevant UN \nRequest an urgent visit by representatives of the UN High \nResolve to keep the human rights situation in Syria under \nTransmit the report of its sixteenth special session on the \nAmnesty International notes that there are situations of \nTHE SYRIAN ARAB REPUBLIC: A CRISIS THAT DEMANDS ACTION BY \nAmnesty International has submitted the following statement
\nTHE HUMAN RIGHTS COUNCIL<\/strong>\n<\/p>\n
\nto the sixteenth special session of the UN Human Rights Council on the human
\nrights situation in the Syrian Arab Republic.\n<\/p>\n
\nthe Syrian government has been violently repressing pro-democracy protests that
\nhave been taking place throughout the country. This follows a long history of
\nrepression which has seen the arbitrary arrest, detention and imprisonment of
\npeaceful government critics and advocates of reform, including for Kurdish
\nminority rights, torture and other ill-treatment of detainees and prisoners on
\na wide-spread and systematic scale, extrajudicial executions and enforced
\ndisappearances. All these human rights violations are being committed with
\nimpunity.\n<\/p>\n
\nInternational has received to date the names of more than 450 people reported
\nto have been killed by Syrian government forces since the protests began in
\nmid-March. Hundreds have been injured and hundreds more detained; many are held
\nin incommunicado detention at undisclosed locations and are at high risk of
\ntorture and other ill-treatment. Amnesty International has received harrowing
\nfirst-hand testimony of torture and other ill-treatment that has been meted out
\non individuals, including children, detained during these weeks – including
\nsevere beatings with sticks, rifle-butts and cables, electrocution and sexual
\nassault.\n<\/p>\n
\nkilled and injured are reported by eye-witnesses and others to have been shot
\nby security forces, including the army and paramilitaries, using live
\nammunition firing into crowds of protesters and mourners attending funerals of
\npeople previously killed by government forces. Snipers have also shot and
\nkilled people in the streets and in their homes and have targeted medical
\nworkers and other people trying to help the wounded. <\/span>\n<\/p>\n
\nintense repression to date occurred on 22-24 April. More than 120 people were
\nkilled during “Great Friday” protests called for 22 April; some as a result of
\narmy shelling of residential areas in the southern city of Dera’a using tanks.
\nThis use of artillery against civilian residential areas indicates that the
\nSyrian government may be determined to quell the popular protests using any
\nmeans irrespective of their legality and compliance with international human
\nrights law.\n<\/p>\n
\nof the killings have occurred in Dera’a, where the first fatalities occurred on
\n18 March 2011. Security forces opened fire on local people who were protesting
\nagainst the arrest and detention of youths alleged to have written political
\ngraffiti on walls. Four protestors were killed and at least two more deaths
\noccurred in the following two days. At least seven other people were killed
\nwhen the army and plain-clothed security agents subsequently raided the ‘Omari
\nmosque where scores of people were staging a sit-in protest. Those killed
\nincluded a medical doctor and two women providing water to the protestors.\n<\/p>\n
\nforces have also killed protestors in more than a dozen other cities and towns,
\nincluding Izra’, as-Sanamayn, Latakia, Banias, Homs, Hama and Damascus.\n<\/p>\n
\ngovernment and the Syrian state news agency SANA have attributed many of the
\nkillings to “terrorist” and “fundamentalist” armed gangs who, they say, have
\nbeen attacking the security forces and protesters. However, in the overwhelming
\nmajority of cases when casualties have occurred there has been clear evidence
\nthat killings were committed by the government’s own security forces who were
\npresent and were seen to be shooting at demonstrators and participants in
\nfuneral processions. In some cases, unidentified gunmen have been seen shooting
\nin and around the streets of urban areas such as Latakia, Dera’a and Banias,
\nbut their actions and movement suggest that they are operating in conjunction
\nwith government security forces. The Syrian government says that at least 26
\nmembers of the security forces have been killed, but Amnesty International has
\nnot been able to independently verify this information or ascertain the
\ncircumstances of such deaths, if they have occurred. Nor is Amnesty
\nInternational currently able to verify reports that some soldiers have been
\nsummarily executed on the orders of their commanders for refusing to open fire
\non protesters.\n<\/p>\n
\nSyrian authorities of its wish to urgently visit the country in order to
\ninvestigate alleged human rights violations at first hand but, to date, has
\nreceived no response. The Syrian authorities maintain tight curbs on access to
\ninformation and freedom of expression with the result that independent
\ninvestigation and verification of human rights violations is made extremely
\ndifficult.\n<\/p>\n
\nindependent access to Syria to investigate the killings, including of members
\nof the security forces, underlines the need for the United Nations to take
\naction. On 31 March 2011, according to the Syrian state news agency SANA,
\nPresident Bashar al-Assad directed the establishment of a committee to “launch
\nimmediate investigations into all the incidents which claimed the lives of a
\nnumber of civilians and military personnel in Dera’a and Latakia”. However,
\ngiven the repeated failures over the years of the Syrian authorities to conduct
\nindependent and thorough investigations into numerous human rights violations,
\nthe limited scope of the announced investigation and the fact that the Syrian
\nauthorities have been blaming “armed gangs” for the violence, Amnesty
\nInternational considers it highly unlikely that the announced investigation or
\nsimilar investigations established by the Syrian authorities will be
\nsufficiently independent, objective, thorough and robust to meet international
\nstandards. <\/span>\n<\/p>\n
\nnumber of detentions accompanying the violent repression, most of which appear
\nto be arbitrary in nature, also contrasts with statements of the Syrian
\nauthorities. Syrian President Bashar al-Assad pledged for a second time on 15
\nApril to release all protest-related detainees, except those accused of
\ncommitting crimes “against the nation and the citizens”, but hundreds of
\nprotestors are believed still to be held and to be at risk of torture or other
\nill-treatment. Indeed, new reports of torture and other ill-treatment are now
\nbeing received – methods used reportedly include beatings with sticks and
\ncables, electric shocks and sexual abuse.\n<\/p>\n
\nunlawful killings and other excessive use of force, arbitrary arrests and
\ndetentions, torture and other ill-treatment;\n<\/p>\n
\nrights violations that have been committed in recent weeks and are ongoing,
\nincluding by undertaking independent and impartial investigations and by
\nbringing to justice those responsible for unlawful killings, torture and other
\nhuman rights violations in fair trials and without recourse to the death
\npenalty;\n<\/p>\n
\nSpecial Procedures in order to carry out or assist with direct investigation of
\nthe hundreds of killings of protestors and other serious human rights
\nviolations that have occurred, the excessive use of force, reports of
\nextra-judicial executions of members of the security forces and others,
\nwide-spread arbitrary detention, torture, strict controls on freedom of
\nexpression and movement;\n<\/p>\n
\nCommissioner for Human Rights;\n<\/p>\n
\nconstant review and to establish mechanisms to support this, including by
\nreporting regularly to the Human Rights Council and the General Assembly;\n<\/p>\n
\nhuman rights situation in the Syrian Arab Republic to the General Assembly
\nprior to the elections for the Human Rights Council scheduled for 20 May 2011.\n<\/p>\n
\nhuman rights violations of comparable severity in Bahrain and Yemen, and the
\norganisation urges the Human Rights Council to convene in special session
\nwithout delay to address those situations.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
\nTHE HUMAN RIGHTS COUNCIL<\/strong>\n<\/p>\n
\nto the sixteenth special session of the UN Human Rights Council on the human
\nrights situation in the Syrian Arab Republic.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-231","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dchrs.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/231","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\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dchrs.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=231"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dchrs.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/231\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dchrs.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=231"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dchrs.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=231"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dchrs.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=231"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}