{"id":250,"date":"2011-05-11T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2011-05-11T00:00:00","guid":{"rendered":""},"modified":"-0001-11-30T00:00:00","modified_gmt":"-0001-11-30T00:00:00","slug":"","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dchrs.org\/?p=250","title":{"rendered":"UN: Syria Ends Rights Body Bid, but Not Repression, Security Council Should Press to End Crackdown, Impose Sanctions"},"content":{"rendered":"

\nFor Immediate Release<\/strong>\n<\/p>\n

\n UN: Syria Ends Rights Body
\nBid, but Not Repression <\/strong>\n<\/p>\n

\nSecurity Council Should Press to
\nEnd Crackdown, Impose Sanctions<\/strong>\n<\/p>\n

\n(New York, May 11, 2011) – Syria’s
\nwithdrawal of its candidacy for a seat on the United Nations Human Rights
\nCouncil on May 11, 2011, should be followed by an end to its violent crackdown
\non peaceful protests, Human Rights Watch said today. Human rights groups<\/a>
\nfrom across the region and the world had called on General Assembly members<\/a> to reject Syria’s
\ncandidacy for the rights body. 
\n“This election had become a referendum on Syria’s violent suppression of
\nprotests, and Syria withdrew rather than face a resounding defeat,” said Peggy
\nHicks, global advocacy director at Human Rights Watch. “Syria needs to do more
\nthan keep its head low to avoid further condemnation, though; it needs to
\nchange course and stop the violence.”\n<\/p>\n

\nHuman Rights Watch has reported the
\nuse of live ammunition and other abuses by Syria’s security forces against
\npeaceful protesters since demonstrations began on March 16, with some 700 dead,
\naccording to Syrian human rights groups. The violence has escalated in recent
\nweeks, with more than 100 protesters killed on April 22 and 23 alone, and at
\nleast several thousand detained. The Syrian army has held the southern town of
\nDaraa under siege<\/a>
\nsince April 25, cutting electricity, phone lines, and internet services, and
\npreventing free movement into and out of the city.
\nWith Syria out of the race, Kuwait has announced its bid for a seat on the
\ncouncil. Kuwait joins India, Indonesia, and the Philippines as candidates from
\nthe Asian group. That leaves Asia again with a slate of four candidates for the
\nfour seats open for the region in this year’s election, meaning there will
\neffectively be no choice. The UN General Assembly will hold the elections for the
\nHuman Rights Council on May 20. Last year, all regional groups put forward what
\nare called “clean” slates, with the same number of candidates as the available
\nseats. Under the General Assembly resolution that established the Human Rights
\nCouncil in 2006, council members are expected to “uphold the highest standards”
\nof human rights.
\n“The pre-cooked nature of elections to the Human Rights Council is a major
\nproblem, as Syria’s candidacy shows,” Hicks said. “States collude to avoid any
\ncompetition in Human Rights Council elections, which benefits human rights
\nabusers like Syria.”
\nThe Human Rights Council “unequivocally condemned<\/a>” Syria’s use of lethal violence
\nagainst peaceful protesters on April 29. The council also asked the UN Office
\nof the High Commissioner for Human Rights to investigate ongoing human rights
\nviolations by Syria, and urged Syria to cooperate fully with that
\ninvestigation.
\nThe UN Security Council was briefed on the situation in Syria on April 27, but
\nit took no action. It did not even issue a statement, due in particular to
\nopposition from Russia and China. 
\n“Syria may have avoided facing the music in the UN General Assembly by
\nwithdrawing its candidacy, but it shouldn’t be so lucky in the Security
\nCouncil,” Hicks said. “The Security Council should take action on Syria,
\nincluding imposing travel bans and financial sanctions on those responsible for
\nthe violence.”
\nHuman Rights Watch also called for Kuwait to take steps<\/a> to address human rights
\nconcerns in that country in the context of its candidacy for a Human Rights
\nCouncil seat. Kuwait has only recently begun to make limited reforms to improve
\nthe situation of over 100,000 Bidun, or stateless people, in the country. It
\nhas yet to deliver upon promises made  in September 2010 to reform the
\nimmigration sponsorship system, which leaves over 2 million migrant workers
\nvulnerable to employer abuse, and it has no law to protect the labor rights of
\nthe country’s more than 660,000 domestic workers.\n<\/p>\n

\n For more information on
\nSyria’s candidacy for the Human Rights Council, please visit: <\/strong>www.hrw.org\/no-on-syria<\/a>
\n <\/strong>\n<\/p>\n

\nFor more Human Rights Watch
\nreporting on Syria, please visit:<\/strong> http:\/\/www.hrw.org\/middle-eastn-africa\/syria<\/a>\n<\/p>\n

\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\n UN: Syria Ends Rights Body
\nBid, but Not Repression<\/strong><\/p>\n

Security Council Should Press to End Crackdown, Impose Sanctions –
\n (New York, May 11, 2011) – Syria’s
\n withdrawal of its candidacy for a seat on the United Nations Human Rights
\n Council on May 11, 2011, should be followed by an end to its violent crackdown
\n on peaceful protests, Human Rights Watch said today. Human rights groups<\/a>
\n from across the region and the world had called on General Assembly members<\/a> to reject Syria’s
\n candidacy for the rights body. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-250","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dchrs.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/250","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\/10"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dchrs.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=250"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dchrs.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/250\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dchrs.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=250"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dchrs.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=250"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dchrs.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=250"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}