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AGENDA: THE HUMAN RIGHT VIOLATION OF IDPs(INTRNALLY DISPLACED PERSONS) IN SYRIA.
LETTER FROM THE CHAIR, "It is a great honour and privilege to welcome you to the first edition of the S .P.I. T MUN in 2014. MUNning in my humble opinion is a great way to augment ones interpersonal skills, increase awareness of global issues and make memories that will last a lifetime. In a city like Mumbai where MUNs happen almost every other weekend, the organizing team at S .P.I.T has managed to ensure that S.P.I.T MUN stands out, as is evidenced by all the hard work they have put in; most of which happened behind the scenes and will go unappreciated. The Human Rights Council is an integral part of the United Nations, and after replacing the erstwhile human rights commission has made massive progress in addressing and resolving human rights violations globally. I along with my co-chair, and close friend Mohak will be happy to clear any doubts you may have with regards to procedure or anything else, so please feel free to reach out to the executive board or the secretariat for anything that you may need. Ankit Bansal (Chairperson of UNHRC) ankitdbansal@gmail.com
ALL DELEGATES MUST NOTE: The study guide is ONLY for reference and S HOULD NOT be cited in the committee during the MUN. All REUTERS and UN REP ORTS can be cited and referred to. Thank You.
TABLE OF CONTENTS
I.
II.
KEY PLAYERS
RUSSIA IRAN CHINA U.S.A ISRAEL TURKEY
III. IV.
V.
VI.
HUMAN RIGHTS VIOLATION IDPs ATTACKS ON JOURNALISTS ATTACKS ON LOCAL CHRISTIANS USE OF CHEMICAL WEAPONS REFERENCES
KEY PLAYERS:
RUSSIA:
Why it cares: Two main reasons: One has to do with economics; the other with ideology. a) Economics : Russia is one of Syria's biggest arms suppliers. Syrian contracts with the Russian defense industry have likely exceeded $4 billion. b) Ideology : Russia's key policy goal is blocking American efforts to shape the region. Russia doesn't believe revolutions, wars and regime change bring stability and democracy. It often points to the Arab Spring and the U.S.-led war in Iraq as evidence. Russia also doesn't trust U.S. intentions in the region. It believes humanitarian concerns are often used an excuse for pursuing America's own political and economic interests. Why it matters: Russia is a permanent member of the U.N. Security Council. It has the power to veto Security Council resolutions against the Syrian regime and has done so repeatedly over the past two years. So, if the United States and its allies are relying on a U.N. mandate to greenlight a military strike, they may be waiting a long time. IRAN Why it cares:
Iran and Syria are bound by two factors: religion and strategy. a) Religion: Iran is the world's most populous Shiite Muslim nation. The Syrian government is dominated by Alawites, a Shiite offshoot, and the rebels are dominated by Sunnis. b) Strategy : For Iran, Syria is also a strategically key ally. It's Iran's main conduit to the Shiite militia Hezbollah in Lebanon, the proxy through which Iran can threaten Israel with an arsenal of short-range missiles.
CHINA Why it cares: China's relationship with Syria is more nuanced. China has said foreign countries shouldn't meddle in Syria 's internal affairs -- and perhaps for good reason. China has had its own share of international controversies over its policies with Tibet as well as allegations of human rights violations. Why it matters: China is a permanent member of the U.N. Security Council. And like Russia, China has repeatedly blocked sanctions attempts against the Syrian regime -- leading to a perpetual stalemate at the U.N. body to take any serious action on Syria.
U.S.A In the early weeks of the Syrian civil war, the U.S. chose not to respond to apparent abuses of peaceful demonstrators by Syrian security forces. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton referred to Assad as a "reformer" in late March 2011 and said the U.S. believed he would respond appropriately to the demands of his people.[22] As the situation in Syria deteriorated and the government resorted to increasingly desperate measures to crush the protest movement, Washington's patience flagged, and by mid -August 2011, President Obama stated plainly his belief that Assad should step down. The U.S. pushed strongly for the United Nations Security Council to pass a resolution condemning the crackdown and adopting economic sanctions against Syria in late September and early October 2011, and when Russia and the People 's Republic of China wielded their veto power to block the proposal, Ambassador Susan Rice expressed "outrage". Relations have been further strained by Syrian security forces' failure to protect Robert Stephen Ford, the U.S. ambassador to Syria, from being attacked by pro-Assad mobs on at least two occasions, as well as to prevent vandalism of the U.S. embassy and diplomatic property. ISRAEL Hostility between Syria and Israel goes back to the countries creation in the late 1940, driven by Syrias support for the Palestinian resistance against the new Jewish state. On 30 January 2013, war planes were reported to have attacked deep within Syrian territory - an alleged Israeli air force operation. The United States believed the target was a convoy carrying sophisticated antiaircraft weaponry outside Damascus that was going to be given to the Hezbollah Shiite militia in Lebanon, but Syrian authorities denied this.
TURKEY The Syrian civil war began to impact Turkey when at least 3,000 Syrian refugees fled crackdowns by the Syrian Army . NATO allies backed keeping Patriot missiles in Turkey on Wednesday, agreeing with Ankara that threats from the civil war in Syria remained serious.
A Brief Timeline:
February 22, 2011 Inspired by the uprisings in Tunisia and Egypt, 15 teenagers write anti-regime graffiti on the walls of Dara, a small town in southern Syria. They are arrested and thrown into prison. March 25, 2011 Syrian troops fire into a reportedly peaceful demonstration over the teens' February arrests. Several people are killed.
May 18, 2011 The United States imposes sanctions on Syria after a month of violent crackdowns by the Assad regime against protesters. Activists say at least 700 people have been killed. July 31, 2011 Tanks roll into the central city of Hama, launching an attack before the first day of Ramadan that activists say kills 80 people, bringing back memories of the 1982 massacre of 20,000 people in the same city by Assad's father. August 18, 2011 "For the sake of the Syrian people, the time has come for President Assad to step aside," says President Barack Obama. The leaders of Britain, France, and Germany join the United States in calling for Assad to resign. November 12, 2011 The Arab League, which includes Egypt, Saudi Arabia, and 20 other countries, votes to suspendSyria's membership and threatens to impose economic and political sanctions if it doesn't stop the ongoing attacks against protesters. February 4, 2012 International officials condemn the "massacre" in the city of Homs after an estimated 300 people are killed by a barrage of artillery fire from Syrian government forces. Shortly thereafter, China and Russia veto a resolution by the U.N. Security Council backing an Arab League peace plan for Syria. August 21, 2012 President Barack Obama says Assad using chemical weapons would be a "red line" that would "change [his] equation" on Syria. Opposition activists put the death toll in the conflict at 20,000. March 19, 2013 Rebels and the Assad regime accuse each other of using chemical weapons to kill 25 people in the Khan alAssal region north of Aleppo. The White House announces there will be "consequences" if the Syrian government is guilty of the attack. More than 6,000 people are killed in March alone, activists say, making it the bloodiest month since the conflict began. April 25, 2013 The White House says, with "varying degrees of confidence," that it believes the Assad regime "used chemical weapons on a small scale" on March 19. June 13, 2013 The Obama administration announces it will send small arms and ammunition to Syrian rebels. The decision is later debated by Congress over fears that the United States could be arming al Qaeda -linked opposition groups like the Al-Nusra Front. July 25, 2013 The United Nations announces that 100,000 people have been killed and 1.7 million people have been forced to become refugees as a result of the violence. August 21, 2013 Opposition forces claim that hundreds of people are killed in a chemical weapons attack in the Damascus suburb of Ghouta, putting pressure on Obama to act on his "red line" comment. The Syrian government denies using chemical weapons. August 26, 2013 Secretary of State John Kerry says there is enough evidence to "strongly indicate" that the Syrian government had used chemical weapons in Ghouta, calling the attack a "moral obscenity."
2013 September - UN weapons inspectors conclude that chemical weapons were used in an attack on the Ghouta area of Damascus in August that killed about 300 people, but do not explicitly allocate responsibility for the attack.
2013 October - President Assad allows international inspectors to begin destroying Syria's chemical weapons on the basis of a US-Russian agreement. 2013 December - US and Britain suspend "non-lethal" support for rebels in northern Syria after reports that Islamist rebels seize some bases of Western-backed Free Syrian Army.
The execution and torture of children was als o documented by Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch. The violation of childrens rights is als o a common practice among the rebels. Children have been killed as a result of the shelling of residential areas. Some armed groups have recruited children under the age of 18 into their ranks. Most of the serious human rights violations documented by the UN have been committed by the Syrian army and security services as part of military or search operations. In addition to the crimes listed by the UN above, they noted cases of people being burnt alive; destruction of pharmacies and field hospitals (normal hospitals are out of bounds to those wounded by the military); and that the sometimes lethal torture ("broken bones, missing teeth, deep scars and open wounds from electric shocks, and from severe beatings and lashings with electric cables and other implements") was overwhelmingly directed at men and boys. Upon retaking the capital Damascus after the Battle of Damascus (2012), the Syrian government began a campaign of collective punis hment against Sunni suburbs in-and-around the capital which had supported FSA presence in their neighbourhoods. In mid-May, for example, members of a sharia committee in northern Aleppo city arrested and detained several activists who had taken part in a peaceful demonstration and subjected them to physical violence, including beating them on the soles of their feet. Sieges and attacks on food security have become a common occurrence. Since July 2012, militants in northern Aleppo have laid siege to Nubl and Zahra, blocking food, fuel and medical supplies to its residents and government forces inside. Since April, armed groups, including Liw a Al-Tawheed, Jabhat Al-Nusra and Ghoraba Al-Sham, have besieged the predominantly Kurdish town of Afrin. Supplies of food and electricity to Afrin have been blocked. Due to the lack of clean water in the town, there has been a rise in infectious diseases. In April, armed groups imposed a siege on Aleppo central prison, blocking supplies of food and medicine to the prison.
armed opposition forces of unlawful killing; torture and ill-treatment; kidnapping and hostage taking; and the use of children in dangerous non-combat roles.
Sexual Violence: Men and women have been subjected to sexual violence by government forces. Syrian activists claim women were abducted and raped in rebellious parts of the country, possibly using sexual violence as a means of quelling dissent.
Attacks on Journalists:
Except for those hand-picked by the government, journalists have been banned from reporting in Syria. Those who have entered the country regardless have been targeted. Within a month of the protests taking off, at least seven local and international journalists were detained, and at least one of these was beaten.
Attacks on Local Christians: Local Christian minorities are also facing many human rights violations. Christians in Syria are under increasing attack by Muslim rebels -- the same rebels fighting against President Bashar alAssad's regime.
Use of Chemical Weapons: Chemical weapons were likely used in five out of seven attacks investigated by U.N. experts in Syria, where a 2 1/2-year civil war has killed more than 100,000 people, according to the final report of a U.N. inquiry published on Thursday. U.N. investigators said the deadly nerve agent sarin was likely used in four incidents, in one case on a large scale. Hundreds of people are believed to have been killed in an apparent gas attack on rebel-held parts of eastern Damascus that is thought to be the most significant use of chemical weapons since thousands of Kurds were gassed by Saddam Hussein in Halabja 25 years ago.
Reference: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Unit ed_Nations_Human_Rights_Council http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-middle-east-22557347 http://uk.reuters.com/article/2013/11/13/uk -syria-turkey-nato-idUKB RE9A C10220131113 http://www.cbc.ca/news2/interactives/syria-dashboard/ http://www. freedomhouse.org/article/syrian-crisis-case-great er-us-involvement http://abcnews.go.com/International/key-players-syrian-civil-war/story?id=20108422 http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-middle-east-25100122 http://english.alarabiya. net/articles/2012/04/01/204552. html http://www.nytimes.com/2013/06/14/ world/middleeast/white-house-pushes-back-on-billclintons-syria-remarks.html http://www. washingtoninstitute.org/ policy-analysis/view/ who-are-the-foreign-fighters-insyria http://www.globalpost.com/dispatch/news/thomson-reuters/130421/lebanon-border-areamired-syrian-conflict http://www.timesofisrael.com/fierce-battles-in-syria-us-to-raise-aid-t o-rebels/