HUMAN RIGHTS COUNCIL

STUDY GUIDE
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.

THE ORIGIN OF SYRIAN CIVIL WAR

II.

KEY PLAYERS
RUSSIA IRAN CHINA U.S.A ISRAEL TURKEY

III. IV.

A BRIEF TIMELINE THE RESOLUTION OF UNHRC OF HUMAN RIGHTS IN SYRIA

V.

VI.

HUMAN RIGHTS VIOLATION IDPs ATTACKS ON JOURNALISTS ATTACKS ON LOCAL CHRISTIANS USE OF CHEMICAL WEAPONS REFERENCES

Origin of Syrian Civil War:

President Bashar al-Assad's father, who came from a poor Alaw ite family, seized power in a 1970 coup. Hafez al-Assad ruled Syria with a firm hand and was accused of numerous human rights abuses over the years.Bashar Assad presented himself as a reformer when he succeeded his father in 2000. But critics have called any changes largely superfic ial, and Assad's crackdown on protests in March 2011 sparked the current civ il w ar.Support for Bashar Assad has held firm among the Alawite minority, w ho make up about 12 per cent of the country's population. Much of the Christian minority have also backed Assad in the past, preferring his secular rule to an Islamist alternative. The Syrian uprising started as a reaction to the Arab Spring, a series of anti-government protests across the Arab world inspired by the fall of the Tunisian regime in early 2011. But at the root of the conflict was anger over unemployment, decades of dictatorship, corruption and state violence under of the Middle Easts most repressive regimes.

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 resolution of UNHRC on Human Rights in Syria:

A resolution was passed by the Human Rights Council on Human Rights in Syria on 25th September 2013. The summary of the report is as follows: The present report reflects the status of implementation of Human Rights Council resolution 19/22 of 23 March 2012, following the first report of the Secretary-General thereon (A/HRC/20/37), which covered the period up until 11 May 2012. The present report contains information on relevant developments up until 20 July 2012, a summary of the information submitted by the Government of the Syrian Arab Republic in notes verbales addressed to the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights during the reporting period,as well as information on measures and actions taken by relevant international stakeholders. The ceasefire that came into effect on 12 April 2012 held for several days. From 16 April until early May 2012, the cessation of armed violence was not fully respected, although a general reduction in violence was reported, including in the use of heavy weaponry. The presence of observers of the United Nations Supervision Mission in the Syrian Arab Republic in some areas appeared to have a calming effect. Since 10 May, the situation has deteriorated with a surge in the use of improvised explosive devises. At the same time, there were reports of intermittent fighting between the parties and the use of heavy weapons by Government forces. Late in May, conditions further deteriorated, with a rise in attacks by Government forces on population centres using heavy weapons and mechanized infantry as part of a campaign to clear anti-Government armed groups. These attacks were accompanied by an increase in attacks by anti-Government armed groups on Government security forces, as well as Government and civilian infrastructure, using small arms, improvised explosive devices and rocket-propelled grenades. The continuous fighting between the parties, the use of heavy weapons by the Government and the increase in the use of improvised explosive devises resulted in heavy civilian casualties and mass displacement of civilians inside and outside the country. The full resolution can be found at : http://daccess-ddsny.un.org/doc/UNDOC/GEN/G12/172/59/PDF/G1217259.pdf?OpenElement

Human Rights Violation:

Pro-reform demonstrations in Syria developed into mass protests in the spring of 2011 after security forces used grossly excessive force against people calling for the release of children who had been detained. More than 10,000 people reportedly died during or in connection w ith the protests and during funerals of demonstrators. Most of those killed w ere apparently shot by members of the security forces, including snipers. Tanks were used in military operations in civilian residential areas. Some members of the security forces were also killed, some allegedly for refusing to fire on protesters and others in attacks by defecting soldiers and other individuals who joined in opposition to the government. According to the UN, Syrian armed and security forces have been responsible for: unlawful killing, including of children (mostly boys), medical personnel and hospital patients ("In some particularly grave instances, entire families were executed in their homes"); torture, including of children (mostly boys, sometimes to death) and hospital patients, and including sexual and psychological torture; arbitrary arrest "on a massiv e scale"; deployment of tanks and helicopter gunships in densely populated areas; heavy and indiscriminate shelling of civilian areas; collectiv e punishment; enforced dis appearances; widescale and systematic destruction and looting of property; the systematic denial, in some areas, of food and water; and the prevention of medical treatment, including to children.

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.

Internally Displaced Persons(IDP s):

There is no legal definition as there is for a refugee. However, a United Nations report, Guiding Principles on Internal Displacement uses the definition: internally displaced persons (also known as DPRE in many civil and military organizations which assist) are persons or groups of persons who have been forced or obliged to flee or to leave their homes or places of habitual residence, in partic ular as a result of or in order to avoid the effects of armed conflict, situations of generaliz ed violence, violations of human rights or natural or human-made disasters, and who have not crossed an internationally recogniz ed State border.

Referral to International Criminal Court:

United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights Navi Pillay and others have called for Syria to be referred to the International Criminal Court; how ever, it would be difficult for this to take place w ith w ithin the foreseeable future because Syria is not a party to the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court, meaning the ICC has no jurisdiction there (referral could alternativ ely happen via the Security Council, but Russia and China w ould block).

Armed Opposition Force :

The UN accused the

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.

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