"The United Nations Security Council this week was given a briefing about the situation in Syria by the human-rights commissioner, Navi Pillay. She estimates that since the start of the popular uprising in March 2011, the Syrian security forces have killed up to 5,000 people. A new report published by Human Rights Watch (HRW) on 15 December names over seventy commanders and officials implicated in many of these deaths by giving orders to kill, as well as individuals responsible for unlawful arrests, beatings and torture.....
For them and for others, Navi Pillay’s briefing to the Security Council, and Human Rights Watch’s exposé of abuse and identification of those responsible, should be a wake-up call. The evidence of repression in Syria is beyond dispute. What is needed is plain and urgent: the referral by the UNSC of crimes against humanity committed in Syria to the International Criminal Court (ICC); the stopping of all arms sales to Syria, including by Russia; and the imposition of targeted sanctions against key figures in the Assad regime, to raise the cost to it of continuing violence.
The crisis in Syria is worsening. There is no good reason to obstruct the concerted international action now needed to help end the brutal repression there."
For them and for others, Navi Pillay’s briefing to the Security Council, and Human Rights Watch’s exposé of abuse and identification of those responsible, should be a wake-up call. The evidence of repression in Syria is beyond dispute. What is needed is plain and urgent: the referral by the UNSC of crimes against humanity committed in Syria to the International Criminal Court (ICC); the stopping of all arms sales to Syria, including by Russia; and the imposition of targeted sanctions against key figures in the Assad regime, to raise the cost to it of continuing violence.
The crisis in Syria is worsening. There is no good reason to obstruct the concerted international action now needed to help end the brutal repression there."
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