“I send this message for human rights, for children’s rights, for the right’s of all this world’s humans.”
These words, spoken by 10 year old Yasmeen Karmouz from Eastern Aleppo for Al Jazeera came at the climax of a harrowing and defining week for Syria’s war-torn city. For the numerous abandoned children and struggling civilians, this past week has been as tragic as it has been defining. Human rights horrors have escalated in this region, sparking fierce and urgent debate across international courts. However, the hope for a conclusion to this dark chapter in Syria turned out not to be the resolution sorely needed for the people in Aleppo.
Unfortunately, there is a growing list of human rights abuses inflicted on innocent civilians in Aleppo. These abuses range from aerial bombardment to barrel bombs packed with explosives and metal fragments that a new report by Amnesty USA claims to have been “dropped by government forces of schools, hospitals, mosques and crowded markets”. Human Rights Watch came to similarly despairing findings, stating that indiscriminate attacks from rebel fighters and government orders have led to the death of 383 civilians in Eastern Aleppo in the short time frame from November 15th to December 9th. The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said the violence included airstrikes on the remaining parts of opposition-held Aleppo.
This culmination of terror highlighted the endemic breach of human rights occurring in the region. International courts, one of the main areas of interest for UCL’s Lawyers Without Borders Student Division, have been at the apex of the conflict in Aleppo and are a veritable means of monitoring and stopping human rights abuses. At the beginning of this week, after reports of serious human rights violations were made public, the UN Security Council called for a ceasefire in the region.
Therefore, this week became the UN’s most vocal and critical, with accusations aimed at both sides of the conflict that included threats of war crime and official tribunals. In an attempt to adhere to human rights regulations, the UN’s Security Council set out strict terms for a ceasefire. On Tuesday this week they ordered that the Government of Syria be obliged under international law to provide medical assistance to all sick and wounded people – civilians and fighters alike. Buses were placed in the region in preparation for evacuation. Furthermore, all warring parties were told they were prohibited under international law from conducting attacks that deliberately targeted civilians, that do not distinguish between civilians and combatants, or that cause civilian loss disproportionate to the expected military gain. Anyone who plans, orders, or carries out unlawful attacks with criminal intent, including as a matter of command responsibility, is subject to prosecution for war crimes. In the words of Human Rights Watch: “Violations by one party do not justify violations by another”.
These developments were met with bittersweet elation. The orphans featured in the Al Jazeera video tell the global public of their nightmarish existence in Aleppo and say they hope they are quickly taken away from the dangerous city. However, what should have been a positive development quickly disintegrated. A breakdown of diplomacy within the Security Council and the competing international courts led to a veto of stipulations set out by the Security Council. As the ceasefire collapsed, it became known that civilians were being stopped from exiting the city (United Nations Commission of Inquiry, 14 December) and that terror continued to reign down.
The role of international courts is arguably most critical in times of humanitarian crisis. Organs of the United Nations, such as the Security Council, are a critical body that can deploy diplomacy and justice and advisory opinion to create peace in times of international emergency. However, in the run up to Christmas the global community has witnessed the many complexities and pressures on these courts that lead to bathetic rather than liberating outcomes. Due to the breakdown of speedy and effective diplomacy, many are now calling for an emergency special session of the General Assembly to end the unlawful attacks in Syria that will hopefully enforce stricter international codes of conduct.
by Rosanna Ellul, Advocacy and Outreach Group Member
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