Human Rights and Justice for All: Demanding Dignity in the United States and Around the World by Carrie Booth Walling

Author:Carrie Booth Walling [Walling, Carrie Booth]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781032189093
Google: VryZzgEACAAJ
Goodreads: 59382899
Publisher: Routledge
Published: 2022-02-17T09:59:16+00:00

The international response to conflict in Syria has been hampered by division among Security Council members. The UN Security Council has consistently failed in its responsibility to protect the Syrian people. Russia alone has vetoed 14 resolutions designed to protect the Syrian population and punish perpetrators of crimes against humanity and war crimes, including a referral of Syria to the International Criminal Court. China has vetoed eight of these resolutions alongside Russia.48 Historically, Russia and the US have been the most frequent users of the Security Council veto but the use of the veto has dramatically increased by Russia and China since 2011, disrupting the Security Council’s ability to consistently exercise R2P. Small and medium-sized states have organized to improve Security Council methods in response, establishing a cross-regional group called Accountability, Coherence and Transparency (ACT). The ACT code of conduct urges members of the Security Council to voluntarily refrain from using the veto in situations involving mass atrocity crimes. As of January 2020, 120 states supported the code of conduct including the permanent Security Council members of France and the United Kingdom.49 France and Mexico have advocated for a similar veto restraint initiative at the ministerial level. With the Security Council blocked, the General Assembly established the International, Impartial and Independent Mechanism (IIIM) to help investigate and prosecute perpetrators of atrocity crimes in Syria.50 Some governments, including Germany, the Netherlands, and Canada, have initiated domestic legal proceedings to prosecute some of Syria’s perpetrators.51 Responding to the failure of Syria and the UN to protect Syrians, Simon Adams, director of the Global Centre for the Responsibility to Protect says,

the Responsibility to Protect is an international norm, but it does not possess independent agency. The failure to end atrocities and protect civilians in Syria is not a failure of R2P, but of the imperfect actors and institutions charged with its implementation.52

Box 4.4 Defending Human Rights: Anas al-Dyab Documents War Crimes and Crimes against Humanity

Anas al-Dyab, a White Helmets volunteer, spent years documenting the horrors of the civil war through his photography at search and rescue sites. A former college student whose studies were interrupted by the war, al-Dyab’s photography captured the terrible destruction of the war while also illustrating the humanity and courage of the people affected by it.56 His heartbreaking and dramatic photographs, which have been published internationally, expose the human cost of war and shine a light on violations of international humanitarian law happening in Syria. One of the worst chemical attacks against civilians in Syria occurred on July 4, 2017 in Idlib Province.57 Al-Dyab took the pictures.

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