The General Assembly overwhelmingly supported a resolution condemning the relentless “widespread and systematic” human-rights violations committed by Syrian officials and demanded that the government stop all violence and protect its people. The resolution, though not enforceable, also called on Syria’s president, Bashar al-Assad, to cede office to a vice president and begin negotiations to form a new government.
The vote sent out an “unequivocal message to the world and to Syrian officials that we will not let the Syrian people down,” Peter Wittig, the German ambassador to the UN, told the media after the vote this afternoon. “We call on the Syrian government and Assad to stop the violence immediately.”
The resolution, which was adopted by 137 countries (12 no votes, 17 abstentions), supports the Arab League’s efforts in the last months to end the warfare in Syria. UN officials have estimated that more than 5,400 people, including 300 children, have been killed since protests began in March 2011. The resolution is a symbolic gesture meant to rebuke the Syrian government and to also be used to influence future action on resolving the crisis. One recent proposal, from the Arab League, was to send a peacekeeping mission to Syria, a decision that the Security Council can make. The countries that voted against the resolution were: Belarus, Bolivia, China, Cuba, North Korea, Ecuador, Iran, Nicaragua, Russia, Syria, Venezuela and Zimbabwe.
The General Assembly resolution also condemned the continued violations of “fundamental freedoms by the Syrian authorities,” including the use of force against civilians, arbitrary executions, killing and persecution of protesters, human-rights defenders and journalists, arbitrary detention, enforced disappearances, interference with access to medical treatment, torture, sexual violence and ill treatment, including against children.
Before the vote, Syria’s ambassador to the UN, Bashar Jaafari, called the draft resolution a “biased” document that had nothing to do with his country. He cited recent moves to respond to popular demands, including a Feb. 26 vote on a new constitution.
The UN’s top official, Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, as well as Navi Pillay, the High Commissioner for Human Rights, both spoke forcefully on Syria this week, as the assembly debated the resolution on Monday, which essentially mirrors the resolution that was vetoed in the Security Council on Feb. 4 by Russia and China. Russia promised to do more negotiating in Syria as the government only escalated its attacks, killing up to 300 people since that time.
Ban reiterated today that the Syrian government needs to comply with international humanitarian law and stop the “mounting loss of life” in the country since last March.
On Monday, Pillay told the assembly that “the longer the international community fails to take action, the more the civilian population will suffer from countless atrocities committed against them.”
To UN journalists in New York the same day, Pillay said that the Syrian killings represent crimes against humanity and that she hoped the issue would be taken up by the Security Council, which refers investigations to the International Criminal Court.
On Tuesday, Edward Luck, the secretary-general’s special adviser on the Responsibility to Protect doctrine, which was cited by the UN in Libya to oust the government of Co. Muammar el-Qaddafi, told the UN News Center in an interview that he was deeply concerned that the situation in Syria was becoming “more of a sectarian conflict,” with attacks against certain groups.
“There are signs that the nature of the conflict has changed, and that is very worrisome,” he said, citing reports of fresh attacks in recent days, particularly in the city of Homs.
Additional resources
The UN Revisits Syria, With Sharp Words and Action
For Syria, Only More Questions
The Responsibility to Protect Gets a Checkup
Human Rights Calls for More Action in Syria
Dulcie Leimbach is a co-founder, with Barbara Crossette, of PassBlue. For PassBlue and other publications, Leimbach has reported from New York and overseas from West Africa (Burkina Faso and Mali) and from Europe (Scotland, Sicily, Vienna, Budapest, Kyiv, Armenia, Iceland and The Hague). She has provided commentary on the UN for BBC World Radio, ARD German TV and Radio, NHK’s English channel, Background Briefing with Ian Masters/KPFK Radio in Los Angeles and the Foreign Press Association.
Previously, she was an editor for the Coalition for the UN Convention Against Corruption; from 2008 to 2011, she was the publications director of the United Nations Association of the USA. Before UNA, Leimbach was an editor at The New York Times for more than 20 years, editing and writing for most sections of the paper, including the Magazine, Book Review and Op-Ed. She began her reporting career in small-town papers in San Diego, Calif., and Boulder, Colo., graduating to the Rocky Mountain News in Denver and then working at The Times. Leimbach has been a fellow at the CUNY Graduate Center’s Ralph Bunche Institute for International Studies as well as at Yaddo, the artists’ colony in Saratoga Springs, N.Y.; taught news reporting at Hofstra University; and guest-lectured at the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism and the CUNY Journalism School. She graduated from the University of Colorado and has an M.F.A. in writing from Warren Wilson College in North Carolina. She lives in Brooklyn, N.Y.
