Kurdish Human Rights Project – Impact Report

Kurdish Human Rights Project – Impact Report available at KHRP Impact Report

SYRIA [extract]

Estimated Kurdish population:
• 1.7 million
• CAT – ratified, 2004
• ICERD – ratified, 1969
• ICCPR – ratified, 1969
• ICESCR – ratified, 1969
• CRC – ratified 1993 (with reservations)
• CEDAW – acceded 2003

Freedom of expression, assembly & association

In 2009, the arrest and incommunicado detention of Kurds peacefully attempting to promote Kurdish culture, was an ongoing concern. So too were the continued violations of the rights to free expression and association against political activists. Political activity outside of the Ba’ath Party remains illegal and the security forces continued to use their broad powers of arrest and detention against those expressing dissenting views.

In March, 26 Kurds were arbitrarily detained after participating in a silent protest in al-Jazeera. They had gathered to dispute Decree 49, which introduced new restrictions on the rights of Syrian Kurds to build, buy, rent and sell property. In June, Jakarkhon Sheikhon Ali, a senior member of the Kurdish Democratic Party, was detained; his whereabouts withheld from his family. In December, Kurdish lawyer Mustafa Ismail, who had been writing for foreign websites and giving telephone interviews on Kurdish human rights issues, was too arrested and held incommunicado.

Political & judicial systems

The Supreme State Security Court (SSSC) and military and civilian courts, continued to use several loosely-defined articles in the Syrian Penal Code to sentence peaceful activists on national security grounds. In November, a Damascus court sentenced Sheikhu Mohammad, Sa’id ‘Omar and Mustafa Jum’ah to three-year prison terms for ‘weakening nationalist sentiment’ and ‘inciting sectarian or racial strife or provoking conflict’, after they were found distributing a newspaper critical of Syria’s discrimination against Kurds.

Security forces and courts also used articles in the Syrian Penal Code — outlawing membership of political or social organisations without government permission — to crack down on Kurdish political parties and leaders. In May, Meshaal Tammo, the spokesperson of an unauthorised political party, received a three-and-a-half year prison sentence for ‘weakening national sentiment’ and ‘broadcasting false or exaggerated news. None of Tammo’s defence witnesses were able to attend the trial.

KHRP was also increasingly concerned by the arbitrary detention of Kurds who were forcibly returned to Syria. In September, Khaled Kenjo was held incommunicado and charged with “spreading ‘false’ news abroad” under Article 287 of the Syrian Penal code after his failed appeal for political asylum in Germany. Similarly, Berzani Karro, forcibly returned from Cyprus to Syria in June, was arrested at Damascus Airport, held incommunicado and reportedly tortured.

Non-citizenship & discrimination in Syrian Republic

Syria is an authoritarian single-party state, which officially identifies itself as an ‘Arab Republic’ and has failed to incorporate minority identities into its framework.

As a result, the Kurdish population — Syria’s largest ethnic minority — has long been subject to discriminatory and repressive legislation. The census in 1962 stripped 120,000 Syrian-born Kurds’ citizenship, rendering them and their children, grandchildren and future generations officially stateless.

In addition, expressions of Kurdish identity such as during Newroz (the Kurdish New Year), are often prohibited, as remains the use of Kurdish children’s names and Kurdish language in schools.

Death of Kurdish soldiers

Kurdish soldiers continued to die in mysterious circumstances while performing mandatory military service. This has been a long-running issue in Syria, with at least 36 Kurdish conscripts dying in unexplained circumstances in the last five years. Despite claims by authorities that the deaths were either suicides or accidents, many human rights activists and victims’ families demanded investigations to determine whether or not they were deliberately killed.

Torture & ill-treatment

In July, the Syrian Arab Republic submitted its first periodic report on its implementation of the UN Convention Against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment (CAT) to the Committee against Torture. Contrary to its initial submissions, confessions extracted under torture in Syrian prisons remained commonplace in 2009.

That same month, Rojin Jumaa Rammo, a member of a woman’s organisation was arrested in Kobani. She was tortured in prison and subsequently admitted to Al- Kindi hospital under a different name. The following month, sisters Esma Murad Samî and Eyhan Murad Samî, were arrested in Al-Hasakah and were reportedly tortured and forced to collaborate with the security forces against fellow Kurds.

As has been repeatedly highlighted by KHRP’s urgent action appeals to various UN bodies, Syrian Kurds are among those most at risk of torture and ill-treatment. Yet since Syrian legislation fails to criminalise the offence of torture and given the failure of authorities to properly enforce legislation to prevent or punish its use, allegations of torture and efforts of Syrian Kurds to seek redress where torture is known to have occurred, amount to little.

(End)

© Kurdish Human Rights Project (UK)