Summary prepared by OHCHR for 12th session UN UPR – SYRIA

United Nations General Assembly
Distr.: General
A/HRC/WG.6/12/SYR/3
25 July 2011
Original: English

Human Rights Council

Working Group on the Universal Periodic Review

Twelfth session

Geneva, 3–14 October 2011

Summary prepared by the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights in accordance with paragraph 15 (c) of the annex to Human Rights Council resolution 5/1 Read more

Support an Independent Kurdish State

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Kurds launch a hunger strike in Ireland

Kurdish Association of Ireland launches a hunger strike in Dublin to protest against the division of Kurdistan and the oppression of Kurds by Turkey, Iran, Syria and Iraq.

The hunger strike will take place on Wednesday 20th July outside of European Union House, Dublin 2.

The hunger strike will mark the 88th anniversary of Lausanne Treaty signed on 24th July 1923 which officially divided Kurdistan between Turkey, Iran, Iraq, and Syria. The Treaty denied the very existence of the Kurds and exposed them to the most horrendous state terror that one nation could ever be subjected to. It rendered Kurds devoid of identity and aimed to wipe them off from the earth. Lausanne Treaty divided Kurdistan in a way that no other nation in the world has been divided; it surrounded it by its enemies from each sides! Read more

Mustafa Ismail continues to speak out in the face of Syrian regime hypocracy

Syrian authorities talk about reform at the same time as depriving Mustafa Ismail of civil rights and seizing his assets.

On 12 July 2011, the lawyer, poet, blogger, writer and democracy activist Mustafa Ismail released a statement that on 10 July 2011 the Public Prosecutor in the city of Kobani implemented the court order of the military prosecutor in Aleppo, and divested him of his civil rights. His money and assets were seized in accordance with the second paragraph of the verdict issued against him in the criminal case no. 790 of 2010, which also contained a prison sentence of two and a half years under Articles 278 and 267 of the Syrian Penal Code, in the first clause. Read more

Call for enquiry into the death of Tahsein Mamo while in prison

Tahsein Mamo disappeared in the Syrian detention system in 2008.  He was arrested along with others in Aleppo on 27 January 2007 and charged with belonging to a secret organisation that was trying to annex part of the State of Syria. He was being held in Sednya Prison, but he failed to appear in the Supreme State Security Court with the other men after the shootings in Sednya Prison that took place on 5 July 2008. These four men were released on 31 May 2011 under the amnesty.

A fellow prisoner told the family that Tahsein had been hit on the scalp by a bullet and was bleeding, and this was brought to the attention of prison staff, but after they took him away he was not seen again. Despite numerous pleas made to the regime, his family have been given no information as to his whereabouts.

Read more

‘Historic meeting’ to plan the future of a free democracy in Syria, said Saleh Mohammed

The Democratic Union Party – PYD reports that their leader, Saleh Mohammed, has confirmed that agreement was reached among factions of the Syrian opposition during a meeting held in Damascus on 25 June 2011, and that a joint statement will be released in the next few days.

Represented at this meeting were eleven Kurdish political parties, the National Democratic Assembly of Parties in Syria, the Leftist Marxist Parties Assembly, and independent representatives and national figures in political, cultural and socio-economic aspects of Syrian life. Strenuous efforts were made by everyone, including PYD, to reach this historic achievement for Syria in general, and also for Kurds in Western Kurdistan and elsewhere in the country.  Read more

Declaration of solidarity with Hatip Dicle

Vision of the Local Coordination Committees (LCC) for a political solution in Syria

Three months have passed since the revolution in Syria sparked. Syrians are showing extraordinary bravery in their demand for freedom with more than one thousand and one hundred revolutionaries martyred, and more than ten thousand who have been detained in these past three months.

The way the regime is currently handling the protests is exactly what caused demonstrations to spread in the first place: Security forces detaining, torturing and killing citizens; The army – instead of being deployed in occupied Syrian land – has been put in confrontation with the people it’s supposed to protect; Playing the invalid card of sectarianism – thinking people will fall for it; And using national media outlets to demean the revolution and incite targeting peaceful protesters. Read more

SKS recent activity

We believe that Bashar al-Assad is instrumental in, and accountable for:

• the bloody onslaught against protesters who come to the streets with their hands empty and their chests bare,
• the killing of men women and children by the gun,
• the detention and severe torture and beatings of those who are still able to walk,
• the kidnapping of the injured from the hospitals
• and stealing of the dead to prevent burial,
• the bodies that lie rotting in the streets because snipers make it too dangerous for others to move them,
• the use of deprivation of food, water, energy, medical help to vulnerable men, women and children

all being methods of systematically invoking fear in those brave people who keep coming to the street, and to warn others not to start. Read more

Time to raise voices against executions in Iran

According to Amnesty International reports, 400 people were executed in 2010. Among those executed there as well women, men, children and adolescents. Executions have increased significantly in recent times because of rebellions against the totalitarian regimes in North Africa and Arab countries. The repression against the civilian population has reached an unacceptable level.

Arrests, torture, rapes, kidnappings and killings have become part of everyday life. Particularly affected is the Kurdish population that has become an easy target for the state. We monitor the evolution of Iran and western Kurdistan with great concern. Read more

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