Human rights abuses in the Syrian Civil War and their facilitators

Introduction

The Syrian civil war, having begun in 2011, has evolved into one of the 21st century’s greatest humanitarian crises. The rise of protests against the Assad regime in 2011’s Arab Spring, has meant that the Syrian governments long history of human rights abuses will be a key factor in this essay’s analysis of the Syrian Civil War’s human rights abuses. One additional factor for this essay to consider will be the rebel forces in Syria and the increased number of human rights infringements occurring. Rebel forces have grown to dominate certain regions of Syria and are committing violations such as extrajudicial killing and torture against civilians and security forces that surrendered.^[1] Another factor which will be assessed is the role of Russia within Syria and what the Putin regime’s role within Syrian conflict has been. The Russian government has been arming the Syrian government therefore their role in abusing human rights will be a key aspect for consideration. In addition to this, the role of DAISH (often referred to as ISIS or ISIL), will be examined in order to determine whether or not their abusive nature is worse than others. ISIS or ISIL will be referred to in this essay as DAISH as that is the Arabic pronunciation of الدولة الإسلامية في العراق والشام‎, or The Islamic State of Iraq and al-Sham.^[2]

The protests were born out of a desire by some Syrian civilians to break free of the Ba’ath government which ultimately lead to the Syrian army firing upon the protestors. Protests grew throughout the nation and the government's initial response to try and contain them failed and resulted in the formation of small separatist groups. Throughout the essay key terms such as sectarianism and human rights will be defined using definitions used in law making or in Global Politics teaching materials as these are approved and commonly used, validating their use in this essay. Sectarianism is defined as: Where religion should not in intrude into non-religious activities^[3], the United Nations define human rights as: inherent to all human beings, regardless of race, sex, nationality, ethnicity, language, religion, or any other status. Human rights include the right to life and liberty, freedom from slavery and torture, freedom of opinion and expression, the right to work and education, and many more. Everyone is entitled to these rights, without discrimination.^[4]

The humanitarian crisis in Syria represents a much broader issue, with ignorance from the West a prominent factor in the cause of these wars – the broader apathy from the West towards human rights infringements is also a concern. While the West and its intergovernmental organisations have observed the human rights abuses, a lack of action has made it a prominent issue to me. In addition to this – my developing interest in human rights enforcement and lack of enforcement has caused me to take on the Syrian Civil War as my case study. The Syrian Civil War acts as the ideal case study, in my opinion, as it best allows me to inspect both a government’s abuse of human rights and the people themselves, acting as rebellions, and how they are abusing human rights. I will ensure my research is valid by backing it up with previous findings by nongovernmental organisations such as Amnesty International and by using work conducted by intergovernmental organisations such as the European Union in order to reach a fair and substantiated conclusion.

Violations by the Assad Regime & the role of Russian support

The Assad regime has been in power since 1970 and in spite of labelling themselves a democratic state, “all key governmental positions including the Presidency, have been controlled by members of the Assad family and the Alawites”^[5]. The Alawites have been living in Syria as a religious minority group and form about 12% of the total population in Syria.^[6] Therefore feelings of discontent and a lack of representation were understandably formed as the government did not represent the majority of its constituents^[7]. To contextualise the road to civil war, between 1963 and 2011 the Syrian government had declared a state of emergency, allowing the government to have “strictly restricted the freedom of movement, expression, and organisation. The single party regime under the hegemony of the Ba’aths and Assads carried out gross human rights abuses.”^[8]

In July of 2012 the Syrian government stated for the first time that it possessed “chemical and biological weapons [that] they will never use … during internal conflicts”^[9] unless facing external intervention. The Russia-Syria alliance is one that other states have warned of^[10], the Russians have maintained a presence within the conflict out of self-interest. The Russians are keen to keep their Tartus military base, hence their involvement to support the Assads^[11]. However, Russia’s role with chemical weapons is one of great responsibility, the Russians were deemed responsible for the removal/destruction of all chemical weapons for the Syrians^[12]. Despite the fact that “Russia, stated that chemical weapons in Syria were under control and the government had transferred chemical weapons to safer areas”^[13]. In 2013 the UN called chemical weapons investigators into the country^[14], meanwhile there was another chemical weapons attack killing hundreds^[15] in contrast to the reports that the Syrians were supposed to have destroyed the weapons. The conflict between the US and Russia deepened because of this, then US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson said, “Russia bore the responsibility of Syria's continued use of chemical weapons after… an attack in Eastern Ghouta... near Damascus.”^[16]

The Russian support provided for Syria is unquestionable including their role with chemical weapons, however, the Assad regime have also carried out their own human rights violations within Syria. In 2011, the Assad regime violated the UDHR, “everyone has the right to freedom of peaceful assembly and association.”^[17] The UN Commissioner for human rights stated that “heavy weapons were used against peaceful protests country-wide”^[18], this act is a crime against humanity according to the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court (ICC). The Syrian government’s crimes “were not only systematic, but also implemented as part of a state policy. The Police units, the Shabbiha militia, the Mukhabarat (Syria's Intelligence)^[19] were all found to be responsible for these attacks. The Assad regime has been responsible for countless deaths through air attacks, shelling of civilian areas, and the banning of humanitarian aid to areas beyond their own control or even through torture within their own prisons^[20]. A United Nations report “stressed that systematic torture exists in all detention centres and prisons in Syria and the government authorities are responsible for these crimes.”^[21] Arguably Western media coverage has been dominated by the actions of DAISH and rebel forces within Syria, however the Syrian government too has been responsible for numerous violations. With the conflict originating from the refusal of the government to listen to their own protestors and taking aim at them, the residual effects of this have been felt throughout the country.

A realist such as Kenneth Waltz would suggest that Russia maintaining their presence in Syria follows the key realist assumption that all states are rational unitary actors^[22]. Russia are acting in order to protect themselves and their future, even if this may put into disrepute other alliances they have previously formed. However, the responsibility the Russians undertook regarding the chemical weapons, could be viewed through Immanuel Kant’s liberalist lens as supporting and helpful^[23]. Showing support for a global issue by getting involved and taking responsibility as a more stable state^[24], can be viewed as a positive act for the sake of international cooperation. Similarly, Joseph Nye would argue that showing support for the Syrians is an act of soft power^[25]. Soft power can be defined as the ability of a country to persuade others to do what it wants without force or coercion^[26]. Nye suggests that the only way states would be able to achieve this would be through having strong relationships built on trust and gestures, such as that of Russia supporting the Assad regime.

The government has helped in the destruction of key human rights however arguable the Russian support has been a facilitator of this. The Russians have been responsible for arming the Syrians as well as taking responsibility for the removal of all chemical weapons. They were clearly lax in their efforts to remove the weapons, perhaps prioritising their allegiance with the Syrians over their responsibilities with the United Nations. This act caused even more violations of human rights and crimes against humanity and had Russia taken their responsibilities sincerely they may have prevented many of these attacks. The initial disregard for human rights was the root cause of the war and in spite of the United Nations actions against them, the Assad regime has continued to violate international law and break human rights agreements that they have signed^[27]. The Russian support throughout this time has most definitely not limited their attacks and instead can be viewed as an aid in their efforts.

A breakdown of non-state actors within Syria

Syria as a state has been divided by the civil war. This is no more evident than the uprising of different (non-state) rebel groups. The different non state actors can be divided by a multitude of different attributes; ‘diverse political, ideological, sectarian, ethnic, and religious attributes’^[28].

Breaking down the non-state actors into three categories can help to separate the different actors by belief and proximity to one another.

• Salafi Jihadists who seek to impose Muslim rule on all states, whilst also attempting to remove the political boundaries established after World War 1. Having broken from al-Qaeda in June 2014, under the leadership of Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, they declared the establishment of a caliphate in Iraq and Syria.^[29] Two examples can be given as Islamic State and Nusra Front.^[30]
• The National Coalition for Syrian Revolution and Opposition Forces established in November 2012. Their general purpose is to give a large section of the rebels one voice whilst they conduct negotiations with the Assad Regime. They aim to force “an end to the tyrannical regime and the establishment of a civil, democratic, and pluralistic state of law that respects the civil rights of all citizens.”^[31]
• Regional actors: the Kurdish and Druze minorities. When the Syrian civil war began, the Kurds were an essential part of the Assad regimes defence. According to John Shoup’s The History of Syria, the Kurds made up an estimated 9% of the Syrian population^[32]. However, as the war progressed and the Kurdish territory was affected by the growing war, Islamic State identified the Kurds as a target, meanwhile the Assad regime failed to protect the Kurds. Therefore, in January 2014 the Kurds declared a “federal democratic system” in the country’s North.^[33] In October 2019 President Trump pulled US troops from the Syria-Turkey border^[34], this has led to the Turkish invasion of previously Kurdish held territory. The Kurds now struggling for presence have turned to the Assad regime for support in an unlikely alliance^[35].
• Southern Syria: Southern Syria remains a lot more fragmented than the North, with no distinctly large group/prominent leader, the South remains several groups who merely maintain the common goal to resist Salafi Jihadist rule.^[36]

Violations by armed opposition (rebel groups)

Firstly, to separate subsections three and four, Violations by Armed Oppositions and Violations by DAISH, the essay must establish the difference between the two. DAISH are one actor within the Syrian crisis and whilst they are an armed opposition they will be classified as a separate actor within Syria due to their public perception in the West^[37]. It has created a divide between themselves and other rebel groups^[38]. Subsection two clarifies the different non-state actors involved in the armed conflict within Syria, helping to separate those who are of ‘diverse political, ideological, sectarian, ethnic, and religious attributes’^[39]. The high-profile nature of DAISH has created a divide between actions by rebel forces and actions by DAISH. Violations by armed oppositions will include all rebels irrespective of size or organisation but will exclude DAISH. Subsection two provides further clarity for this divide, the largest different between DAISH and other non-state actors is the value DAISH place upon Salafi Jihadist views. Their intention to enforce Sharia law is opposed by many rebel groups including those acting within southern Syria where different groups are united simply by their opposition to Sharia Law^[40].

The crisis in Syria initially started with the government oppressing the people as they sought to protest the governments, arguably, tyrannous treatment of the people^[41]. But it quickly turned into both the government and non-state actors committing violations of human rights against the people^[42]. The UN and other international human rights organisations stated that rebels were committing violations such as extrajudicial killing and torture against civilians and security forces that surrendered.^[43] Armed groups are not party to human rights conventions such as those signed by the Syrian government however they must respect humanitarian law often referred to as the “law of war” or the “law of armed conflicts”^[44]. In spite of the “law of war” concept, in modern global politics it has become increasingly hard to separate different rebel groups within armed conflicts. Therefore, the non-state rebel actors are hard to hold accountable without taking blanket action. However modern governments are able to hold other stable governments responsible for their actions. The ICRC (International Committee of the Red Cross) states that: Article 10 states only that the conduct of an insurrectional movement which becomes the new government must be considered an act of that State under international law.^[45] This essentially frees the rebel forces from action as they are not held accountable to the same conventions signed by the Syrian government.

The armed rebel groups, according to reports from Amnesty International, on several occasions in 2014 and 2015, have attacked residential neighbourhoods, hospitals, medical centres, schools and cultural property such as a mosque.^[46] Attacks described as disproportionate and indiscriminate, these same attacks on civilians are regarded as war crimes.^[47] The Armenian Relief society clinic was reportedly attacked in June 2014.^[48] The indiscriminate attack did not kill any citizens however it caused the destruction of a health clinic and day centre a clear violation of the Universal Declaration of human rights (UDHR) ’ 25^th Article. Article 25 states that everyone has the right to a standard of living adequate for the health and well-being of himself and of his family.^[49] A clear violation such as this does not support the UDHR and evidences the great injustice being dealt to the Syrian people through the rebel groups’ violent natures.

The acts of the rebel groups would be viewed as indiscriminate under the jus in bello^[50] principle of war, the idea that discrimination between belligerents and civilians must be clear. The lack of clarity in some of their actions would also have them be unjust in comparison to the just war theory^[51]. The rebel forces may argue that they were right to rebel according to the jus ad bellum^[52] principle, they feel that they have the right intention to work; a last resort as peaceful protests failed and a fair possibility of success. However, a pacifist such as John Ralls^[53] and a realist^[54] would counter this and argue that the just war doctrine isn’t specific enough and relaxed and in theory could justify any war – disagreeing with both the rebels and the followers of the two principles of war. Alexander Wendt (a constructivist^[55]) would say that the doctrine is a good example of constructed beliefs shaping warfare. The difference in beliefs between the Assad regime and the rebels, has caused the conflict and the violations of human rights cannot be justified because of the difference in views. The constructed just war, jus in bello and jus ad bellum do not offer excuses for their actions. Liberalists would be completely against the rebel forces violating human rights as they are keen to formalise aspects of the jus in bello principle such as segregating people in warfare and not attacking civilians (as agreed in the Geneva Convention 1948)^[56].

The rebel groups are acting out of control. They disregard the status of the people as civilians and act indiscriminately. They have violated several of the basic rights declared in the UDHR including articles 25, 26 and 12^[57]. The abuse of these human rights shows that they are one of the key facilitators of human rights abuses within the Syrian Crisis. In the Syrian civil war, the statistics regarding death are constantly rising but also being rejected by both the regime and the rebels both claiming that they are “distorted” and “wrong”; according to the UN High Commission for human rights a report published in January 2014 stated that the death toll stood at 191,369 people^[58]. This has been the cause for the UN High Commission on human rights to stop updating the death toll post 2014 according to a Telegraph article.^[59]

The rebel groups are diminishing in power as the war continues and they seek more soldiers, the governments developing technologies are unrivalled in the region. This and support from Russia have meant that the rebels have had to resort to desperate measures in order to best challenge the Assad regime and in doing so have violently abused civilians’ human rights. Therefore it can be seen that they are a key facilitator of human rights abuses and that within Syria the actions of each actor is causing a butterfly effect of disproportionate human rights abuses.

Violations by DAISH

DAISH or The Islamic State of Iraq and al-Sham^[60], are arguably the most known rebel group in the West. DAISH are Salafi Jihadists who seek to impose Muslim rule on all states, whilst also attempting to remove the political boundaries established after World War 1, creating international Jihad^[61]. Having broken from al-Qaeda in June 2014, under the leadership of Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, they declared the establishment of a caliphate in Iraq and Syria ^[62].

Sharia law is a fundamental component of DAISH and the extent to wish they seek to impose it is a separating factor between DAISH and other rebel groups^[63]. It is therefore essential that an understanding of the DAISH view of Sharia law and how it violates the UDHR is established. The UNCHR stated that DAISH "seeks to subjugate civilians … and dominate every aspect of their lives through terror, indoctrination, and the provision of services to those who obey"^[64]. DAISH have not only taken responsibility for several acts of terror^[65], in which human rights were violated^[66], but reports from the United Nations and its sub-departments have expressed the extent to which DAISH have violated human rights^[67]. Sarah Leah Watson, Director of HRW Middle East and North Africa, said: "Commanders should understand that they may face domestic or international prosecution for the grave rights abuses their forces are committing"^[68]. This came after Human Rights Watch documented three incidents where captives that DAISH had taken, were killed and public floggings breached Article 5 of the UDHR^[69]. Another non-governmental organisation, Amnesty International, has blamed DAISH for ethnic cleansing of Assyrian Christians, Turkmen Shia, Shabak Shia, Yazidis, Kaka'i and Sabean Mandeans, stating that DAISH have "systematically targeted non-Arab and non-Sunni Muslim communities, killing or abducting hundreds"^[70]. Amnesty International’s report details the ethnic cleansing, showing that they violate several key human rights established in the UDHR, specifically Articles 13 and 17^[71].

Whilst these acts break articles in the UDHR, some political thinkers such as Edward Said may instead argue that the UDHR does not account for Islamic beliefs^[72]. Viewing the situation through a cultural relativist lens, they instead would argue that human rights as a whole are not universal^[73]. One cannot blanket human rights onto everyone as human rights do not account for religious beliefs. A cultural relativist may instead argue that human rights should be specific to each state, accounting for their own religious beliefs and the culture of that society^[74]. Therefore, they would counter the idea that DAISH have violated human rights by stating that human rights cannot be universal. However, a liberal thinker such as Niccolo Machiavelli could counter this by suggesting that the only way to enforce laws upon countries would be to have other countries follow the same laws and hold each other accountable^[75]. As discussed in subsection three, liberalists are keen to legalise sections of human rights agreements including the separation of civilians from fighters (Geneva Convention 1948). The fighters within Syria are coming into direct conflict with an international agreement that was based on human rights within Islam. The Cairo declaration on human rights^[76] is based around the limits set by Sharia law, therefore rebel forces such as DAISH should follow these laws but do not – a clear reflection that they feel that they are above the law.

DAISH have committed a wide-ranging number of human rights violations, the public nature of their work has meant that they have become a recognised name and a popular media outlet. Their core beliefs regarding the imposition of Muslim rule and removing of political borders has also been a major factor as to why the terrorist group are known worldwide and represent a more globalised threat than other terrorist groups. DAISH have committed atrocities, their ethnic and religious cleaning of large areas has meant that they alone have been violating human rights on a large scale. Therefore, it can be seen that DAISH are a key abuser of human rights within Syria, their role is similar to the other rebel forces however the publicised nature of their abuse has merely highlighted it more.

Conclusion

In order to come to a conclusion, the essay must compare the different facilitators of human rights abuses to each other, with respect to the fact that all human rights abuses are negative. It can be seen that the Assad regime in Syria has been the primary facilitator of human rights abuses, whilst the Russian support for them has allowed them to manipulate the UN and not obey chemical weapons laws, the Russian support cannot be seen as the primary facilitator. The Russian support has been a sub-factor for the abuses of human rights as the Russians have allowed the Assad regime to act according to their own rules, due to the global power that Russia wield. Rebel forces within Syria have disregarded the status of the people as civilians and have acted indiscriminately. They have violated several of the basic rights declared in the UDHR including articles 25, 26 and 12^[77]. The rebel groups are diminishing in power as the war continues and they seek more soldiers, as well as the government’s technologies being unrivalled in the region. This and support from Russia for the government has meant that the rebels have had to resort to desperate measures in order to best challenge the Assad regime, and, in doing so have violently abused the civilians’ human rights. DAISH too are committing human rights abuses, due to their presence within media they have become a more prominent abuser of human rights however, in reality they are violating human rights to a similar extent as most rebel groups but are just gaining a broader reputation for it.

Ultimately the Assad regime has proven itself as the primary facilitator of human rights abuses, the core reason for the Syrian civil war was a disregard for human rights from the government. The government in its desire to prevail in the civil war has abused human rights continually and has continued to do so, undermining the power demonstrated by the UN and other human rights campaigners in order to achieve their own state interests of winning the civil war. The Assad’s have shown that individually they are the primary facilitators of human rights abuses within Syria, the Russian support provided has been a factor within this. However, without the Russian support the Syrians have continued to violate human rights laws^[78] proving that alone they are capable of facilitating human rights abuses and the Russians are not the primary facilitators.

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Footnotes & references