The Real Red Line for Human Rights Activists

This charter was adopted by all members of the UN, why should it be naive to pressure them into respecting it?

At end of the day, this is what really needs to matter most in the minds, hearts and what goes for soul of human rights and prodemocracy activists all over the world:

that we still live in a world where decision-makers everywhere are still at ease with the use of mass murder as an acceptable instrument of advancing or fending for one’s interests, and where massive human rights violations are still subject to neglect if the perpetrators are powerful enough to “cause trouble” beyond their borders.

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BBC One: UK and the Syrian Refugees

Halla Diyab on BBC One This Week – YouTube.

Bullocks! What cultural shock? Neither British nor Syrian culture is homogenous. There are almost 2.5 million British citizens who believe in the same value system that most Syrian refugees have. They are known as practicing Muslims, and although most of them come from a non-Arab background, there be enough citizens of Arab background, enough Syrian with dual nationality and enough cultural similarities between all practicing Muslims to make most Syrian refugees able to find communities where the cultural shock is manageable for all involved. There is also bound to be a certain social segment among the refugees that will find much comfort in the basic freedoms available to them in British society, and who will seek to maintain cordial human interaction with all around them irrespective of their confessional background. In all cases, and considering that the UK will be admitting a few thousands refugees at most, and that most of them will be busy for years to come trying to make a normal life for themselves in their new country, the possibility for any trouble-making is pretty minimal.

Syrian genocide needs justice

Opinion: Syrian genocide needs justice – CNN.com.

(CNN) — The debate over what is happening inside Syria should now end. A new report by three veteran war crimes prosecutors, released exclusively by CNN and The Guardian, offers what appears to be irrefutable evidence of systemic war crimes by the regime of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad.

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Will America End Syria’s Humanitarian Nightmare?

Former U.S. Ambassador to Thailand and Turkey Morton Abramowitz argues that

“If more Syrians are to be saved we will have to again consider a difficult course of action the administration has always rejected and is not politically popular, using force to insure the delivery of goods to Syrians in desperate circumstances on a continuing basis. If we want to significantly improve the humanitarian equation in any short term time frame this course will be essential. Such a response also offers perhaps another way to enhance the possibility of a political settlement. Whether it will all be seen that way here is another matter.”

Ambassador Abramowitz is right indeed. Humanitarian conditions in Syria are changing from bad to worse on a continuous basis, there is no more room for any further delays if we are to avoid catastrophe.