LIBYAN AND SYRIAN CONFLICTS: A QUESTION

MARK ON PRINCIPLES OF HUMAN RIGHTS

(Submission of project for B.com L.L.B (H))

Name-Sakshi Athwani

Enrollment No-A3221609069

Batch-2009-2014

Amity law school

Amity Law School

Amity Law School

Amity University

CERTIFICATE

This is certified that the project entitled “LIBYAN AND SYRIAN CONFLICTS: A

QUESTION MARK ON PRINCIPLES OF HUMAN RIGHTS” is the original and bonafide work of

Sakshi Athwani carried out under my personal guidance and supervision. I approve its

submission.

Date-30/09/13 Faculty Name – Ms. Ritika Behl

Amity law School

Amity University

ACKNOWLEDGEMENT

It is only by the grace of god that I have been able to accomplish this arduous task. I feel my

duty to acknowledge my gratitude to those, who have been associated with this work whether

covertly or overtly. At this point I must admit the fact that the present work is an arduous

work and I have taken the aid and advice of many learned people.

First of all I am extremely thankful to my Human Rights teacher Ms. Ritika Behl for her

constant encouragement, help, co-operation and inspiration extended to me in the course of

present study.

Last but not the least in order to give ventilation to my pious feelings. I am thankful to all my

well-wishers who always explicitly or implicitly extended their love and affection.

INDEX

1. SYRIAN CONFLICTS

2. LIBYAN CONFLICTS

3. CONCLUSION

4. BIBLIOGRAPHY

SYRIAN CONFLICTS

Human rights violations during the Syrian civil war

Human rights violations during the Syrian civil war have been numerous and serious. In June

2012 Amnesty International reported the majority had been committed by government forces,

though the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Navi Pillay has said that both sides

appear to have committed war crimes, with UN investigations having concluded that the

government's abuses are the greatest in both gravity and scale.

Legal framework

Four of the international instruments ratified by Syria and which apply to the events

described in the present report are particularly relevant: the International Covenant on Civil

and Political Rights (ICCPR); the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural

Rights; the Convention on the Rights of the Child; and the UN Convention Against Torture.

Syria is not a party to the International Convention for the Protection of All Persons from

Enforced Disappearance, although it is bound by the provisions of the ICCPR that also

prohibit enforced disappearances.

Four key security agencies have overseen the repression in Syria: the General Security

Directorate, the Political Security Branch, the Military Intelligence Branch, and the Air Force

Intelligence Branch. All three corps of the Syrian army have been deployed in a supporting

role to the security forces; the civilian police have been involved in crowd control. The

shabiha, led by the security forces, also participated in abuses. Since Hafez al-Assad's rule,

individuals from the Alawite minority have controlled (although they not always formally

headed) these four agencies, as well as several elite military units, and comprise the bulk of

them.

Syrian armed and security forces

According to the UN, Syrian armed and security forces have been responsible for: unlawful

killing, including of children (mostly boys), medical personnel and hospital patients ("In

some particularly grave instances, entire families were executed in their homes"); torture,

including of children (mostly boys, sometimes to death) and hospital patients, and including

sexual and psychological torture; arbitrary arrest "on a massive scale"; deployment of tanks

and helicopter gunships in densely populated areas; heavy and indiscriminate shelling of

civilian areas; collective punishment; enforced disappearances; widescale and systematic

destruction and looting of property; the systematic denial, in some areas, of food and water;

and the prevention of medical treatment, including to children. Amnesty International

reported that medical personnel had also been tortured, while the UN said that medical

personnel in state hospitals were sometimes complicit in the killing and torture of patients.

The execution and torture of children was also documented by Amnesty International and

Human Rights Watch. Most of the serious human rights violations documented by the UN

have been committed by the Syrian army and security services as part of military or search

operations. The pattern of the killing, coupled with interviews with defectors, led the UN to

conclude a shoot-to-kill policy was operative. The UN mentioned several reports of security

forces killing injured victims by putting them into refrigerated cells in hospital morgues.

Amnesty International decided to enter the country uninvited in spring 2012 and documented

"gross violations of human rights on a massive scale" by the Syrian military and shabiha,

"many of which amount to crimes against humanity and war crimes". These were committed

against the armed opposition, to punish and intimidate civilian individuals and strongholds

perceived to be supporting the opposition, and indiscriminately against individuals who had

nothing to do with the opposition. In addition to the crimes listed by the UN above, they

noted cases of people being burnt alive; destruction of pharmacies and field hospitals (normal

hospitals are out of bounds to those wounded by the military); and that the sometimes lethal

torture ("broken bones, missing teeth, deep scars and open wounds from electric shocks, and

from severe beatings and lashings with electric cables and other implements") was

overwhelmingly directed at men and boys.

The UN reported 10,000 persons arbitrarily detained between mid-March and the late June

2011;a year later that number had more than doubled, though the true number of detainees

may have been far higher. At the notorious Seidnaya jail, north of Damascus, 2,500 military

officers and lesser ranks were being held after they disobeyed orders or attempted

desertion.Human Rights Watch documented more than 20 different methods of torture used

against detainees, including: prolonged and severe beatings, often with objects such as batons

and wires; painful stress positions; electrocution; burning with car battery acid; sexual

assault; pulling out fingernails; mock execution; and sexual violence. Many were held in

disgusting and cruelly overcrowded conditions; many who needed medical assistance were

denied it, and some consequently died.

Amnesty was also in the possession of 10,000 names, mainly men and boys, who had been

killed since February 2011, though the organisation again conceded the true figure may be

significantly higher. Some of the more prominent detainees have included Ali al-Abdallah,

blogger and student Tal al-Mallohi, and prominent LGBT anti-government blogger Razan

Ghazzawi, who was arrested twice by Syrian authorities.

Human Rights Watch accused the government and Shabiha of using civilians as human

shields when they advanced on opposition-held areas. A UN report confirmed this, saying

soldiers had used children as young as eight, detaining and killing children afterwards. The

UN added the Syrian Government as one of the worst offenders on its annual "list of shame".

In response to these violations, the UN Human Rights Council passed a condemnatory

resolution. It also demanded that Syria cooperate with a UN investigation into the abuses,

release all political prisoners, and allow independent monitors to visit detention facilities.

Not all reports have proved accurate: Zainab al-Hosni, who was purportedly beheaded by

Syrian authorities, later turned out to be alive.

In May 2012, Al Arabiya aired leaked footage of a man being tortured in a government

detention centre in Kafranbel.

An increasing number of reports indicated that the Syrian government is attacking civilians at

bread bakeries with artillery rounds and rockets in opposition-controlled cities and districts in

Aleppo province and Aleppo city, with the reports indicating that the bakeries were shelled

indiscriminately. HRW said these are war crimes, as the only military targets in the areas

were rebels manning the bakeries and that dozens of civilians were killed.

Upon retaking the capital Damascus after the Battle of Damascus (2012), the Syrian

government began a campaign of collective punishment against Sunni suburbs in-and-around

the capital which had supported FSA presence in their neighborhoods.

The charity Save the Children conducted interviews in refugee camps with Syrian civilians

who had fled the fighting, and released a report in September 2012 containing many accounts

of detention, torture and summary execution, as well as other incidents such as the use of

civilians as human shields, allegedly including tying children onto advancing tanks so that

rebel forces would not fire upon them.

In a 23 October 2012 statement, Human Rights Watch said that Syrian military denials

notwithstanding, HRW had "evidence of ongoing cluster bomb attacks" by Syria’s air force.

HRW has confirmed reports "through interviews with victims, other residents and activists

who filmed the cluster munitions", as well as "analysis of 64 videos and also photos showing

weapon remnants" of cluster bomb strikes. The use, production, stockpiling, and transfer of

cluster munitions is porhibited by the 2008 international Convention on Cluster Munitions

treaty. Use of cluster bombs have been considered a grave threat to civilian populations

because of the bombs' ability to randomly scatter thousands of submunitions or "bomblets"

over a vast area, many of which remain waiting to explode, taking civilian lives and limbs

long after the conflict is over.

Referral to the International Criminal Court

United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights Navi Pillay and others have called for

Syria to be referred to the International Criminal Court; however, it would be difficult for this

to take place with within the foreseeable future because Syria is not a party to the Rome

Statute of the International Criminal Court, meaning the ICC has no jurisdiction there

(referral could alternatively happen via the Security Council, but Russia and China would

block). Marc Lynch, who is in favour of a referral, noted a couple of other routes to the ICC

were possible, and that overcoming Chinese and Russian opposition was not impossible.

Richard Haass has argued that one way to encourage top-level defections is to "threaten war-

crimes indictments by a certain date, say, August 15, for any senior official who remains a

part of the government and is associated with its campaign against the Syrian people. Naming

these individuals would concentrate minds in Damascus." Nevertheless, it remains unlikely in

the short term, and some would argue this is a blessing in disguise, since this precludes the

ICC's involvement while the conflict is still raging, a development that would arguably only

increase the Assad government's violent obstinacy.

Armed opposition fighters

With regard to armed opposition groups, the UN accused them of: unlawful killing; torture

and ill-treatment; kidnapping and hostage taking; and the use of children in dangerous non-

combat roles. Amnesty confirmed that they were guilty of having tortured and executed

captured soldiers and militiamen, as well as known or perceived civilian collaborators, and

later condemned the opposition fighters responsible for an attack on a pro-Assad TV station

in June 2012 in which media workers were killed. According to the Institute for the Study of

War, "monthly instances of assassinations, executions, and kidnappings by rebels

skyrocketed in February 2012 and doubled again between March and April. . . . The Assad

regime's sectarian shabiha paramilitaries have been responsible for a vast numbers of killings,

which has made it more difficult for insurgents to resist the urge to act in reprisal." Radhika

Coomaraswamy, the UN special representative for children and armed conflict, said in March

2012 that she had received claims that the Free Syrian Army was using children as fighters. A

UN report in April 2012 also mentioned "credible allegations" that rebels, including the FSA,

were using child fighters, despite stated FSA policy of not recruiting any child under the age

of 17, but a later one in June 2012 made no mention of this, only reporting that opposition

fighters were using children in non-combat roles. Still, in an interview to AP, one rebel

commander stated that his 16-year-old son had died in clashes with government troops as a

rebel fighter. He also confirmed that his group had been releasing prisoners in bomb-rigged

cars turning drivers into unwitting suicide bombers.

In May 2013, a video was posted on the internet showing rebel commander Abu Sakkar

cutting organs from the dead body of a Syrian soldier and putting one of them in his mouth,

"as if he is taking a bite out of it". He says to the camera: "soldiers of Bashar [...] we will eat

your heart and livers! [...] Oh my heroes of Baba Amr, you slaughter the Alawites and take

their hearts out to eat them!" Human Rights Watch confirmed the authenticity of the footage,

and said that Abu Sakkar appears to be a commander of the "Independent Omar al-Farouq

Brigade". Human Rights Watch said "It is not known whether the Independent Omar al-

Farouq Brigade operates within the command structure of the Free Syrian Army". The

incident was condemned by the FSA's Chief of Staff and the Syrian National Coalition said

that the commander would be put on trial. The rebel Supreme Military Council called for Abu

Sakkar's arrest, saying it wants him "dead or alive". Abu Sakkar said that his action was

revenge, explaining that he had found a video on the soldier's cellphone in which the soldier

sexually abuses a woman and her two daughters. In earlier days before the escalation of

violence he had taken part in marches and at that time voiced the need for a united front to

cause the reforms that were denied by the regime. His brigade was not among those calling

for a medieval caliphate or allegiance to al-Qa'ida, and he had taken a stand against Islamist

extremists in rebel ranks. Independent journalist Kim Sengupta, having observed that the

brutality with which the regime responded to peaceful protests in Baba Amr and elsewhere in

Syria was the catalyst for the armed uprising which followed, looked for further explanation

for the viciousness that is expressed. Mr Nassr, another brigade member told him; "He (Abu

Sakkar) should not have done what he did, doing that was haram (wrong in religion) and

unwise. But it was a message to the Shabiha. They film young men and women being

tortured to try and frighten the people and this was meant as a warning to them.”

Sexual violence

Men and women have been subjected to sexual violence by government forces. Amnesty

International has received reports of men being raped. According to the UN, sexual violence

in detention is directed principally against men and boys, rather than women and girls:

Several testimonies reported the practice of sexual torture used on male detainees. Men were

routinely made to undress and remain naked. Several former detainees testified reported

beatings of genitals, forced oral sex, electroshocks and cigarette burns to the anus in detention

facilities . . . Several of the detainees were repeatedly threatened that they would be raped in

front of their family and that their wives and daughters would also be raped. Testimonies

were received from several men who stated they had been anally raped with batons and that

they had witnessed the rape of boys. One man stated that he witnessed a 15-year-old boy

being raped in front of his father. A 40-year-old man saw the rape of an 11-year-old boy by

three security services officers.

Human Rights Watch has also reported these sexual crimes being committed by Syrian

government forces.

Syrian activists claim women were abducted and raped in rebellious parts of the country,

possibly using sexual violence as a means of quelling dissent. An opposition campaigner

supplied The Globe and Mail with details about six previously unknown cases of violence

against women, saying that more such incidents remain hidden as Damascus struggles to

contain the uprising. Syrian refugees fleeing to Turkey reported mass rape by Syrian soldiers,

more than 400 women were raped and sexually abused.

On 13 August 2012 a sergeant in the special forces who had defected claimed that Alawite

officers ordered the rape of teenage girls in Homs, who would be shot afterwards. The

defected sergeant further said that soldiers who refused were shot by the army.

A report released 14 January 2013 by the International Rescue Committee stated that a

primary reason Syrian refugees flee is because of fear of rape.

Attacks on journalists

This article is about Attacks on journalists. For others named under attacks on journalists in

the Syrian civil war, see List of journalists killed during the Syrian civil war.

Except for those hand-picked by the government, journalists have been banned from

reporting in Syria. Those who have entered the country regardless have been targeted. Within

a month of the protests taking off, at least seven local and international journalists were

detained, and at least one of these was beaten. Citizen journalist Mohammed Hairiri was

arrested in April 2012, tortured in prison, and sentenced to death in May 2012 for giving an

interview for Al Jazeera.Jordanian Salameh Kaileh was tortured and detained in deplorable

conditions before being deported.

According to the Committee to Protect Journalists, 13 journalists were killed in work-related

incidents during the first eighteen months of the uprising. During the same period, Reporters

Without Borders said a total of 33 journalists were killed. Many, such as Marie Colvin, were

killed by government forces, but at least one, French journalist Gilles Jacquier, was killed by

rebel fire.

Attacks on Local Christians

Local Christian minorities are also facing many human rights violations. Two bishops had

been kidnapped on April 22, 2013 and have not been heard from since. Aleppo's Greek

Orthodox Bishop Boulos Yazij and Syriac Orthodox Bishop Yohanna Ibrahim were

kidnapped at gun point by unknown combatants when returning from a humanitarian mission

to Turkey. During the kidnapping, the deacon driving them was shot and killed.

LIBYAN CONFLICTS

Human rights violations in the Libyan civil war

The outbreak of the Libyan civil war has been followed by accusations of

human rights violations by the rebel forces opposed to Muammar Gaddafi, the

Armed Forces and NATO. The alleged violations include rape, extrajudicial

killings, racism, misconduct and bombings of civilians. Alleged human rights

violations were committed by all sides during the conflict, including NATO,

anti-Gaddafi forces, and pro-Gaddafi forces.

LIBYAN ARMED FORCES

Claims of systematic shooting at protesters

Luis Moreno Ocampo, chief prosecutor of the International Criminal Court,

estimated that between 500 and 700 people were killed by Gaddafi's security

forces in February 2011, before the rebels even took up arms. "Shooting at

protestors was systematic," Moreno-Ocampo stated, discussing the Libyan

government's response to the initial pro-democracy demonstrations.

The Libyan government denies that they ordered killings of demonstrators in

the early days of the uprising. They say that soldiers acted in self-defense as

they were attacked by mobs.

Moreno-Ocampo further stated that during the ongoing civil war, "War crimes

are apparently committed as a matter of policy" by forces loyal to Gaddafi. This

is further supported by claims of Human Rights Watch, that 10 protesters, who

had already agreed to lay down arms, were executed by a government

paramilitary group in Bani Walid in May.

In June 2011, a detailed investigation carried out by Amnesty International

claimed that many of the allegations against Gaddafi and the Libyan state turned

out to either be false or lack any credible evidence, noting that rebels at times

appeared to have knowingly made false claims or manufactured evidence.

According to the Amnesty investigation, the number of casualties was heavily

exaggerated, some of the protesters may have been armed, "there is no proof of

mass killing of civilians on the scale of Syria or Yemen," and there is no

evidence that aircraft or heavy anti-aircraft machine guns were used against

crowds. It also doubted claims from the Western media that the protest

movement was "entirely peaceful" and "presented no security challenge."

However in a later report from Amnesty International it was found that "al-

Gaddafi forces committed serious violations of international humanitarian law

(IHL), including war crimes, and gross human rights violations,which point to

the commission of crimes against humanity. They deliberately killed and

injured scores of unarmed protesters; subjected perceived opponents and critics

to enforced disappearance and torture and other ill- treatment; and arbitrarily

detained scores of civilians. They launched indiscriminate attacks and attacks

targeting civilians in their efforts to regain control of Misratah and territory in

the east. They launched artillery, mortar and rocket attacks against residential

areas. They used inherently indiscriminate weapons such as anti-personnel

mines and cluster bombs,including in residential areas."

In July 2011, Saif al-Islam Gaddafi had an interview with Russia Today, where

he denied the ICC's allegations that he or his father Muammar Gaddafi ordered

the killing of civilian protesters. He pointed out that he is not a member of the

government or the military, and therefore has no authority to give such orders.

According to Saif, he made recorded calls to General Abdul Fatah, who later

defected to the rebel forces, in order to request not to use force against

protesters, to which Fatah responded that they are attacking a military site,

where surprised guards fired in self-defense.

ALLEGATIONS OF MASS RAPE

2011 Libyan rape allegations

A Libyan psychologist, Siham Sergewa, conducted a survey of refugees in

Tunisia and Egypt to document the trauma of the civil war. Nearly 300 women

were reported to have been raped. The real number could be much higher,

considering the stigma attached to rape victims in Libyan society. Every single

woman in the survey who admitted to being raped, said they were raped by

Gaddafi's soldiers or militiamen.

However, United Nations war-crimes expert M. Cherif Bassiouni, Human

Rights Watch (HRW), Doctors Without Borders and Amnesty International say

that they have found no evidence of systematic rape conducted by the Libyan

government. Amnesty International's Donatella Rovera said that the Benghazi

rebels had knowingly made false claims or manufactured evidence, quoting one

example of pristine boxes of Viagra that the rebels said were found inside a

totally burned out tank belonging to Gaddafi's troops. This raised serious doubts

about the claim that Gaddafi handed out Viagra to his soldiers to enable them to

rape more efficiently.

Physicians for Human Rights (PHR) collected testimony of eyewitness who

reported that Qaddafi forces transformed an elementary school into a detention

site where they raped women and girls as young as 14 years old. PHR also

reports of honour killings that occurred in response to these rapes.

Use of land mines as a means of war

HRW has confirmed claims of rebels, that laying land mines is widespread by

the Libyan government forces as a means of war. It found them on at least six

different locations in Libya, mostly on frontlines of the Gaddafi forces. Among

these land mines are not only anti-tank mines, but also anti-personnel mines,

which can permanently pose a threat to civilians.

Shelling of civilian areas

Gaddafi forces have been accused by human-rights groups of shelling towns

with heavy weapons, risking civilian lives indiscriminately. The most

accusations refer to the siege of Misrata, accusing Gaddafi forces of targeting

hospitals and civilian areas, also using internationally outlawed cluster bombs

of Spanish production as ammunition, having risked the lives of civilians.

Other abuses of non-combatants

A Human Rights Watch report documents the "unlawful occupation and terror

of hospital staff" by pro-Government forces in Yafran in the western mountains,

risking the lives of the patients and terrifying the staff contrary to international

law.

In August 2011, Physicians for Human Rights released a report documenting

severe violations of human rights and evidence of war crimes and possible

crimes against humanity in Misrata. Findings included that Qaddafi forces used

civilians as human shields, attacked ambulances bearing the Red Crescent,

destroyed religious buildings, and intentionally starved civilians. In the same

report, PHR gave evidence to violations of medical neutrality, such as attacks

on medical facilities, medical transport, and medical workers.

CRIMES AGAINST INTERNATIONAL HUMANITARIAN LAW

Execution of prisoners of war

A group of 15 to 22 Libyan army soldiers captured in Derna were reportedly

executed in the village of Martuba, 20 kilometres (12 miles) east of Derna.

According to a widely circulated story, the men were claimed to have been

"executed by their own officers for disobeying orders".

Another group of 15 dark-skinned Libyan prisoners were publicly executed by

hanging in front of the Bayda courthouse.

Murder and torture of injured soldiers

On 17 February, the Bayda hospital admitted two injured men, one of black

complexion, and the other of olive complexion. The men were accused of

fighting against the rebels. A hospital doctor claimed that the black man was

murdered and hung by an angry mob that had gathered around the hospital. The

other injured man was reportedly beaten, shot and returned to the emergency

room.

Lootings and beatings

In four towns in the western mountains captured in June by the opposition,

HRW noticed lootings of private property and beatings of alleged Gaddafi

sympathizers by rebel forces. The National Transitional Council (NTC) then

pledged to hold responsible the causers of the attacks and to prevent such

abuses in the future.

Killing of civilians

During the Battle of Sirte, the rebels killed many civilians, including men,

women, and children, while there were also reports of the rebels harassing and

stealing from the locals. According to one resident, "The rebels are worse than

rats. Nato is the same as Osama bin Laden." According to another local woman,

"We lived in democracy under Muammer Gaddafi, he was not a dictator. I lived

in freedom, Libyan women had full human rights. It isn't that we need

Muammer Gaddafi again, but we want to live just as we did before." A local

elderly woman stated "They are killing our children. Why are they doing this?

For what? Life was good before!”

NATO airstrikes

On 9 August, the Libyan government claimed that 85 civilians were killed in

NATO airstrikes on the village of Majer near Zliten. A NATO spokesman said

that they were targeting four buildings in which nine vehicles were destroyed

and that government claim "was not corroborated by available factual

information at the site". The Libyan government declared three days of national

mourning. Reporters were later taken to a hospital where they saw at least 30

dead bodies including the bodies of at least two young children. The Libyan

government claimed that the bodies of others killed in the airstrikes were taken

to other hospitals. Neither of these claims were independently verified, although

some media outlets came to the conclusion that it seemed more credible than

usual that something tragic happened due to the presence of at least 14 bodies at

one hospital, including an infant.

Russia's U.N. Ambassador Vitaly Churkin said a council-mandated

investigation of NATO involvement in the Libyan Civil War is essential "given

the fact that initially we were led to believe by NATO leaders there are zero

civilian casualties of their bombing campaign.". The U.S. and France called

Russia's demand for an investigation "a distraction", supporting the claim made

by Susan Rice, the U.S. Ambassador: "This is duplicative, it's redundant, it's

superfluous and it's a stunt.". According to France's U.N. Ambassador Gerard

Araud there were two ongoing investigations of NATO’s actions in Libya, one

by a U.N. Human Rights Council which is scheduled to report in March and the

second by the International Criminal Court.

Allegations of usage of African mercenaries

Some journalists have accused human-rights organizations of falsifying claims,

that Gaddafi was using mercenaries from other parts of Africa to attack

protesters, however the presence of mercenaries from countries such as Chad,

Niger, and Mali has been confirmed by Gaddafi's former Chief of Protocol

Nouri Al Misrahi.

Rape of black Africans

Sudanese refugees from Eastern Libya have reported that a twelve-year-old

Sudanese girl was raped by armed men that forced them out of their homes. A

Gambian man shown to journalists by anti-Gaddafi forces reported that he had

been dragged from his house by three armed men who accused him of being a

mercenary of Gaddafi and raped his wife.

Murder of guest workers and black Libyans

The Chadian government called on coalition forces to protect its citizens in

rebel-held areas in Libya. It claimed that dozens had been accused and executed

for allegedly being mercenaries in the pay of Gaddafi.

A Turkish oil worker reported witnessing the murder of 70 to 80 Sudanese and

Chadian guest workers with pruning shears and axes by Libyans who accused

them of being Gaddafi mercenaries.

HRW's Peter Bouckaert visited Bayda where 156 supposed mercenaries were

being held captive. He reported that these men are actually black Libyans from

Southern Libya. He argued that the support of the black southern Libyans for

the Gaddafi regime was explicable as Gaddafi fought to counter discrimination

against this group in Libyan society. In the same interview, Bouckaert also said

that those 156 individuals were released by the rebels less than two weeks after

being captured.

Forced expulsion of black families

Sudanese refugees from Eastern Libya reported that armed men went door to

door and forced them to leave their homes.

Murder of unarmed migrant workers

Killings of unarmed migrant workers by rebels have been described. On 18

April, a British reporter who had just arrived at Benghazi by sea from Misrata

described the sufferings of large numbers of migrant workers trapped in Misrata

in a broadcast on BBC Radio 4. After mentioning casualties during government

forces attack he said about the migrant workers that "…some have also died in

clashes with the, err, rebel fighters. They were protesting about the conditions,

demanding that they should be repatriated and on a couple of occasions this has

led to the rebels opening fire and, err, people dying."

CONCLUSION

United Declaration on Human Rights was the first draft for the protection of Human Rights

and after that ICCPR and ICESCR was also introduced. This was a boon for the protection of

Human Rights then the Geneva Convention was introduced for the protection of people

during war crimes for prisoners of war.

Geneva Convention protects the civilians even in a civil war. The situation in Libya and

Syrian is very critical and when there is a civil war civilians should not be harmed. There are

rebels involved in the war which directly act against the state. So thus Geneva Convention is

there to protect from all prisoners of war.

As the Security Council can direct the developed nations to intervene in a state which is

going through a turmoil and protect the people of that state, but it can only be done in a

restricted manner and as per the directions of the Supreme Court and most importantly the

intervening state should not try to capture to benefit itself from intervening.

Intervention is done when there is no alteration left and there is mass killing and genocide of

the civilians in a state and it is just done to protect the civilians and no other motive is there

as it was held in the case of Nicaragua.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

1. www.amnestyusa.org – Libya Human Rights | Amnesty International USA

2. www.edition.cnn.com – Syria Civil War Fast Facts

3. International Law and Human Rights by Dr. S.K Kapoor

4. www.studentsummit.cz/data/1354903402701NATO_Current-crisis-in-Syria.pdf