UN and Syria- What's going on?

Hello :)

It's been a long time now. I didn't get the chance to post on the blog.
I have been very busy these days...

I'm sure you know about the civil war that is going on in Syria. The news have been in the limelight of the media since March 2011. It started with peaceful demonstrations against Bashar al-Assad's Baath-regime. The uprising became a part of the Arabic Spring, but this uprising became more and more brutal. The demonstrations started due to corruption, inflation, unemployment and due to ineffective consitution.

21. december 2013 was the Syrian army of having massacred an entire village, Kfar 'Uwayd, near the border of Turkey, and hundreds of people died and the attack lasted in several hours.

Then why isn't UN doing anything?

"The Security Council impasse severely cripples the UN in its search for conflict resolution,
but it does not immobilize its completely: the other UN bodies and offices do everything in their might to fill in the void. Each in their own way, the UN General Assembly, the Human Rights Council, the Secretary-General and the High Commissioner for Human Rights as well as the Special Envoy for Syria (Lakhdar Brahimi) and the Commission of Inquiry for Syria try to inform, warn and engage the international community into doing something to stop the Syrian bloodbath. Though the UN’s traditional “naming, blaming and shaming”-tactic is only marginally working in trying to budge the different conflict actors towards resolution, it seems the international community is now at least fully informed about and confronted with the disaster that is taking place in Syria, an achievement which is definitely partly attributable to the different UN offices in New York and Geneva.

UN negotiation attempts are being made continuously, with Kofi Annan’s six-point plan as a notable, but unfortunately failed endeavour. The Geneva peace talks are another UN-facilitated initiative, though their success has depended and will continue to depend largely on the willingness of both the United States and Russia – the principal initiators – as well as the parties to the conflict to participate in the talks. What concerns the long-announced Geneva II conference, the opposition groups in particular seem not interested to participate in more talks, delaying the taking place of the conference itself once more""
(Source: )

The UN Council consists primarly of five countries: France, Russia, The U.K., The U.S. and China, and therefor the actions depends solely on them. The thought of several humans living in refugee camps...without enough food or water...it just saddens me. Several youngsters are employed. I don't know what to say. I can't do anything even if I want to do.

Nevertheless, I'm glad to know that it's people there to help these people.

MSF

MSF is operating five makeshift hospitals inside Syria. The teams are also running mobile clinic programmes in some areas when security conditions allow, and we are running comprehensive routine vaccination programmes for children in the areas where we are operating.

In areas where MSF is not able to work directly, we have an extensive programme of remote support for Syrian medical networks, both in opposition-controlled and in government-controlled areas. Through this programme we are supporting 18 hospitals and 34 medical posts in seven governorates. On average around three tons of medical supplies or basic relief items such as blankets, mattresses, soap or cooking sets are supplied per day.

MSF activities inside Syria up till end of February 2014:
•ER consultations – 53,377
•Out-patient consultations – 88,505
•Surgical procedures – 7,190
•Maternity deliveries – 2,018
•Emergency measles vaccination campaign – 75,000 children (April to June 2013)

(Source: http://www.msf.org/syria)



Red Cross


In March and April 2014, the ICRC:
-supplied food to over 900,000 people, mainly IDPs;

-supplied essential household items such as hygiene kits, blankets, mattresses and kitchen sets to over 180,00 IDPs;

worked with the Syrian Arab Red Crescent to provide equipment and water treatment chemicals to water treatment plants and stations in several governorates;

-worked with the Syrian Arab Red Crescent to provide dozens of tanker trucks that brought water to more than 100,000 people;

-Upgrades to 54 IDP centres, ensuring clean water, proper sanitation and decent housing for 15,500 people;

-provided five health facilities with surgical instruments, medicine and medical consumables;

-provided seven SARC mobile health units with material and financial support

Don't be satisfied by hearing all this.
Don't think that this is enough.
Don't think that they don't need help, because they do.

There's a war going on!


Mankind must put an end to war before war puts an end to mankind.

John F. Kennedy

Read more at

-Ritika Jaswal

UN and Syria

Hey!
So today I'm going to talk about why The UN do not involve in the war in Syria.

The UN Charter states that the use of military force , or threat of use of force is prohibited , albeit with two exceptions. One is self defense , and the second is if the Security Council decides that something is a big threat to the peace , the need to use military force to remove the threat .
A resolution from the Security Council could facilitate the use of such instruments , but Russia and China will therefore not accept such a decree and has previously vetoed three times against resolutions criticizing the Assad regime . Russia also criticized the West for supporting the rebels in Syria with weapons.
But unless the Security Council to agree on Syria , even after the use of nerve gas , is it that we still should intervene with military force , although it is a violation of international law to enter without a mandate from the Security Council ?

The problem with this thinking is that the only "we" that exist internationally , the UN Security Council. No other organ has similar legitimacy to make decisions on behalf of the world community. But unless , of course , one defines the global community to not include China and Russia , which would effectively excluded 1.5 billion people . In addition , such a breach of international law opened the way for other countries to take their place in the future.

Each violation of the UN Charter and international law is a step towards a world where big countries take their place and power are entitled . It is not a recipe for a peaceful world.

The problem in Syria is rather too much foreign interference , than too little . While Russia supports the regime of resources and weapons , supports a number of other countries like USA, Saudi Arabia and Quatar different parts of the rebel movement . All based on their own interests and concerns.

This drives the conflict continued , and the civil war has got its own logic, where the interests of parties outside Syria driver conflict on. The worst thing one can do in this situation is to initiate illegal military operations that will raise the level of conflict and potential spread to the rest of the region considerably.

The way forward should be to continue negotiating track in the United Nations, as the most optimistic believe may be revived by Russia's initiative to get Syria to sign the Convention against chemical weapons. Maybe this could open the way to negotiations where both parties set up unconditionally.

This solution will be far less emotionally satisfying than bombing the regime because " we must do something" , but will have far greater chances to contribute to a lasting peace in Syria and the Middle East.


Today , more than two years later , the conflict has evolved into a brutal civil war with conflicts that go far beyond Syria's borders.

After what was probably an attack with nerve gas in August , the demands for foreign intervention in the civil war come fully . Very many, both in and outside Syria , asking the right : Why does not the UN more to stop the conflict in Syria ?

The conflict in Syria has been up in the UN Security Council a number of times . But the Council has failed to agree on a resolution condemning the regime , because Russia and China have vetoed . Russia is afraid that a resolution on Syria to be an opening for regime change and Western intervention in the civil war , as was the case in Libya.

Against this backdrop , several advocated bypassing the UN and use military force against the Syrian regime , although this would be a clear violation of international law.

The main argument revolves , as it often does, that the situation is so horrendous that we have an ethical and moral responsibility to do something, and if the Security Council fails to give us a mandate to use force to stop the suffering in the Civil War , so must we do it anyway...
And what I think is that if the UN gets involved in the war, it is actually a bit difficult for them because Russia and China are major powers and I even think they support Syria

M.K :)