A Cruel and Unusual Record

“At a time when popular revolutions are sweeping the globe, the United States should be strengthening, not weakening, basic rules of law and principles of justice.”

President Carter in a NY Times article, here.

© Presidencia de la República del Ecuador

Fighting in Syria Continues, 126 Dead on Friday

Human rights sources are reporting to SwissInfo that no less than 126 people have died Friday in Syria, mainly in Damascus and Aleppo. No mention of the conditions in Latakia.



Of the dead reported, apparently 10 are citizens from Douma who were killed by government forces.
With so many reports from outside human rights sources that civilians are harmed by the army of the Syrian regime (namely, that of al-Assad) I tend to believe atrocities are being committed, and I can only think of a few reasons why Bashar al-Assad would allow such acts

1. He is afraid for his regime. Obviously there are a handful of neighboring Arab countries where the power of the people, with a little outside help in some cases, cased regime change. Syria is a small country which means it is harder to get news about it, good or bad. Assad perhaps realizes this and is choosing to silence the people, violating human rights in a major way, knowing they will not be able to call for aid.
2. He is extremely confident in his regime. On the other hand, he could be very comfortable in his regime’s ability to withstand or halt the uprising (seems to be the later). He could know that the outside world will not do a thing to help the Syrians and there is no interest in defense of their human rights, let alone the strategic value of a new regime in Syria.

In the end, this is more complicated than I try to paint it. Of course Assad is not sitting in a lair in Damascus cackling vilely and wringing his fingers as generals show images of dead Syrian children. There could be an honest break in the chain-of-command somewhere. Judging by how he and his father have governed Syria in the past? The break is not that huge.

Syrian Blogger's Mom Kidnapped

The Syrian blogger Lubna Mari has been an outspoken critic of the Assad regime. Recently her mother was kidnapped by government minders in an attempt to lure Lubna back into Syria and stop her from speaking out against Syrian leadership and its human rights abuses.

Lubna says in the al-Arabiya article that she was suspicious when her mom’s phone had been off since August 13th, went back up randomly, followed by a call from her mom asking her to return to Syria because she was undergoing a medical operation.

She continued by saying this was really out-of-character for her mother and she felt instantly suspicious because her mom had been encouraging her to leave Syria and not come back for any reason out of fear for her daughter’s safety.

The circumstances of this kidnapping are unique because Lubna Mari and her family belong to a minority faction, the Alawites, which is the same group Bashar al-Assad himself belongs to.

She criticized her fellow Alawites for their silence against the regime and said that she and her mother never imagined this kind of treatment as punishment from the government because they are innocent of any crime. She claims that all she did through her continued criticism was ‘try to build a new Syria. A Syria for everyone.’

The regime is making a huge mistake by thinking it will get good human rights publicity by kidnapping and threatening a blogger's mother. That is my only commentary on that issue.

International Criminal Court Online Forum

They’re inviting the world to discuss Human Rights Issues with experts and lawyers.

Enjoy.

http://uclalawforum.com/home

Journalists Censored in Egypt

Journalists Censored in Egypt

 

The Arabic Network for Human Rights Information is reporting media censorship and press interference in Egypt.
This is crucial news as it comes soon after the presidential elections. The effected media outlets as reported by ANHRI are as follows:

• Al-Gomhuria Newspaper, “The Republic”, (here), in which was censored an entire Culture section page covering freedom of expression.
• Al-Musawar Magazine, “The Photographer”, which had to halt publishing the final book “Returning from The Brotherhood’s Paradise”, referring to the Islamic Brotherhood.
• An edition of an additional unnamed paper was also confiscated because of an article contained therein written by the Editor commenting on the Egyptian state intelligence community.

This all comes after a start in prosecution of certain journalists including:

• Abdul Haleem Qandeel; Editor of Sawt Al-Umma
• Adel Hamoudeh; Editor of Al-Fajr
• Islam Afifi; Editor of Ad-Dustour
• Pharaohs Channel, a news station, was also cancelled for one month under accusations of ‘criticizing the president of the republic and inciting violence’.

The ANHRI said that that these are the most violent attacks on Egyptian journalism and media after the January 25th Revolution which brought about regime change in Egypt. They also mentioned these actions are in contrast to the statements made by the new president, Mohammed Mursi, respecting freedom of expression.

Azraq Report Opening on Blogger

Hello all.

In an attempt to reach a wider audience, I have decided to open a my original Tumblog under the same title (found  here) on Blogger content management. Hopefully this will give an even broader exposure to the issues I hope to address and increase awareness of human rights in the Middle East.

The main articles I plan on presenting are those that talk about human rights issues reported originally in Arabic and/or those issues that are not receiving wide coverage in major Western media outlets. Why? This is important because it allows us to understand the perspective of those directly affected by human rights abuses in their own language. It also presents the option of gaining insight on a potentially otherwise unknown perspective due to language, cultural, or other barriers due to lack of coverage in our media.

The Internet is the ideal medium for communicating rights abuses in our modern age because no one government or power controls this forum, making it the perfect tool to voice alternative paradigms especially for those whose voices may be marginalized in law or practice.

I hope you enjoy my blogs and they provide you with novel insight!

-Thomas

The original Tumblog is here.
The twitter feed is here.