Last November I wrote about Syria's rather surreal attempts to persuade the UN Human Rights Council that it is making progress on human rights – "the right to peaceful assembly is afforded under the Syrian constitution", "a human rights syllabus is taught in relevant educational establishments," etc, etc.

I noted at the time that in Syria's case the "working group report" which normally follows these sessions of the council had not been published. After a long delay it is now online and it's worth a look – if only to illustrate the political antics that take place in the Human Rights Council. Comments from other countries, and Syria's responses to them, are in paragraphs 19-99.

In all, 51 countries made comments – not all of them critical. Cuba "welcomed the adoption of a number of measures and the opening of a dialogue with the [Syrian] opposition", Nicaragua sympathised with "the difficult situation in which Syria found itself", North Korea "commended Syria on its efforts to maintain security and stability", Iran noted Syria's "achievements in economic, social and cultural rights", and so on. 

Canada, on the other hand, got a verbal lashing from Syria for saying it was "greatly concerned by the grave human rights situation". Syria "expressed its consternation at the hostility demonstrated [by Canada] towards Syria and questioned what the real intention was behind its calls for reforms and human rights."

Syria's basic response to the council was that it was happy to listen to advice from "true friends" (paragraph 12) but would disregard the rest:

"While it could accept advice from some African, Asian and Latin American countries, the Western colonial powers had no right to give advice on human rights, especially after having killed over 50,000 Libyans only a short while ago, and a million Iraqis after the American invasion, as well as thousands in Côte d’Ivoire and central Africa, without mentioning Abu Ghraib and Guantanamo. Western countries did not care about human rights, but only sought to secure their supply of oil and mineral resources. If they truly cared about human rights they would also care about the rights of the Palestinian people and not use their veto against them." [paragraph 10]

Syria continues to blame the current situation on foreign plots and media lies:

"During the past seven months, Syria had experienced many threats and was subjected to a media war conducted through misinformation and lies. Syria was faced with the hegemony of the West, the United States of America and Israel, and was the target of terrorist threats. 

"For this reason, the law enforcement organs faced many challenges. The Government would submit to the High Commissioner for Human Rights a list of martyrs among the police and security officials, over 1,100 of whom had been killed by terrorists who received support from some neighbouring countries. These countries, whose actions violated the right to life, were the same countries that were holding conferences on human rights and democracy.

"Syria noted that the killings were accompanied by incitement in the regional and international media, which provided instructions and directed these criminal activities. Billions of dollars had been smuggled into Syria in recent months and distributed among extremists, arms dealers, drug traffickers and criminal organizations, and pay TV channels were fabricating footage available to those paying the highest price.

"Syria asserted that it was in a position to provide the Human Rights Council with audio-visual evidence exposing the lies of these TV stations and their backers, and indicated that the Council procedures as explained by the Bureau did not allow for the viewing of a short video supporting the State’s assertion in this regard. Syria referred to numerous media stories about Zeinab El-Hosni, the girl who allegedly had been murdered by the security forces, but who in fact was alive and well and had given her testimony on Syrian television." [Paragraphs 8 and 9]

The report contains 60 recommendations that the Syrian government says it supports, 26 that Syria says have already been implemented, 15 that it says it is in the process of implementing, 25 that it is considering, 41 that it rejects and 13 that it says are "based on incorrect assumptions or premises". The latter include calls to end violence and repression against peaceful protesters and to allow free and unimpeded access for humanitarian organisations.

Posted by Brian Whitaker, 10 March 2012.