AJC Hails Firm UN Resolution on Syria

NEW YORK, Nov. 22, 2011 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- AJC called a UN General Assembly resolution on Syria a groundbreaking condemnation of the Bashar al-Assad regime's widespread human rights abuses. The measure adopted today is the first-ever General Assembly resolution on Syria's human rights abuses.

The non-binding resolution passed by a vote of 122 to 13, with 41 abstentions, in the General Assembly's Third Committee, which deals with human rights issues. Voting against the resolution were Belarus, Bolivia, Cuba, Ecuador, Iran, Myanmar, Nicaragua, North Korea, Uzbekistan, Syria, Venezuela, Vietnam and Zimbabwe.

It comes just weeks after China and Russia vetoed a similar motion in the UN Security Council, which would have been a binding measure.

"This overwhelming support for the Syrian people sends another unambiguous message to Bashar al-Assad to end his campaign of murder, detention and torture," said AJC Executive Director David Harris. "As President Obama and other world leaders have stated, it surely is high time for Assad to step down."

The UN committee condemned "the continued grave and systematic human rights violations by the Syrian authorities, such as arbitrary executions, excessive use of force and the persecution and killing of protesters and human rights defenders." It also denounced the "arbitrary detention, enforced disappearances, torture and ill treatment of detainees, including children."

More than 3,500 Syrians have been killed since the regime's violent crackdown began eight months ago.

The UN resolution called on Syria to immediately end all human-rights violations, cooperate fully with the Commission of Inquiry established by the UN Human Rights Council, and implement "without delay" an Arab League plan to end the violence.

www.ajc.org

SOURCE American Jewish Committee