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Introduction
Over the past several years, various parts of the world have seen the infringement of human rights through humanitarian crises. Human rights violation has become commonplace in some societies in the world, especially the nations that have been torn by the war for the past several years. As the situation currently stands, Syria tops the list of the nations that have widely witnessed an extensive violation of human rights. The war-torn nation is among the few nations in the world that have exploded in relation to their political setups.
Other nations like Iran have also made international headlines with government reports denying the people their civil rights. The situation in North Korea is equally disturbing, with the government being the instigator of violence and restrictions against innocent citizens. While the member states of the United Nations continue with their efforts to intervene in the war-torn countries, it is clear that issues like sovereignty and the personal interests of the members of the Security Council are some of the main challenges that have led to the delay in solving the underlying issues.
The complexities of finding solutions to the core problems in Syria are understood clearly by the Security Council of the United Nations, but there is a need for a quick solution to be developed because of the high death toll. This report looks at the human cost in Syria and other nations, with a close focus on the violation of the right to life. The paper promotes the protection of the right to life for humans across the world in war-torn nations.
Human rights violation in the civil war
As a human rights advocate in the U.N, issues of the abuse of the right to life and liberty would be the most important to promote. These issues are particularly important to me because I value life and believe in promoting human dignity. The U.N is the best place to address these issues because the organization is charged with protecting human rights through its member states. It is important for the United Nations to look into the matter of human rights violations in the war-torn nations across the world. Article 3 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights claims that humans are entitled to the right to life, security, and civil liberty (“The Universal Declaration of Human Rights” par. 3).
While humans are always expected to suffer at war times, the cost should not include a significant number of innocent citizens. The civil war in Syria has resulted in one of the highest death tolls for civilians in recent decades. Many reporters have called the situation in Syria a tragedy that could have been prevented by the U.N. It is apparent that these statements are true because the members of the United Nations have failed to make any significant interventions against the perpetrators of violence and killings in Syria. In essence, the members of the U.N have failed to come up with a mutually acceptable plan to apply in Syria. While the U.S. advocates for military action, Russia has actively called for diplomatic solutions.
As the nations in the organization continue with their discussions on the best way forward, more citizens are dying day by day in Syria. The killers are absolutely prejudiced in their killings and threaten to wipe out even more people with their deadly weapons. It is high time for the U.N to look at the crisis from a human rights violation perspective, rather than from the sovereignty point of view that the members have assumed for the past two years. Syria has not been obliged to the requirements of the Human Rights Committee; hence, the U.N should force the government to submit reports on its efforts to protect human rights (“Monitoring civil and political rights” par. 1).
The United Nations Security Council should be in the limelight of ensuring members of the U.N are actively engaged in the development of a solution to the situation in Syria. Over the past two years, the member nations of the Security Council have failed to come up with a mutual plan to help to alleviate the high death rate of innocent people in Syria (Zurayk 8). The personal interests of the members of the Security Council have taken the first priority; hence, the U.N. has failed to meet its responsibility to protect human rights in the country. The conflict of interests between the U.S., the U.K., France, China, and Russia has resulted in delayed action to solve the humanitarian issues in Syria (Weiss 11).
The United Nations Human Rights Council should also address the issues concerning the violations of human rights in Syria. The advisory committee in the council should be charged with the development of the most feasible solution to the situation in Syria (“United Nations Human Rights Council” par. 1). Different nations have reported varying death rates in Syria; hence, the Human Rights Council should look into developing a valid report that would reveal the actual situation in Syria. The real culprits of the deaths in the country over the past two years might prompt the Security Council to come to a consensus on the most appropriate interventions. The extensive torture of the citizens in Syria, Iran, and North Korea should be the main subject of the Committee Against Torture (CAT). The CAT is charged with the responsibility to highlight the inhumane treatment of citizens (“Committee Against Torture” par. 1).
The level of abuse of the right to life
The situation in Syria is one of the worst-case scenarios of the abuse of the right to life. In 2013, the rebels that were killing innocent people in Syria started using chemical weapons that have taken the lives of tens of thousands of innocent civilians (Pita and Domingo 391). The case has seen the citizens becoming victims of the rebels and the government. Syrian citizens have nobody to protect them from excessive bombings, and there is a severe lack of the basic needs of the people.
The situation is similar in Iran and North Korea, where the people are denied their rights to civil liberty, and they are tortured and killed mercilessly (Greig 49). The crimes against humanity in these three states are an indication that the right to life has been compromised extensively, and the United Nations should act immediately to alleviate the effects of such issues on the citizens (Robertson and Hoffman 307).
The responsibility to protect
The responsibility to protect is a mandate accorded to all the member states of the United Nations. It was developed to give provisions that gave the individual states the obligation to protect human rights within their jurisdictions. The mandate to protect rights in different states also falls on the international community. Such a responsibility grants different nations the duty to take part in the protection of human rights if the concerned states are unable to attain the same (“The Responsibility to Protect” par. 3).
This should be conducted through a defined procedure, which is deliberated by the Security Council. Many times, the Security Council has advocated that diplomacy should have been used to solve any underlying issues in various nations, but on rare occasions, military action may be considered. The main issue in Syria, Iran, and North Korea are that the respective governments have been involved in humanitarian crimes. It is the obligation of the organization to ensure human dignity is upheld even during times of civil war in different nations.
Conclusion
The right to life has been violated repeatedly in different nations over the past few years. This has happened on the watch of the United Nations, and its various agencies have failed in their obligation to compel the associated governments to protect human rights. The universal application of human rights, and specifically the right to life, has been compromised in Syria, Iran, and North Korea. The perpetrators of the abuse of human rights are the rebels and the governments of the respective states.
The lack of respect for life in a nation like Syria has seen the death of hundreds of thousands of innocent people over the past three years. Civil wars should be solved as fast as possible by the U.N., but internal conflicts between the interests of the members of the Security Council have resulted in delayed action by the U.N. in Syria. The United Nations should compel the associated nations to uphold the provisions of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights as soon as possible to reduce the human cost of the wars in the respective nations.
Works Cited
Committee Against Torture 2014.
Greig, J. Michael. “Intractable Syria? Insights from the Scholarly Literature on the Failure of Mediation.” Penn. St. JL & Int’l Aff. 2 (2013): 48-182. Print.
Monitoring civil and political rights 2014.
Pita, Rene, and Juan Domingo. “The Use of Chemical Weapons in the Syrian Conflict.” Toxics 2.3 (2014): 391-402. Print.
Robertson, Cheryl L., and Sarah J. Hoffman. “Conflict and Forced Displacement: Human Migration, Human Rights, and the Science of Health.”Nursing research 63.5 (2014): 307-308. Print.
The Responsibility to Protect 2014. Web.
The Universal Declaration of Human Rights 2014. Web.
United Nations Human Rights Council 2014.
Weiss, Thomas G. “Military Humanitarianism: Syria Hasn’t Killed It.” The Washington Quarterly 37.1 (2014): 7-20. Print.
Zurayk, Rami. “Civil War and the Devastation of Syria’s Food System.”Journal of Agriculture, Food Systems, and Community Development 3.2 (2013): 7-9. Print.
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