http://hrw.org/reports/2007/syria1007/
Syria: End Repression of Human Rights Groups
Security Services Regularly Arrest and Harass Activists
(New York, October 17, 2007) - Syrian authorities should stop restricting
the freedom of human rights activists to express their views and to
associate as a group, Human Rights Watch said in a report released today.
The country's security services regularly harass the activists by arresting
them and preventing them from meeting or traveling.
The 46-page report, "No Room to Breathe: State Repression of Human Rights
Activism in Syria," documents the restrictions imposed on activists by
examining the legal environment in which they operate and the government
practices to which they are subject. It also charts the development of
Syria's human rights community and the challenges it faces today. It is
based on extensive interviews with representatives of all of Syria's major
human rights groups, independent lawyers, and members of the international
diplomatic community in Damascus.
"The human rights community in Syria has grown in important ways in the
last few years, but they remain under siege by authorities that cannot
fathom any criticism of their record," said Sarah Leah Whitson, Middle East
director at Human Rights Watch.
Under Syrian law, the Syrian Ministry of Social Affairs and Labor controls
the registration of all civil society associations and has wide
jurisdiction to intervene in the internal governance and day-to-day
operations of any association by appointing board members and attending
meetings. Despite these very strict control mechanisms, Syrian authorities
have refused to recognize any of the human rights groups that have applied
for registration.
"Without legal status, these groups operate at the whim of the authorities
and live in constant fear of being shut down," said Whitson. "They cannot
even rent a place to meet."
The report concludes that the most serious barrier to the rights and
freedoms of Syria's human rights community lies in the role of the powerful
security services, which routinely harass human rights groups by breaking
up meetings, banning activists from traveling, and arresting them.
"Activists who dare to document government violations end up being charged
for dubious crimes such as 'weakening national sentiment' or 'spreading
false news'," said Whitson.
In April 2007, a Syrian court sentenced one of the country's most prominent
human rights lawyers, Anwar al-Bunni, to five years in jail in connection
with a statement he had made claiming that a man had died in a Syrian jail
due to inhumane conditions there.
The Syrian government often justifies its intolerance of criticism by
arguing that it is presently under threat from the United States and other
Western countries that are seeking to isolate it, and that any criticism of
the government will only serve the interests of these foreign powers.
However, state repression of human rights activism is not a recent
phenomenon in Syria, and its victims usually have no link to foreign powers
and are themselves critical of US policy in the region.
Human Rights Watch called on the Syrian authorities to cease arbitrarily
arresting activists and to free any activists it has detained for
exercising their right to freedom of expression. It also urged the
government to amend existing law and practice to allow human rights groups
to legally register and operate free from any governmental interference.
The report urges the international community to ensure that human rights
concerns are at the core of any future talks or negotiations with Syria and
to support human rights activists in Syria by advocating on their behalf
with Syrian authorities and providing logistical support through
capacity-building programs.
It also calls on the UN Special Representative of the Secretary-General on
human rights defenders to request a visit to Syria to examine the situation
of human rights defenders in the country.
The report is available in English and Arabic at:
http://hrw.org/reports/2007/syria1007/
For more of Human Rights Watch's work on Syria, please visit:
http://hrw.org/doc?t=mideast&c=syria
For further information, contact Nadim Houry (English, French), Beirut,
tel: +961 3 639 244 (mobile); Gasser Abdel-Razek (Arabic, English), Cairo,
tel: +20 2 2 794 5036 or +20 10 502 9999 (mobile); Sarah Leah Whitson
(English), New York, tel: +1 212 216 1230; or Human Rights Watch, 350 Fifth
Ave., 34th Floor, New York, NY 10018-3299, U.S.A., tel: +1 212 290 4700,
fax: +1 212 736 1300, e-mail: hrwnyc@hrw.org, Internet: http://www.hrw.org/