In the Day of Human Rights: Syria as the Gateway for the New Era of Human Brutality

Modern human rights principles began to emerge during the era of Human Renaissance in the early modern period. The religious wars in Europe and the civil wars in 17th-century England led to the development of liberal philosophy, with the belief in natural rights becoming a major focus in European intellectual culture during the Enlightenment in the 18th century. These ideas were at the heart of the American and French revolutions towards the end of that century. The democratic development during the 19th century paved the way for the emergence of universal suffrage in the 20th century, and the World Wars led to the establishment of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.

The post-World War period witnessed the rise of movements emerging from specific groups suffering from a lack of rights, such as the women’s rights movement and the civil rights movement for African Americans. Movements for human rights of members of the Eastern Bloc appeared in the 1970s, alongside labor rights movements in the West.

The Universal Declaration of Human Rights is a significant historical document in human rights history. Drafted by representatives from various legal and cultural backgrounds worldwide, it was adopted by the General Assembly in Paris on December 10, 1948. For the first time, it defined the fundamental human rights that must be protected globally. By the 21st century, human rights movements have evolved to include multiple aspects such as humanitarian, social, and economic development in the developing world.

The history of human rights is complex, as is our present age. Despite the evolution of human intellect towards recognizing human rights, the Universal Declaration of Human Rights has been violated in many events and conflicts around the world since its adoption in 1948, including:

1. The Korean War (1950-1953), with widespread human rights violations including the killing of civilians and prisoners by both sides.
2. The Vietnam War (1955-1975), documented human rights abuses including torture and mass killing of civilians.
3. The Rwandan Crisis (1994), where a genocide in Rwanda led to the death of about 800,000 people, mostly from the Tutsi ethnic group.
4. The war in Bosnia and Herzegovina (1992-1995), which saw human rights violations including mass rape and ethnic cleansing.

These breaches occurred without the spread of modern communication means, so the crime could continue for years before being exposed. With the advent of social media, the world now witnesses human rights violations more directly and quickly, making these breaches have a harsher public impact and emphasizing the need for the role of the Human Rights Charter more than ever.

The human rights violations by the Syrian regime have led the brutal world to become even more savage. The Syrian regime’s successful experience in exterminating its people surpassed all imagination. The world watched through social media the numbers of victims and horrific massacres here and there. Instead of information being a factor in activating legal and criminal accountability, we see its interpretation and manipulation, and the state pumping contradictory information, trivializing the event of people’s extermination by its ruling regime.

The recent Syrian experience since 2011 can be considered the gateway through which human brutality entered its new era, an era that no longer cares about human rights issues. This was evident in the Russian aggression in Ukraine and the Israel-Hamas war, where the killing of more than twenty thousand civilians and tens of thousands of injured innocents occurred in front of the international community and with a U.S. veto, leading to misleading the global public opinion about the reasons for the fall of these civilian victims under the pretext of self-defense.

The international community’s leniency in human rights in Syria was the reason for the spread of unjustified aggression in countries and people, as in Ukraine and Gaza. This makes us warn of its expansion to other areas if the wise of the world (whose existence or audible voice we doubt) do not genuinely act against the fascists and criminals.

Human rights can transcend the consequences of a war between militaries, despite the Geneva Conventions and other laws of war and its prisoners. However, there can be no leniency in demographic change, war against civilians, arbitrary arrests, kidnapping of the secure, and insecurity for civilians.

People of faith may find in their sacred books the Lord’s revenge against tolerance of injustice, but the wise find that the tolerance of what Syria has gone through and still is represents a new stage that humanity has entered towards further collapse of human rights values. This could put the future of humanity as a whole at risk of extinction and collapse.

Edmond Eid Semaan.