UN special session over Syria
Source: Agencies |
May 31, 2012, Thursday
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The United Nation's top human rights body will hold a special session tomorrow on the deteriorating situation in Syria and last week's massacre of more than 100 Syrian villagers, officials said.
The UN Human Rights Council said yesterday that its special session will address the massacre in Houla, which prompted the United States and at least a dozen other nations to expel Syrian diplomats.
Council spokesman Rolando Gomez said the session will be called based on a request supported by 21 of the 47 nations that are council members. The request, he said, required support from at least a third of its members and was officially submitted by Qatar, Turkey, the US, Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Denmark and the European Union.
A total of 51 nations - including France, Germany, Britain, Bahrain, the United Arab Emirates and 25 others that have observer status on the council - signed their support for the session.
The Geneva-based council has met 18 times previously in special sessions since its creation in 2006, including three on Syria just last year.
In December, the council approved a resolution to criticize Syria's crackdown and appointed a special investigator to probe abuses in the country.
That December resolution won the backing of 37 council members with support from the Arab League, the US and European countries, while Russia, China and four other members voted against, with six abstentions.
The Human Rights Council's actions are often used to lend moral weight to efforts at the UN's most powerful body, the Security Council in New York, to demand a more binding response.
Last week, a UN panel of human rights experts said the Syrian government and an increasingly organized rebel force are carrying out illegal killings and torturing their opponents but found that government forces are still responsible for most of the violence.
The UN Human Rights Council said yesterday that its special session will address the massacre in Houla, which prompted the United States and at least a dozen other nations to expel Syrian diplomats.
Council spokesman Rolando Gomez said the session will be called based on a request supported by 21 of the 47 nations that are council members. The request, he said, required support from at least a third of its members and was officially submitted by Qatar, Turkey, the US, Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Denmark and the European Union.
A total of 51 nations - including France, Germany, Britain, Bahrain, the United Arab Emirates and 25 others that have observer status on the council - signed their support for the session.
The Geneva-based council has met 18 times previously in special sessions since its creation in 2006, including three on Syria just last year.
In December, the council approved a resolution to criticize Syria's crackdown and appointed a special investigator to probe abuses in the country.
That December resolution won the backing of 37 council members with support from the Arab League, the US and European countries, while Russia, China and four other members voted against, with six abstentions.
The Human Rights Council's actions are often used to lend moral weight to efforts at the UN's most powerful body, the Security Council in New York, to demand a more binding response.
Last week, a UN panel of human rights experts said the Syrian government and an increasingly organized rebel force are carrying out illegal killings and torturing their opponents but found that government forces are still responsible for most of the violence.
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