1. LIBYAN AND SYRIAN CONFLICTS: A QUESTION
MARK ON PRINCIPLES OF HUMAN RIGHTS
(Submission of project for B.com L.L.B (H))
Name-Sakshi Athwani
Enrollment No-A3221609069
Batch-2009-2014
Amity law school

2. Amity Law School
Amity Law School
Amity University
CERTIFICATE
This is certified that the project entitled “LIBYAN AND SYRIAN CONFLICTS: A
QUESTION MARK ON PRINCIPLES OF HUMAN RIGHTS”
is the original and bonafide work of
Sakshi Athwani carried out under my personal guidance and supervision. I approve its
submission.
Date-30/09/13
Faculty Name – Ms. Ritika Behl
Amity law School
Amity University

3. ACKNOWLEDGEMENT
It is only by the grace of god that I have been able to accomplish this arduous task. I feel my
duty to acknowledge my gratitude to those, who have been associated with this work whether
covertly or overtly. At this point I must admit the fact that the present work is an arduous
work and I have taken the aid and advice of many learned people.
First of all I am extremely thankful to my Human Rights teacher Ms. Ritika Behl for her
constant encouragement, help, co-operation and inspiration extended to me in the course of
present study.
Last but not the least in order to give ventilation to my pious feelings. I am thankful to all my
well-wishers who always explicitly or implicitly extended their love and affection.

4. INDEX
1. SYRIAN CONFLICTS
2. LIBYAN CONFLICTS
3. CONCLUSION
4. BIBLIOGRAPHY

5. SYRIAN CONFLICTS
Human rights violations during the Syrian civil war
Human rights violations during the Syrian civil war have been numerous and serious. In June
2012 Amnesty International reported the majority had been committed by government forces,
though the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights NaviPillay has said that both sides
appear to have committed war crimes, with UN investigations having concluded that the
government's abuses are the greatest in both gravity and scale.
Legal framework
Four of the international instruments ratified by Syria and which apply to the events
described in the present report are particularly relevant: the International Covenant on Civil
and Political Rights (ICCPR); the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural
Rights; the Convention on the Rights of the Child; and the UN Convention Against Torture.
Syria is not a party to the International Convention for the Protection of All Persons from
Enforced Disappearance, although it is bound by the provisions of the ICCPR that also
prohibit enforced disappearances.
Four key security agencies have overseen the repression in Syria: the General Security
Directorate, the Political Security Branch, the Military Intelligence Branch, and the Air Force
Intelligence Branch. All three corps of the Syrian army have been deployed in a supporting
role to the security forces; the civilian police have been involved in crowd control. The
shabiha, led by the security forces, also participated in abuses. Since Hafez al-Assad's rule,
individuals from the Alawite minority have controlled (although they not always formally
headed) these four agencies, as well as several elite military units, and comprise the bulk of
them.

6. Syrian armed and security forces
According to the UN, Syrian armed and security forces have been responsible for: unlawful
killing, including of children (mostly boys), medical personnel and hospital patients ("In
some particularly grave instances, entire families were executed in their homes"); torture,
including of children (mostly boys, sometimes to death) and hospital patients, and including
sexual and psychological torture; arbitrary arrest "on a massive scale"; deployment of tanks
and helicopter gunships in densely populated areas; heavy and indiscriminate shelling of
civilian areas; collective punishment; enforced disappearances; widescale and systematic
destruction and looting of property; the systematic denial, in some areas, of food and water;
and the prevention of medical treatment, including to children. Amnesty International
reported that medical personnel had also been tortured, while the UN said that medical
personnel in state hospitals were sometimes complicit in the killing and torture of patients.
The execution and torture of children was also documented by Amnesty International and
Human Rights Watch. Most of the serious human rights violations documented by the UN
have been committed by the Syrian army and security services as part of military or search
operations. The pattern of the killing, coupled with interviews with defectors, led the UN to
conclude a shoot-to-kill policy was operative. The UN mentioned several reports of security
forces killing injured victims by putting them into refrigerated cells in hospital morgues.
Amnesty International decided to enter the country uninvited in spring 2012 and documented
"gross violations of human rights on a massive scale" by the Syrian military and shabiha,
"many of which amount to crimes against humanity and war crimes". These were committed
against the armed opposition, to punish and intimidate civilian individuals and strongholds
perceived to be supporting the opposition, and indiscriminately against individuals who had
nothing to do with the opposition. In addition to the crimes listed by the UN above, they
noted cases of people being burnt alive; destruction of pharmacies and field hospitals (normal
hospitals are out of bounds to those wounded by the military); and that the sometimes lethal
torture ("broken bones, missing teeth, deep scars and open wounds from electric shocks, and
from severe beatings and lashings with electric cables and other implements") was
overwhelmingly directed at men and boys.
The UN reported 10,000 persons arbitrarily detained between mid-March and the late June
2011;a year later that number had more than doubled, though the true number of detainees
may have been far higher. At the notorious Seidnaya jail, north of Damascus, 2,500 military

7. officers and lesser ranks were being held after they disobeyed orders or attempted
desertion.Human Rights Watch documented more than 20 different methods of torture used
against detainees, including: prolonged and severe beatings, often with objects such as batons
and wires; painful stress positions; electrocution; burning with car battery acid; sexual
assault; pulling out fingernails; mock execution; and sexual violence. Many were held in
disgusting and cruelly overcrowded conditions; many who needed medical assistance were
denied it, and some consequently died.
Amnesty was also in the possession of 10,000 names, mainly men and boys, who had been
killed since February 2011, though the organisation again conceded the true figure may be
significantly higher. Some of the more prominent detainees have included Ali al-Abdallah,
blogger and student Tal al-Mallohi, and prominent LGBT anti-government blogger
RazanGhazzawi, who was arrested twice by Syrian authorities.
Human Rights Watch accused the government and Shabiha of using civilians as human
shields when they advanced on opposition-held areas. A UN report confirmed this, saying
soldiers had used children as young as eight, detaining and killing children afterwards. The
UN added the Syrian Government as one of the worst offenders on its annual "list of shame".
In response to these violations, the UN Human Rights Council passed a condemnatory
resolution. It also demanded that Syria cooperate with a UN investigation into the abuses,
release all political prisoners, and allow independent monitors to visit detention facilities.
Not all reports have proved accurate: Zainab al-Hosni, who was purportedly beheaded by
Syrian authorities, later turned out to be alive.
In May 2012, Al Arabiya aired leaked footage of a man being tortured in a government
detention centre in Kafranbel.
An increasing number of reports indicated that the Syrian government is attacking civilians at
bread bakeries with artillery rounds and rockets in opposition-controlled cities and districts in
Aleppo province and Aleppo city, with the reports indicating that the bakeries were shelled
indiscriminately. HRW said these are war crimes, as the only military targets in the areas
were rebels manning the bakeries and that dozens of civilians were killed.

8. Upon retaking the capital Damascus after the Battle of Damascus (2012), the Syrian
government began a campaign of collective punishment against Sunni suburbs in-and-around
the capital which had supported FSA presence in their neighborhoods.
The charity Save the Children conducted interviews in refugee camps with Syrian civilians
who had fled the fighting, and released a report in September 2012 containing many accounts
of detention, torture and summary execution, as well as other incidents such as the use of
civilians as human shields, allegedly including tying children onto advancing tanks so that
rebel forces would not fire upon them.
In a 23 October 2012 statement, Human Rights Watch said that Syrian military denials
notwithstanding, HRW had "evidence of ongoing cluster bomb attacks" by Syria’s air force.
HRW has confirmed reports "through interviews with victims, other residents and activists
who filmed the cluster munitions", as well as "analysis of 64 videos and also photos showing
weapon remnants" of cluster bomb strikes. The use, production, stockpiling, and transfer of
cluster munitions isporhibited by the 2008 international Convention on Cluster Munitions
treaty. Use of cluster bombs have been considered a grave threat to civilian populations
because of the bombs' ability to randomly scatter thousands of submunitions or "bomblets"
over a vast area, many of which remain waiting to explode, taking civilian lives and limbs
long after the conflict is over.
Referral to the International Criminal Court
United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights NaviPillay and others have called for
Syria to be referred to the International Criminal Court; however, it would be difficult for this
to take place with within the foreseeable future because Syria is not a party to the Rome
Statute of the International Criminal Court, meaning the ICC has no jurisdiction there
(referral could alternatively happen via the Security Council, but Russia and China would
block). Marc Lynch, who is in favour of a referral, noted a couple of other routes to the ICC
were possible, and that overcoming Chinese and Russian opposition was not impossible.
Richard Haass has argued that one way to encourage top-level defections is to "threaten warcrimes indictments by a certain date, say, August 15, for any senior official who remains a
part of the government and is associated with its campaign against the Syrian people. Naming
these individuals would concentrate minds in Damascus." Nevertheless, it remains unlikely in

9. the short term, and some would argue this is a blessing in disguise, since this precludes the
ICC's involvement while the conflict is still raging, a development that would arguably only
increase the Assad government's violent obstinacy.
Armed opposition fighters
With regard to armed opposition groups, the UN accused them of: unlawful killing; torture
and ill-treatment; kidnapping and hostage taking; and the use of children in dangerous noncombat roles. Amnesty confirmed that they were guilty of having tortured and executed
captured soldiers and militiamen, as well as known or perceived civilian collaborators, and
later condemned the opposition fighters responsible for an attack on a pro-Assad TV station
in June 2012 in which media workers were killed. According to the Institute for the Study of
War, "monthly instances of assassinations, executions, and kidnappings by rebels
skyrocketed in February 2012 and doubled again between March and April. . . . The Assad
regime's sectarian shabiha paramilitaries have been responsible for a vast numbers of killings,
which has made it more difficult for insurgents to resist the urge to act in reprisal."
RadhikaCoomaraswamy, the UN special representative for children and armed conflict, said
in March 2012 that she had received claims that the Free Syrian Army was using children as
fighters. A UN report in April 2012 also mentioned "credible allegations" that rebels,
including the FSA, were using child fighters, despite stated FSA policy of not recruiting any
child under the age of 17, but a later one in June 2012 made no mention of this, only
reporting that opposition fighters were using children in non-combat roles. Still, in an
interview to AP, one rebel commander stated that his 16-year-old son had died in clashes
with government troops as a rebel fighter. He also confirmed that his group had been
releasing prisoners in bomb-rigged cars turning drivers into unwitting suicide bombers.
In May 2013, a video was posted on the internet showing rebel commander Abu Sakkar
cutting organs from the dead body of a Syrian soldier and putting one of them in his mouth,
"as if he is taking a bite out of it". He says to the camera: "soldiers of Bashar [...] we will eat
your heart and livers! [...] Oh my heroes of Baba Amr, you slaughter the Alawites and take
their hearts out to eat them!" Human Rights Watch confirmed the authenticity of the footage,
and said that Abu Sakkar appears to be a commander of the "Independent Omar al-Farouq
Brigade". Human Rights Watch said "It is not known whether the Independent Omar alFarouq Brigade operates within the command structure of the Free Syrian Army". The

10. incident was condemned by the FSA's Chief of Staff and the Syrian National Coalition said
that the commander would be put on trial. The rebel Supreme Military Council called for Abu
Sakkar's arrest, saying it wants him "dead or alive". Abu Sakkar said that his action was
revenge, explaining that he had found a video on the soldier's cellphone in which the soldier
sexually abuses a woman and her two daughters. In earlier days before the escalation of
violence he had taken part in marches and at that time voiced the need for a united front to
cause the reforms that were denied by the regime. His brigade was not among those calling
for a medieval caliphate or allegiance to al-Qa'ida, and he had taken a stand against Islamist
extremists in rebel ranks. Independent journalist Kim Sengupta, having observed that the
brutality with which the regime responded to peaceful protests in Baba Amr and elsewhere in
Syria was the catalyst for the armed uprising which followed, looked for further explanation
for the viciousness that is expressed. Mr Nassr, another brigade member told him; "He (Abu
Sakkar) should not have done what he did, doing that was haram (wrong in religion) and
unwise. But it was a message to the Shabiha. They film young men and women being
tortured to try and frighten the people and this was meant as a warning to them.”
Sexual violence
Men and women have been subjected to sexual violence by government forces. Amnesty
International has received reports of men being raped. According to the UN, sexual violence
in detention is directed principally against men and boys, rather than women and girls:
Several testimonies reported the practice of sexual torture used on male detainees. Men were
routinely made to undress and remain naked. Several former detainees testified reported
beatings of genitals, forced oral sex, electroshocks and cigarette burns to the anus in detention
facilities . . . Several of the detainees were repeatedly threatened that they would be raped in
front of their family and that their wives and daughters would also be raped. Testimonies
were received from several men who stated they had been anally raped with batons and that
they had witnessed the rape of boys. One man stated that he witnessed a 15-year-old boy
being raped in front of his father. A 40-year-old man saw the rape of an 11-year-old boy by
three security services officers.
Human Rights Watch has also reported these sexual crimes being committed by Syrian
government forces.

11. Syrian activists claim women were abducted and raped in rebellious parts of the country,
possibly using sexual violence as a means of quelling dissent. An opposition campaigner
supplied The Globe and Mail with details about six previously unknown cases of violence
against women, saying that more such incidents remain hidden as Damascus struggles to
contain the uprising. Syrian refugees fleeing to Turkey reported mass rape by Syrian soldiers,
more than 400 women were raped and sexually abused.
On 13 August 2012 a sergeant in the special forces who had defected claimed that Alawite
officers ordered the rape of teenage girls in Homs, who would be shot afterwards. The
defected sergeant further said that soldiers who refused were shot by the army.
A report released 14 January 2013 by the International Rescue Committee stated that a
primary reason Syrian refugees flee is because of fear of rape.
Attacks on journalists
This article is about Attacks on journalists. For others named under attacks on journalists in
the Syrian civil war, see List of journalists killed during the Syrian civil war.
Except for those hand-picked by the government, journalists have been banned from
reporting in Syria. Those who have entered the country regardless have been targeted. Within
a month of the protests taking off, at least seven local and international journalists were
detained, and at least one of these was beaten. Citizen journalist Mohammed Hairiri was
arrested in April 2012, tortured in prison, and sentenced to death in May 2012 for giving an
interview for Al Jazeera.JordanianSalamehKaileh was tortured and detained in deplorable
conditions before being deported.
According to the Committee to Protect Journalists, 13 journalists were killed in work-related
incidents during the first eighteen months of the uprising. During the same period, Reporters
Without Borders said a total of 33 journalists were killed. Many, such as Marie Colvin, were
killed by government forces, but at least one, French journalist Gilles Jacquier, was killed by
rebel fire.

12. Attacks on Local Christians
Local Christian minorities are also facing many human rights violations. Two bishops had
been kidnapped on April 22, 2013 and have not been heard from since. Aleppo's Greek
Orthodox Bishop BoulosYazij and Syriac Orthodox Bishop Yohanna Ibrahim were
kidnapped at gun point by unknown combatants when returning from a humanitarian mission
to Turkey. During the kidnapping, the deacon driving them was shot and killed.

13. LIBYAN CONFLICTS
Human rights violations in the Libyan civil war
The outbreak of the Libyan civil war has been followed by accusations of
human rights violations by the rebel forces opposed to Muammar Gaddafi, the
Armed Forces and NATO. The alleged violations include rape, extrajudicial
killings, racism, misconduct and bombings of civilians. Alleged human rights
violations were committed by all sides during the conflict, including NATO,
anti-Gaddafi forces, and pro-Gaddafi forces.
LIBYAN ARMED FORCES
Claims of systematic shooting at protesters
Luis Moreno Ocampo, chief prosecutor of the International Criminal Court,
estimated that between 500 and 700 people were killed by Gaddafi's security
forces in February 2011, before the rebels even took up arms. "Shooting at
protestors was systematic," Moreno-Ocampo stated, discussing the Libyan
government's response to the initial pro-democracy demonstrations.
The Libyan government denies that they ordered killings of demonstrators in
the early days of the uprising. They say that soldiers acted in self-defense as
they were attacked by mobs.
Moreno-Ocampo further stated that during the ongoing civil war, "War crimes
are apparently committed as a matter of policy" by forces loyal to Gaddafi. This
is further supported by claims of Human Rights Watch, that 10 protesters, who
had already agreed to lay down arms, were executed by a government
paramilitary group in BaniWalid in May.

14. In June 2011, a detailed investigation carried out by Amnesty International
claimed that many of the allegations against Gaddafi and the Libyan state turned
out to either be false or lack any credible evidence, noting that rebels at times
appeared to have knowingly made false claims or manufactured evidence.
According to the Amnesty investigation, the number of casualties was heavily
exaggerated, some of the protesters may have been armed, "there is no proof of
mass killing of civilians on the scale of Syria or Yemen," and there is no
evidence that aircraft or heavy anti-aircraft machine guns were used against
crowds. It also doubted claims from the Western media that the protest
movement was "entirely peaceful" and "presented no security challenge."
However in a later report from Amnesty International it was found that "alGaddafi forces committed serious violations of international humanitarian law
(IHL), including war crimes, and gross human rights violations,which point to
the commission of crimes against humanity. They deliberately killed and
injured scores of unarmed protesters; subjected perceived opponents and critics
to enforced disappearance and torture and other ill- treatment; and arbitrarily
detained scores of civilians. They launched indiscriminate attacks and attacks
targeting civilians in their efforts to regain control of Misratah and territory in
the east. They launched artillery, mortar and rocket attacks against residential
areas. They used inherently indiscriminate weapons such as anti-personnel
mines and cluster bombs,including in residential areas."
In July 2011, Saif al-Islam Gaddafi had an interview with Russia Today, where
he denied the ICC's allegations that he or his father Muammar Gaddafi ordered
the killing of civilian protesters. He pointed out that he is not a member of the
government or the military, and therefore has no authority to give such orders.
According to Saif, he made recorded calls to General Abdul Fatah, who later
defected to the rebel forces, in order to request not to use force against

15. protesters, to which Fatah responded that they are attacking a military site,
where surprised guards fired in self-defense.
ALLEGATIONS OF MASS RAPE
2011 Libyan rape allegations
A Libyan psychologist, SihamSergewa, conducted a survey of refugees in
Tunisia and Egypt to document the trauma of the civil war. Nearly 300 women
were reported to have been raped. The real number could be much higher,
considering the stigma attached to rape victims in Libyan society. Every single
woman in the survey who admitted to being raped, said they were raped by
Gaddafi's soldiers or militiamen.
However, United Nations war-crimes expert M. CherifBassiouni, Human Rights
Watch (HRW), Doctors Without Borders and Amnesty International say that
they have found no evidence of systematic rape conducted by the Libyan
government. Amnesty International's Donatella Rovera said that the Benghazi
rebels had knowingly made false claims or manufactured evidence, quoting one
example of pristine boxes of Viagra that the rebels said were found inside a
totally burned out tank belonging to Gaddafi's troops. This raised serious doubts
about the claim that Gaddafi handed out Viagra to his soldiers to enable them to
rape more efficiently.
Physicians for Human Rights (PHR) collected testimony of eyewitness who
reported that Qaddafi forces transformed an elementary school into a detention
site where they raped women and girls as young as 14 years old. PHR also
reports of honour killings that occurred in response to these rapes.

16. Use of land mines as a means of war
HRW has confirmed claims of rebels, that laying land mines is widespread by
the Libyan government forces as a means of war. It found them on at least six
different locations in Libya, mostly on frontlines of the Gaddafi forces. Among
these land mines are not only anti-tank mines, but also anti-personnel mines,
which can permanently pose a threat to civilians.
Shelling of civilian areas
Gaddafi forces have been accused by human-rights groups of shelling towns
with heavy weapons, risking civilian lives indiscriminately. The most
accusations refer to the siege of Misrata, accusing Gaddafi forces of targeting
hospitals and civilian areas, also using internationally outlawed cluster bombs
of Spanish production as ammunition, having risked the lives of civilians.
Other abuses of non-combatants
A Human Rights Watch report documents the "unlawful occupation and terror
of hospital staff" by pro-Government forces in Yafran in the western mountains,
risking the lives of the patients and terrifying the staff contrary to international
law.
In August 2011, Physicians for Human Rights released a report documenting
severe violations of human rights and evidence of war crimes and possible
crimes against humanity in Misrata. Findings included that Qaddafi forces used
civilians as human shields, attacked ambulances bearing the Red Crescent,
destroyed religious buildings, and intentionally starved civilians. In the same
report, PHR gave evidence to violations of medical neutrality, such as attacks
on medical facilities, medical transport, and medical workers.

17. CRIMES AGAINST INTERNATIONAL HUMANITARIAN LAW
Execution of prisoners of war
A group of 15 to 22 Libyan army soldiers captured in Derna were reportedly
executed in the village of Martuba, 20 kilometres (12 miles) east of Derna.
According to a widely circulated story, the men were claimed to have been
"executed by their own officers for disobeying orders".
Another group of 15 dark-skinned Libyan prisoners were publicly executed by
hanging in front of the Bayda courthouse.
Murder and torture of injured soldiers
On 17 February, the Bayda hospital admitted two injured men, one of black
complexion, and the other of olive complexion. The men were accused of
fighting against the rebels. A hospital doctor claimed that the black man was
murdered and hung by an angry mob that had gathered around the hospital. The
other injured man was reportedly beaten, shot and returned to the emergency
room.
Lootings and beatings
In four towns in the western mountains captured in June by the opposition,
HRW noticed lootings of private property and beatings of alleged Gaddafi
sympathizers by rebel forces. The National Transitional Council (NTC) then
pledged to hold responsible the causers of the attacks and to prevent such
abuses in the future.
Killing of civilians
During the Battle of Sirte, the rebels killed many civilians, including men,
women, and children, while there were also reports of the rebels harassing and

18. stealing from the locals. According to one resident, "The rebels are worse than
rats. Nato is the same as Osama bin Laden." According to another local woman,
"We lived in democracy under Muammer Gaddafi, he was not a dictator. I lived
in freedom, Libyan women had full human rights. It isn't that we need
Muammer Gaddafi again, but we want to live just as we did before." A local
elderly woman stated "They are killing our children. Why are they doing this?
For what? Life was good before!”
NATO airstrikes
On 9 August, the Libyan government claimed that 85 civilians were killed in
NATO airstrikes on the village of Majer near Zliten. A NATO spokesman said
that they were targeting four buildings in which nine vehicles were destroyed
and that government claim "was not corroborated by available factual
information at the site". The Libyan government declared three days of national
mourning. Reporters were later taken to a hospital where they saw at least 30
dead bodies including the bodies of at least two young children. The Libyan
government claimed that the bodies of others killed in the airstrikes were taken
to other hospitals. Neither of these claims were independently verified, although
some media outlets came to the conclusion that it seemed more credible than
usual that something tragic happened due to the presence of at least 14 bodies at
one hospital, including an infant.
Russia's U.N. Ambassador VitalyChurkin said a council-mandated investigation
of NATO involvement in the Libyan Civil War is essential "given the fact that
initially we were led to believe by NATO leaders there are zero civilian
casualties of their bombing campaign.". The U.S. and France called Russia's
demand for an investigation "a distraction", supporting the claim made by Susan
Rice, the U.S. Ambassador: "This is duplicative, it's redundant, it's superfluous
and it's a stunt.".According to France's U.N. Ambassador Gerard Araud there

19. were two ongoing investigations of NATO’s actions in Libya, one by a U.N.
Human Rights Council which is scheduled to report in March and the second by
the International Criminal Court.
Allegations of usage of African mercenaries
Some journalists have accused human-rights organizations of falsifying claims,
that Gaddafi was using mercenaries from other parts of Africa to attack
protesters,however the presence of mercenaries from countries such as Chad,
Niger, and Mali has been confirmed by Gaddafi's former Chief of Protocol
Nouri Al Misrahi.
Rape of black Africans
Sudanese refugees from Eastern Libya have reported that a twelve-year-old
Sudanese girl was raped by armed men that forced them out of their homes. A
Gambian man shown to journalists by anti-Gaddafi forces reported that he had
been dragged from his house by three armed men who accused him of being a
mercenary of Gaddafi and raped his wife.
Murder of guest workers and black Libyans
The Chadian government called on coalition forces to protect its citizens in
rebel-held areas in Libya. It claimed that dozens had been accused and executed
for allegedly being mercenaries in the pay of Gaddafi.
A Turkish oil worker reported witnessing the murder of 70 to 80 Sudanese and
Chadian guest workers with pruning shears and axes by Libyans who accused
them of being Gaddafi mercenaries.
HRW's Peter Bouckaert visited Bayda where 156 supposed mercenaries were
being held captive. He reported that these men are actually black Libyans from
Southern Libya. He argued that the support of the black southern Libyans for

20. the Gaddafi regime was explicable as Gaddafi fought to counter discrimination
against this group in Libyan society. In the same interview, Bouckaert also said
that those 156 individuals were released by the rebels less than two weeks after
being captured.
Forced expulsion of black families
Sudanese refugees from Eastern Libya reported that armed men went door to
door and forced them to leave their homes.
Murder of unarmed migrant workers
Killings of unarmed migrant workers by rebels have been described. On 18
April, a British reporter who had just arrived at Benghazi by sea from Misrata
described the sufferings of large numbers of migrant workers trapped in Misrata
in a broadcast on BBC Radio 4. After mentioning casualties during government
forces attack he said about the migrant workers that "…some have also died in
clashes with the, err, rebel fighters. They were protesting about the conditions,
demanding that they should be repatriated and on a couple of occasions this has
led to the rebels opening fire and, err, people dying."

21. CONCLUSION
United Declaration on Human Rights was the first draft for the protection of Human Rights
and after that ICCPR and ICESCR was also introduced. This was a boon for the protection of
Human Rights then the Geneva Convention was introduced for the protection of people
during war crimes for prisoners of war.
Geneva Convention protects the civilians even in a civil war. The situation in Libya and
Syrian is very critical and when there is a civil war civilians should not be harmed. There are
rebels involved in the war which directly act against the state. So thus Geneva Convention is
there to protect from all prisoners of war.
As the Security Council can direct the developed nations to intervene in a state which is
going through a turmoil and protect the people of that state, but it can only be done in a
restricted manner and as per the directions of the Supreme Court and most importantly the
intervening state should not try to capture to benefit itself from intervening.
Intervention is done when there is no alteration left and there is mass killing and genocide of
the civilians in a state and it is just done to protect the civilians and no other motive is there
as it was held in the case of Nicaragua.

22. BIBLIOGRAPHY
1. www.amnestyusa.org – Libya Human Rights | Amnesty International USA
2. www.edition.cnn.com – Syria Civil War Fast Facts
3. International Law and Human Rights by Dr. S.K Kapoor
4. www.studentsummit.cz/data/1354903402701NATO_Current-crisis-in-Syria.pdf