UN condemns Syria crackdown

The UN Assembly's human rights committee has agreed on a resolution condemning Syria for its eight month crackdown on protesters, in which 3,500 civilians have been killed by the country’s security forces. Damascus called it "a declaration of war".

The decision and the adoption of a resolution by the UN human rights committee is more of a symbolic kind of pressure by the international community rather than one carrying any legal weight, reports RT’s Marina Portnaya. The resolution does not mention any sanctions against Syria, but calls on the country to end all human rights violations and abuses. According to the United Nations, 3,500 people have been killed since the uprising in Syria began eight months ago. And the Syrian ambassador accused western nations of declaring diplomatic war against his country by sponsoring the resolution. Some experts believe that Western powers are using this as a first step to bringing this issue back to the UN Security Council. Last month, when a resolution condemning Syria was introduced at the Security Council, Russia and China vetoed it saying the situation that took place in Libya should not be repeated in Syria, says RT’s Portnaya. Russia believes that there should be dialogue first and foremost between the Syrian government and opposition groups, and Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said Russia is calling for an end to violence. Despite the fact that Bahrain was one of the sponsors of this resolution that was adopted by the UN human rights committee, it stands accused of its own human rights abuses and killings in a violent crackdown on protestors this year. These are very delicate times for different parts of the Middle East, with fears among some experts that mounting international pressure on one country could lead to more uprisings in that nation or neighboring states. It is a very tense time for not just Syria or Egypt, but for the entire region. There has to be a kind of agreement into how the situation should be handled because if one country feels an enormous amount of international pressure, it can cause more problems than the world is actually prepared to deal with at the moment, RT’s Portnaya reported.