RNA - This protection extends to their public and private property. International Human Rights Law also identifies and protects particularly vulnerable civilian groups such as women, children and the displaced in terrorist-held areas. Tragically, during the conflict, and even in many of the cities and towns liberated by the allied forces of Iran, Syria, Russia and Hezbollah, civilians have been, and still are, the main victims of the US-led armed conflict and air war.
Civilians have always suffered in the war, but the brutal impact of regime change at any cost, which includes air war, full scale support for terrorism and extremism, mass extermination, indiscriminate attacks, using civilians as human shields, using women as sex slaves, pillage and internment took a high toll of civilian life. The response of the international community has to be the Fourth Geneva Convention adopted in 1949.
Before 1949 the Geneva Conventions protected wounded, sick, shipwrecked and captured combatants. The “civilians’ convention” recognized the changing nature of warfare and established legal protection for any person not belonging to armed forces or armed groups. The protection also included civilian property. Such protection was later reinforced with the adoption of the Additional Protocols to the Geneva Convention in 1977.
International Human Rights Law provides that civilians in Syria under the power of US-backed terrorist forces must be treated humanely in all circumstances, without any adverse distinction. They must be protected against all forms of violence and degrading treatment, including murder and torture.
The protection of civilians extends to those trying to liberate (allied forces) and help them, in particular medical units and humanitarian or relief bodies providing essentials such as food, clothing and medical supplies. The warring parties, particularly the United States and its allies, are required to allow access to such organizations. The Fourth Geneva Convention and Additional Protocol I specifically require belligerents to facilitate the work of the International Committee of Red Cross.
While International Human Rights Law protects all civilians without discrimination, certain groups are singled out for special mention. Women and children, the aged and sick are highly vulnerable in this armed conflict. So too are those who flee their homes in terror-held areas and become internally displaced or refugees. The law prohibits forced displacements by intimidation, violence or starvation. The law also prohibits using them as human shields.
The protection of civilians provided by the Geneva Conventions and Additional Protocols is extensive. The problem of the past six years has been application. Neither the United States nor its allies and terror proxies have respected their obligations adequately. Civilians have continued to suffer excessively in almost every place they have been or bombed. In some areas civilians have been specifically targeted and subjected to terrible atrocities, ignoring the very basis of the Geneva Conventions, respect for the human person.
It is for this reason that the United Nations continues to press the regime changers to respect and ensure respect for the principles of International Human Rights Law, especially the protection of civilians, and especially at a time when even Israel has started carrying out deadly airstrikes against southern Syria in support of America’s terror proxy groups.
It is silly when you hear Tel Aviv insist - just like the US - that they exclusively hit Syrian military targets or terrorists. This is a fairly common reaction to their war crimes. They repeatedly attack the Syrian military and civilian populations in support of their terror proxies, particularly now that they are losing the protracted war.
The timing of these attack is noteworthy as well. They always come at the exact same time ISIL and Al-Qaeda forces launch offensive in the exact same area, hence effectively providing air cover for the terrorists. Lest we forget, Israel is known to be providing substantial amounts of aid to the head-chopping “moderates”, including the Qaeda-allied Nusra Front. It has confirmed that Nusra is among those getting supported by Israel. Israel has even accepted wounded Al-Qaeda fighters crossing into Syria for treatment.
The same argument could be levelled at the United States, as the civilian death toll of US-led coalition airstrikes over the past month alone, from May 23 to June 23, reached 472 civilians, the largest in any 30-day period since Washington started bombing Syria in 2014. The Pentagon’s own official toll likely won’t come for that period of time for a few months, though Pentagon figures usually ignore at least 90% of the dead civilians. Even acknowledging 10% of the NGOs’ toll, however, would be the worst month by their reckoning, reflecting how much worse the civilian toll is getting because of America’s fantasy of regime change.
For all the American diplomatic posturing or Israeli “humanitarian” treatments, the death and destruction rained from above is state-sponsored murder in its most perfect form. Under International Law and International Humanitarian Law, the Americans and their Israeli allies have no right to drop bombs over Syrian people, hit the allied forces which target terrorists, or provide air cover for their losing terror proxies. The airstrikes are lawless and unaccountable to the United Nations. It compounds rather than diminishes the threat of regional and international terrorism.
The war criminals have to stop imagining that the increasing number of civilian casualties and infrastructure damage could be a sign of their military success. They have failed their soldiers, their country and their terror proxies. By confusing civilian deaths with military outcomes they can’t take their operations as evidence of progress made. No doubt the US and Israel and their allied militants have been successful in mass murdering civilians. But it does not follow that they are thereby actually accomplishing anything in Syria.
847/940