The statement denounced the current crackdown on protesters in al-Hureya square in Taiz, Yemen, which has killed more than 50 protestors, as well as the targeting of activists in Syria, which has resulted in the killing of between 1,000 and 1,200 protestors.
(CIHRS/IFEX) – 31 May 2011 – In a statement read by the UN representative of the Cairo Institute for Human Rights Studies (CIHRS) at the 17th session of the UN Human Rights Council in Geneva, thirteen Arab human rights organizations called on the UN Special Rapporteur on Extrajudicial, Summary and Arbitrary Executions to urgently address the killings of pro-democracy protestors across the Arab region, calling for “a report specifically dedicated to this purpose, which would provide the international community with a preliminary analysis of the international legal implications of any alleged extrajudicial killings in these particular situations.”
The statement was endorsed by the CIHRS, the Tunisian League for the Defense of Human Rights, the Damascus Center for Human Rights Studies (Syria), the Sisters’ Arab Forum for Human Rights (Yemen), the Hewar Foundation for Democratic Development (Yemen), the Yemeni Organization for Human and Democratic Rights, the Social and Democratic Forum (Yemen), the Hood Organization for Human Rights (Yemen), the National Organization for Human Rights (Yemen), the Yemeni Center for Civil Rights, the Yemeni Center for Human Rights, the Yemeni Center for Human Rights Studies and the Yemeni Center for Journalists’ Training.
The statement denounced the current crackdown on protesters in al-Hureya square in Taiz, Yemen, which has killed more than 50 protestors, as well as the ongoing crackdown on pro-democracy activists in Syria, which has led to the killing of between 1000 and 1200 protestors. The statement called on the Human Rights Council to recommend that the UN Security Council refer the situation in both Yemen and Syria to the International Criminal Court to investigate crimes that may be tantamount to crimes against humanity.
