15 November 2011
The regime of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad on Sunday called for an emergency meeting of the Arab League after the 22-member organization voted to suspend the country’s membership by Wednesday if it does not comply with a peace plan to end the violence against anti-government demonstrators that has killed more than 3,500 since spring. Turkish, Qatari, Saudi and French diplomatic outposts were attacked after the vote Saturday, only the second of its kind in the history of the regional Arab League, with some members threatening to push for economic and political sanctions.
Source: http://www.nytimes.com
14 October 2011
The UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, Navi Pillay, made a public statement urging the international community to take action to protect the Syrian population. She refers to the excessive use of force and killings by the Syrian government as constituting crimes against humanity and stresses that the ‘onus to take protective action’ now rests upon the international community. A finding of crimes against humanity is one of the four grounds for operationalization of the Responsibility to Protect, accepted by the international community in the 2005 World Summit Outcome Document (see paras. 138-39).
Source: http://www.ohchr.org
27 September 2011
In an address to the Security Council the Dutch Minister of Foreign Affairs, Uri Rosenthal, urged its members to come to an agreement on sanctions against the regime in Syria. He stressed that the Council’s indecision is costing human lives as the crackdown on protestors continues.
Source: http://www.un.org