More than 2,000 people have died since Russia and China vetoed the first UN Security Council Resolution in October 2011. Between 6-8,000 people have died since the uprising began. Hundreds more have been tortured and illegally detained.
We believe that we should protect those who are striving to enjoy the same rights that we in the Free World enjoy every day as articulated in the Universal Declaration on Human Rights.
A new standard for international intervention in the affairs of states that undermines those basic rights and freedoms must be developed. We believe that it is important that where the global community has the ability to save lives then it has the imperative to do so.
Intervention, where it is for humanitarian purposes, is not something to be feared. We believe that humanitarian intervention in states which torture and murder their own citizens as an act of political and social repression is not only justified but it is of the upmost importance.
We accept that in the past interventionism has not been as successful as it might have been; nonetheless, we see the action by the international community in Libya and that of NATO in the Bosnian and Yugoslav Wars as a model for intervention.
The Libyan no-fly zone prevented a potential massacre in Benghazi. We cannot allow that kind of mass killing to happen in Syria either. Iraqi Marsh Arabs, Rwandans, Bosniaks at Srebrenica and Kurds have suffered where the international community did not intervene, and we believe that that mistake cannot be repeated again.
We condemn the veto by China and Russia of the draft UN Security Council Resolution supporting Arab League efforts to resolve the crisis in Syria and calling for an immediate end to all violence.
A Syrian-led transition of power away from the corrupt and murderous Assad regime must happen as soon as possible to prevent further deaths in Syria.
Signatories (All in a personal capacity):
- Harry Langford (Author), What’s Next?, Labour.
- Daniel Furr, Too Liberal, Liberal Democrat.
- Cllr Pete Bowyer, Labour & Co-Operative Member for Stockwell.
- Dominyk Tiller, Weighing the World, Member of Unite, Progress and Former Labour Candidate for Northville
- Julie, Julie’s Think Tank
- Deanna Quirke, Exeter University Labour Club, Labour.
- Tom Williams, KCL Labour Society Executive, Labour.
- Daniel Mayhew, NTU Labour Club Executive, Labour.
- Max Wind-Cowie, Muscular Liberal, Conservative.
- Harry Matthews, Yellow Spectacles, Sheffield University Liberal Youth, Liberal Democrat.
- Brad Marshall, University of Leicester Labour Club, Labour.
- Jamil Dhanani, Vice-President, Thornhill Young Liberals.
- Danny Hackett, Labour
- Samuel Baxter, University of Manchester Conservative Future, Conservative.
- Jason Cowan, University of Manchester Conservative Future, Conservative.
- Mike Farrell, LawBlogOne
- Jon Boulton, Conservative.
- Ben McCabe, Conservative.
- Stephen Fulham, Socialist and Labour Party Member.
- Christopher Aldous, Community Activist.
- Brian Devlin, Labour.
- John Brooks.
- Liam Quinn, Conservative.
- Leon Ward.
- David Doig, Socialist
- Peter Lord
- Tariq Rahuma.
- Mike Knight.
- Adam Gray.
- Peter van Vilet.
