Syria: End Repression of Human Rights Activists!

I have known Mustafa for sometime now, it was a strange meeting, yet our interests in human rights, woman rights and minorities' rights made us good friends. Mustafa is the kind whom you listen to when he speaks, though he has some firm facial features, but that cannot hide the humane, the kind and the shy man behind, especially when he smiles.
I remember the first time we met, he, his lovely girlfriend and friends, sang for hours in a Damascene night at the roof of their house. We sang Ziad and Sami' Shqir's songs, we sang for the dream of liberty, for the dream to be allowed to act, to be Syrians.
Though Mustafa is young, he is one of the striking Syrians I've met in my life. He is always busy attending conferences, researching for human rights, and writing reports on human rights magazines. He's the citizen.
For a citizen, for the citizens that are forgotten in their lonely and dark cells, for Damascus Spring's prisoners of conscience, for every Syrian who chose to live the hard way, I raise my voice and ask Syria, Syrians and you, to support these citizens' right to breath: End Repression of human rights activists!

I publish below Mustafa's own words of his case---please republish.

Dear Sir \ Madam,

Although the Syrian constitution protects the rights to freedom of movement, association and expression, the government has used emergency powers and restrictive legislation to stifle the activists’ exercise of their most basic rights. Government authorities also rely on the continuing state of emergency to adopt arbitrary measures to silence their critics and to prohibit them from operating as a legally recognized group. The government has relied on these laws to override constitutional guarantees and to establish itself as the sole arbiter of with whom and how Syrians can express, associate, and travel. Syrian authorities routinely use travel bans as punishment for activists and dissidents. The use of such bans expanded dramatically in 2006 and 2007 to include a lot of youth.

I was traveling from Damascus to Amman, Jordan, on July 30, 2007, to attend the course: Leadership towards the Elimination of All Forms of Violence against Women organized by the United Nations University and the International Leadership Institute. Syrian security forces at the border prevented me from leaving the country. They did not explain the reason for the travel ban but indicated that the Political Security Agency (Aleppo branch) had issued the order and that I had to report to them. Such restrictions constitute a violation of my right to freedom of movement and an undue interference with my rights to freedom of expression and association. For a few months before, Security services exercised pressures on me and my family.

I registered a case in front of the Administration court, which looks in government-related cases. I do not expect a positive result because of the continuing state of emergency.

Under international law, everyone is free to leave his or her country. The International
Covenant on Civil and Political Rights bars states from restricting someone’s right to leave the country, except when the given restrictions are prescribed by law and are “necessary to protect national security, public order, public health or morals or the rights and freedoms of others,” and are consistent with the other rights recognized in that treaty. Syrian security agents have issued travel bans in Syria without any explanation and without any judicial basis.

Syria has obligations under several international treaties to uphold these rights, including the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights and the International Covenant on Social, Economic and Cultural Rights (ICESCR). Syria ratified the ICCPR on March 23, 1976, and the ICESCR on January 3, 1976.

The UN secretary-general’s special representative on human rights defenders, Hina Jilani, expressed concern in her March 2006 report about the lack of freedom of assembly and freedom of movement for defenders in Syria, in particular with respect to their participation in seminars and workshops abroad on human rights issues. (see http://www.ohchr.org/english/bodies/hrcouncil/4session/docs/A-HRC-4-37.doc)

(To know more about the End Repression of Human Rights Groups in Syria, read HRW report on this link: http://hrw.org/reports/2007/syria1007/ )

I have "No Room to Breath", so I need your support by taking an action.


Best regards,

Mustafa Haid

Executive Board Member

Damascus Center for Human Rights Studies

Syria