UNITED NATIONS AND GLOBAL CONFLICT

Term paper

Submitted by-Arpita Pandey

(History honours)

QUESTION: Asses the role of United Nations in the contemporary Syrian Conflict?

Even before the conflict began, many Syrians were complaining about high unemployment,
corruption and a lack of political freedom under President Bashar al-Assad, who succeeded
his father Hafez after he died in 2000.In 15 March 2011, pro-democracy demonstrations
erupted in the southern city of Deraa, inspired by the "Arab Spring" in neighbouring
countries.When the government used deadly force to crush the dissent, protests demanding
the president's resignation erupted nationwide.The unrest spread and the crackdown
intensified. Opposition supporters took up arms, first to defend themselves and later to rid
their areas of security forces. Mr Assad vowed to crush what he called "foreign-backed
terrorism"]. Pro-democracy protests erupted in March 2011 in the southern city of Deraa after
the arrest and torture of some teenagers who painted revolutionary slogans on a school wall.
After security forces opened fire on demonstrators, killing several, more took to the streets.
The unrest triggered nationwide protests demanding President Assad's resignation. The
government's use of force to crush the dissent merely hardened the protesters' resolve. By
July 2011, hundreds of thousands were taking to the streets across the country.Opposition
supporters eventually began to take up arms, first to defend themselves and later to expel
security forces from their local areas.The government's key supporters are Russia and Iran,
while the US, Turkey and Saudi Arabia back the rebels.Russia - which already had military
bases in Syria - launched an air campaign in support of Mr Assad in 2015 that has been
crucial in turning the tide of the war in the government's favour.The US,UK,
France and other Western countries have provided varying degrees of support for what
they consider "moderate" rebels.A global coalition they lead has also carried out air strikes on
IS militants in Syria since 2014 and helped an alliance of Kurdish and Arab militias called
the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) capture territory from the jihadists.

Violence escalated and the country descended into civil war as rebel brigades were formed to
battle government forces for control of cities, towns and the countryside. Fighting reached the
capital Damascus and second city of Aleppo in 2012.By June 2013, the UN said 90,000
people had been killed in the conflict. By August 2015, that figure had climbed to 250,000,
according to activists and the UN.The conflict is now more than just a battle between those
for or against Mr Assad. It has acquired sectarian overtones, pitching the country's Sunni
majority against the president's Shia Alawite sect, and drawn in regional and world powers.
The rise of the jihadist group Islamic State (IS) has added a further dimension. all parties to
the conflict have committed war crimes-including murder,torture,rape and enforced
disappearances. They have also been accused of using civilian suffering - such as blocking
access to food, water and health services through sieges - as a method of war. Many have
been killed by barrel bombs dropped by government aircraft on gatherings in rebel-held
areas. Hundreds of people were killed in August 2013 after rockets filled with the nerve agent
sarin were fired at several suburbs of Damascus.The Organisation for the Prohibition of
Chemical Weapons (OPCW) has continued to document the use of toxic chemicals in the
conflict. Investigators found chlorine was used "systematically and repeatedly" in deadly
attacks on rebel-held areas between April and July 2014.More than 4.5 million people have
fled Syria since the start of the conflict, most of them women and children. Neighbouring
Lebanon, Jordan and Turkey have struggled to cope with one of the largest refugee.Its many
foreign fighters are involved in a "war within a war" in Syria, battling rebels and rival
jihadists from the al-Qaeda-affiliated Nusra Front, as well as government and Kurdish
forces.In September 2014, a US-led coalition launched air strikes inside Syria in an effort to
"degrade and ultimately destroy" IS. But the coalition has avoided attacks that might benefit
Mr Assad's forces. Russia began an air campaign targeting "terrorists" in Syria a year later,
but opposition activists say its strikes have mostly killed Western-backed rebels and civilians.

In 2011,several UN bodies including the Human Rights Council ,General Assembly, Security
Council responded to the escalating crisis in Syria. In August 2011,the Human Rights
Council created the Commission of Inquiry on Syria to monitor gross violations of human
rights. This body ,along with the General Assemblyconsistently put forth resolutions
condemning rights abuses and calling upon the Syrian Arab Republic to put an end to its
attacks on civilians. In the next few months, the Security Council also became increasingly
engaged with the situation of Syria. On 23 February 2012,the evening before an international
‘Friends of Syrian conference in Tunisia, the United Nations and the Arab League together
appointed Kofi Annan as their envoy to Syria.70 nations excluding Russia and China were
present in the conference. Syria called those nations attending‘historic enemies of the
Arabs’.In March 2012,the Arab League and the UN launched the 6point peace plan for Syria
or the Kofi Annan peace plan for Syria when the violent Syrian conflict had raged for a year.
By the end of March and beginning of April, the initiators had believed that the Syrian
government was willing to comply with the peace plan. After the beginning of April, new
signs of wars and statements of politicians gradually casted discouraging shadows over those
hopes. In April ,2012 the Council authorised 30 unarmed observers to report on the
implementation of the ceasefire through its adoption of Resolution 2042. The United Nations
Supervision Mission in Syria (UNSMIS) is a United Nations peacekeeping mission in Syria,
set up in 2012 as a result of United Nations Security Council Resolution 2043 in response to
the Syrian Civil War It was commanded by Norwegian major general Robert Mood until 20
July 2012 followed by Lieutenant General Babacar Gaye from Senegal. Although observers
remain in the country, Mood suspended their mission on June 16, 2012 citing "escalating
violence." Observers will conduct no further patrols and stay in their current positions until
the suspension is lifted. On 20 July 2012, the Security Council extended UNSMIS for a final
period of 30 days. According to resolution 2059, the Council would only consider more
extensions in the event that the Secretary-General reports and the Security Council confirms
the cessation of the use of heavy weapons and a reduction in the level of violence sufficient
by all sides to allow UNSMIS to implement its mandate. Kofi Annan's six-point plan ,the
deployment of the short lived observer mission (United Nations Supervision Mission in
Syria) ; the push for humanitarian access and the established of the OPCW-UN Joint Mission
in Syria, were all well–meaning mechanisms. But the Council remained largely on the
sidelines, adopting only a handful of resolutions, many of which remained dead-letters (the
Council was not even responsible for the creation of the mission of UN special envoy to
Syria-a post filled by Annan, Brahimi and Staffan de Mistura.

In 2014, UN Security Council Resolution 2165 authorised humanitarian aid to be supplied via
four border crossings not controlled by the Syrian government , generally to supply rebel
controlled territory. Humanitarian assistance to refugees and their host communities in the
countries neighbouring Syria is coordinated by the United Nations Resident Coordinator/
Humanitarian Coordinator. The main effort is coordinated by John Ging of the United
Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs ( UNOCHA) . The primary
framework for this coordination was initially the SyriaHumanitarianAssistanceResponsePlan
(SHARP)which appealed for US Dollar 1.41 billion in 2013 to meet the humanitarian needs
of Syrians affected by the conflict. In September 2014, UNOCHA's operation in Syria,
Turkey and Jordan were brought together into a single framework and drafted the 2015
Humanitarian Needs Overview (HNO) and the 2015 Syria Strategic Response Plan (SRP). A
united appeal for Syria was launched and in February 2015, the WholeofSyria
(WoS)approach was formalized with the implementation of the 2015 SRP.More than seventy
aid groups , including the Syrian American Medical Society and the Syrian Civil Defense
withdrew form UNOCHA's “Whole of Syria" aid campaign on 8th September 2016,alleging
that the UN and the Syrian Arab Red Crescent were allowing the Syrian government to
interfere with aid.

The UN Security Council has unequivocally failed the bloodshed in Syria. The main reason
of this failure is the working of the members of the organisation to protect their national
interests rather than the interests of the people of the nations who are increasingly becoming
citizens of a globalised world.Despite all these,there has been a relentless effort on the part of
some branches of UN like the UN Human Rights Commission,World Health Organisation to
provide life saving aid and relief.Nevertheless these efforts are being severely undermined by
the workings of UN Security Council.

Syria remain uncontested the biggest humanitarian crisis of out time. Seven million inside
plus 5.3 million outside; 12.3 million people. Another 10 million who stayed put in Syria did
not leave their homes but they are cut off. They're cut off (from) livelihoods, services in
education, health, separated from relatives, friends and they are in need also of humanitarian
assistance. The whole nation is in need of humanitarian assistance. UN High Commissioner
for Refugees (UNHCR) supplying the 5.3 million refugees with enough food to eat
and insufficient funding in 2015.

BIBLIOGRAPHY:

 Syria's civil war explained from the beginning- https://www.aljazeera.com/news