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Responding to Assad’s Human Rights Abuses

Assad's Human Rights Abuses
In October 2020, Representative Wilson (R-SC-2) introduced House Resolution 4868, titled the Stop U.N. Support for Assad Act of 2019. The bill, referred to to the House Committee on Foreign Affairs, is one of the latest pieces of legislation to acknowledge dictator Bashar Al-Assad’s alleged human rights abuses. It also refers to several cases in which his regime and its associates may have exploited or hindered humanitarian aid projects in Syria. The regime is largely responsible for the challenges in Syria necessitating foreign aid. It has also cultivated intricate ties to businesses and entities used by the United Nations and related regional NGOs. This has resulted in procurement contracts that are financially advantageous to the regime. H.R. 4868 has spotted this cycle in which the Assad regime benefits from the very problems it has created. The bill hopes to install mechanisms to prevent the corruption of foreign aid.

Humanitarian Response in Syria

The United Nations Humanitarian Response in Syria is a multinational project. Currently, the United States is at the helm as the largest donor to the cause. Since 2011, the U.S. has provided about $6 billion USD to Syria through the United Nations. The U.S. government donated $435 million USD in 2018 alone. The returns on these massive payments are less than satisfactory, however. For the past eight years, the Assad regime has maintained what the bill refers to as “weaponized access to U.N. aid.” In so doing, it extracts funds to continue the regime’s inhumane and notorious “starve or surrender” siege campaign. The regime has notably used this tactic to control entire cities.

In February 2018, the U.S. Ambassador to Syria said it was clear that the aid is “not neutral.” Instead, the Syrian government turns aid into a weapon for the government and not an edge for humanitarian groups. The U.N. Office for the Coordination Humanitarian Affairs, or OCHA, echoed this concern. It was obvious that the Syrian government was obstructing the places in greatest need. The reality is that the Assad regime orchestrated the U.N.’s choices in terms of procurement contracts. This left the U.N. no choice but to use local companies or state-owned industries to operate. In the process, it essentially became a customer of the Assad regime business and a potential source of funding for Assad’s human rights abuses.

Interfering with Aid

A 2016 study found that U.N. operations in Syria gave $4 million USD to Syria’s state-owned fuel industry, $5 million USD to Syrian Arab Army-operated blood banks and $8.5 million to charities that Assad family members co-opted. The NGOs working in Syria with the U.N. effectively must select Assad-affiliated local partners. For example, the U.N. required its agencies and related NGOs to purchase mobile phones from Syriatel, a company that Rami Makhlouf, a cousin of Bashar al-Assad, owned.

The Stop U.N. Support for Assad Act lays out a strict set of guidelines for the United States to follow. These guidelines ensure that funds reach their expected recipients without seizure by Assad-related entities. Priority, the bill says, must go to where the need for humanitarian aid is greatest, not where delivery is easiest. Potentially adversarial groups, including the Syrian, Russian and Iranian governments and any entities controlled thereof, must be actively circumvented in the funding process. While extremely necessary for the delivery and use of humanitarian aid, procurement contracts have become the doorway groups like the Assad regime enter to interfere and profit from the donated funds.

According to the Stop U.N. Support for Assad Act, an organization must set up a separate, strong and impartial mechanism to police the procurement contract procedure. With such a mechanism, the act would ensure that no Assad-backed companies or any other associated entities will benefit. The Secretary of State, the bill says, has a limited time period to investigate potential procurement contracts. Then, they must report their findings to the House Committee on Foreign Affairs, or any other relevant committee.

Aiding the People, Not the Government

Foreign aid to Syria must make it there impartially, adhering to the U.N. Supplier Code of Conduct by avoiding all possible links to record human rights abuses. If the bill passes, the United States will likely be the creative force in the conceiving and operating of a procurement contracts vetting mechanism. It will be the latest creation in the fight against poverty. Such a step would ensure that no government or entity profits from humanitarian aid, but instead that the aid goes wherever it is most necessary.

– Stirling Macdougall
Photo: Flickr

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Top Five Facts You Should Know about Haitian Refugees

Haitian RefugeesAfter six years of recovering from the 7.0 magnitude earthquake that claimed the lives of more than 200,000 people and left 1.5 million Haitians homeless in 2010, Haitian refugees continue to face marginalization and poor living conditions. As a growing number of refugees from Haiti flock to the U.S. border seeking asylum, here are the top five current facts you should know about the Haitian refugee crisis and what is being done to alleviate it:

    1. An estimated 60,000 people live in Haitian refugee camps, according to Public Finance International (PFI). This is a 96% reduction from the initial number of refugees that moved to makeshift encampments after the earthquake that rocked Haiti’s foundation. The improvement can be largely attributed to the effectiveness of Haiti’s relocation programs.
    2. Food insecurity and cholera are on the rise in Haiti’s refugee camps after El Niño and three years of drought. The effects of the tropical storm and years of drought have left 3.6 million people in Haiti food insecure, according to the World Food Programme (WFP). To deal with the crisis, the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs calls for increased medical treatment, access to clean water, and nutrition interventions in Haiti according to PFI.
    3. Tense ties with the neighboring Dominican Republic, threaten mass deportations of Haitians and Dominicans of Haitian descent. With the possible expulsion of nearly 200,000 stateless people, a new refugee crisis with devastating consequences looms in the distance, according to UN News. Last spring, the New York Times reported that an estimated 3,000 people had arrived in Haiti’s makeshift encampments after fleeing or being forced out of the Dominican Republic.
    4. Brazil is striving to improve immigration services on a community-level in order to decrease xenophobia and improve the living conditions of Haitian refugees. Brazilian organizations, such as the Association of Haitians in Balneário Camboriú, is filling in the gaps left by the government by managing work opportunities and improving integration services for refugees from Haiti, according to the Huffington Post.
    5. There has been a recent surge of Haitian refugees camping near the San Diego-Tijuana border as they await processing for asylum in the United States. Most of the refugees originally sought asylum in Brazil, but a worsening recession and lack of immigration support services drove refugees from Haiti to seek better living conditions elsewhere, according to the San Diego Union-Tribune.

As the poorest country in the northern hemisphere, Haiti continues to strive for economic and political stability years after the quake. While the Haitian government rebuilds Haiti’s economic and social infrastructure, the U.S. and other countries play a major role in supporting the integration and well-being of Haitian refugees abroad.

One way to ensure that the U.S. provides vital humanitarian support to refugees is by expanding the International Affairs Budget. The funds of the International Affairs Budget are imperative to helping refugees and the world’s poor but unfortunately, this resource is grossly underfunded.

To help alleviate the Haitian refugee crisis, call or email your congressional leaders in support of increased funding for the International Affairs Budget.

– Daniela Sarabia

Photo: Flickr