The Syrian Movement of Human Rights   

   Haytham Manna

A Historical View:

Since the beginning of the twentieth century there were different individual attempts from Lebanese and Syrian writers and intellectuals to define and praise human rights. In 1901 and 1908, they translated the Declaration of the Rights of Man and Citizen, issued by the French Revolution. They, also, translated the American Declaration after the constitution of Turkey in 1908 and the publication of "Human Rights and New Turkey" book in 1910, as well as, the rise of the supporting trend for the Constitutional Movement in Iran 1906, Turkey in 1908 and the Japanese renaissance 1904 - 1905.

After these preliminary accumulations, the political and cultural speech started to approach the idea of human rights and freedoms. Many studies criticized the Hameedi despotism, and despotism in general, such as, "the Disposition of Despotism" by the lawyer Abd Al Rahman Al Kawakebi, who was born in Aleppo and assassinated in Egypt in 1902. Also, the western civilization was defined and the Inspection Courts in Europe were condemned. All these labors paved the way for the moves toward defending the deemed weak groups through newspapers, which defended the rights of women. Besides, the way was paved for the idea of civil associations, which exceeded the level of beneficial and cultural general activity into a direct or indirect dealing with the rights of the individuals and general freedoms. In 1909, during the movement of correction, the Ottoman law that related to associations was issued. Moreover, with the entry of the western capitalism into the Arabic East, the work of associations was organized according to the new professions that entered the work market, which the Ottoman authority approved in 1912 according to new foundations. Then, local annexes were issued in Syria, in 1918, that crowned the continuous struggles during two decades. The tragedy of "martyrs' executions" on May 1916 by the collapsing Ottoman authority formed a strong hit to this social democratic trend.

During the twenties and thirties, lawyers, national intellectuals and some communist writers defended the human rights, as well as, many journalists from Grand Syria and in exile. At the end of the twenties and the beginning of thirties, two associations of Doctors and Lawyers were born. The year 1933 witnessed the establishment of Arab Women's Union in Damascus, then on the 15th of May 1937, the league for Resisting Fascism, as well as, the publication of "Human Rights: From Where and to Where?"ژ(1)گ, a book by the Arabic intellectual Ra'eef Khuri (Zaidoon Publishing-Damascus). With the rise of the active resistance against Fascism and Nazism, and demanding independence from France, the league against Fascists and Nazis was established in 1941. After one year, the league of Arab Students was established. Both leagues unmasked the crimes of Fascism and demanded Democracy. In addition, the establishment of Arab Lawyers Union in Damascus in 1944 consolidated the activities of the Syrian lawyers.

The debacle of Palestine in 1948 hit, strongly, the democratic and juristic directionsm and reinforced in the national and nationalist trends a dominating system that did not regard democracy; thus, the right of the citizen was lost together with the obsession of the country's loss. The liberal direction in the cities insisted on the Plurality of the Parliamentary System and the experience of Plurality from 1954 to 1958. The rural and military entry to the political life weakened and wasted the democratic direction, also, restricted the nationalist mind by the idea of one party, which was constituted of Abed Al Nasser, from above or Al Ba'ath Party, from beneath.

The Associations for Defending Human Rights:

- 1 -

In 1962, after the secession between Syria and Egypt the "League for Defending Human Rights" was established in Damascus. It was a non-governmental organization licensed by the Article No. 9 of the Presidential Law No. 1330 of year 1958, which included the executive schedule for the law of private organizations and associations. This league considered the International Declaration of Human Rights its fundamental source. The professor of Law Mr. Mowafaq Al Deen Al Kuzbari, who died in 1999, headed the league that included the elite of lawyers and intellectuals. Due to the important role of this league, the Syrian Arab Republic adopted the two conventions that related to civil and political rights and the economical, social and cultural rights. Other than publicity means, the league depended on connections and personal relationships of the dead President Noor Al Deen Al Atasi and his companions to achieve its goals. Since the year 1963 and declaring the state of emergency, the league could not use its headquarter openly, thus, it was welcomed by the Association of Lawyers in Damascus. At the same period of establishing the league, a league for human rights was established in Aleppo, but it stopped its activity after announcing the state of emergency on the 8th of March 1963.

Since establishing the league for defending human rights, the discussions were about its program and its connection with the human rights according to the International Declaration and the human rights' relation with the rights of nations according to the leftist intellectuals. The importance of this subject retreated after the two issued conventions in 1966, which admitted the self-determination and many collective social rights. All the members of the league accorded that the Zionist existence was aggressive and opposed the grand principles and human laws.

The league paid attention to the legitimacy of declaring the state of emergency, but the general nationalist span and the absence of democracy in most political parties affected the league to accept the actual position. Thus, the league defended the victims of arbitrary detention and the independence of judicial and legal systems in a political environment that disregarded the league. The communist Party was disordered by the crisis of its split into two. The Arab Nationalist Movement was inclining to the Lenin concept of politics and ruling. The Movement of Muslim Brotherhood adopted the way of Saied Kutob, which rejected the principle of plurality. The National Party and People's Party had a finishing stroke. However, after eliminating Nasseri officers in the summer of 1963, Al Ba'ath Party was appointed as the leading Party of the revolution and country.

Through the aggravated absence of freedoms, the increase of repression and the nationalization of civil and political activities by the executive authority, the democratic speech re-existed. The first strokes were directed toward the judicial system, which role became marginal through increasing the exceptional courts and the domination of exceptional and martial laws and decrees over the constitutional laws. Since 1970, the period of General Assad was distinguished by personifying the authority, concentrating all the powers under his control, sketching the governmental organizations according to his image, releasing, freely, the security bodies and private military units to interfere in politics, economy and sociology. In addition to his fierceness against the rights of the civil associations, Assad brought in to the constitution the ideological nature of each social or associational system. The Syrian Constitution approved the right of forming masses organizations in the Article No. 48. This Article included that "the sectors of masses have the right to establish associational, social or professional organizations, co-operative associations for production or services in which the laws define their field, relations and limits of activities". Article No. 49 linked between the activities of these organizations and the purposes and directions of the leading Party as follows: "the organizations of masses have to participate effectively in all the different sectors and councils, which are restricted by laws, to achieve the following:

1 - Building the socialist Arab society and protecting its system.

2 - Planning and leading the socialist economy.

3 - Developing the provisions of work, protection, health, education and all other matters that relate to the individuals' life.

4 - Accomplishing the scientific and technological progress and developing the means of productions.

5 - Implying the public supervision on the institutions of the government".

To give an idea about the Ba'athi application for these directions, we will present the organizational law for the profession of engineering as an example. The 1st section, 1st chapter, 3rd Article includes: "the association of engineers is a social professional organization, which believes in the aims of the Arab Nation toward union, freedom and socialism. The organization is committed to work inside the Syrian Arab Republic and outside it through coordinating with the specialized office in the regional leadership of Ba'ath Socialist Arab Party". Also, we find in the same section, Item No. 13 of Article No. 4, a clause about "holding scientific and engineering conferences, seminars and lectures inside the Syrian Arab Republic and outside it through coordinating with the specialized office in the regional leadership of Ba'ath Socialist Arab Party"ژ(2)گ.

Due to this social and political pressure, the social reaction was of dual expressions:

- A violent movement led by the combating vanguards of Muslim Brotherhood movement.

- A civil movement led by the professional associations and supported by the national democratic tendencies in the country, which demanded the termination of the state of emergency, the release of dإtentes, the political plurality, the separation of authorities and the constitutional reformation.

The Syrian league of human rights decided to engage in the fight for political reformation. In addition to Lawyers, Engineers and Doctors' associations, the league demanded to organize a one-day strike on the 31st of March 1980. The strike succeeded but the government launched wide attacks of detention, which included about 1000 thousand associates and the leaders of human rights' league, beside the disolution of all the elected councils of associationsژ(3)گ. After that, the authority prohibited the leagues' activity, detained its head and leaders, consequently, a number of its members were obliged to leave the country. In the middle of the year 1981, the Law No. 26, dated 13.07.1981, was issued to organize the professions of engineering and law. The Law No. 39, dated 21.08.1981, was issued to organize the profession of lawyers and Law No.31, dated 16.08.1981, was for medical profession.

During that period, many gatherings, outside Syria, activated to defend the detained politicians and the victims of arbitrariness in Syria. The Syrian cadres had a great role in establishing a committee for defending Mowafaq Al Kuzbari and the detained lawyers in 1982. Also, other gatherings were born, like the association of human rights and democratic freedoms in the Arab world in 1985, the Arab Association of Human Rights in Paris and the group of Free Individuals for Defending Humans in 1985, in addition to other experiences in Geneva, Baghdad and Paris.

- 2 -

In December 1989, the Committees for the Defense of Democratic Freedoms and Human Rights (CDF) were declared, secretly, in Damascus. Since the first statement, it was clear that the title of the organization had two parts, a political non-Party part, which defended the democratic freedoms, and a legal part, which was of general meaning according to the interests of the International Organization of Amnesty at that time. By reading the commissions' magazine, "Voice of Democracy", the experience of CDF seemed to be tender and had no advanced education of human rights' experience. Probably, the deficiencies of CDF could be explained because of the absence of the cultural and human communication, due to the restrictions of the dominating authority. Actually, at the beginning, the communication did not exceed the Palestinian experience in exile. The rise of CDF was restricted in two groups, one of them was from Latakia, the second from Jaramanaژ(4)گ. Although most members criticized what was called the "National Constitution", the organization considered it as one of its essential sources.

We should contemplate the conditions of establishing CDF inside the country and its relation to the previous speech. While the speech was trying to give a respectable impression about the constitutional position, it held a political charge, which was not less than the opinions of the secularist opposing parties. Actually, two years after the big launch of detentions in 1987, CDF was born. The detentions were, mainly, intended for the Communist Labor Party, also included a big part of the Communist Party - political office and big number of Ba'athi opposition, plus, a less number of Nasseri oppositions. At the same period, there were about five thousand detained Palestinians and thousands of detained from the movement of Muslim Brotherhood. If we take into consideration all the former detentions we can imagine the strong strokes that hit the Syrian political society. Accordingly, the society was in bad need for civil expressions, which would remind of the individuals' rights and the primacies of progress in any society, like the right of expression, organization and the independent social communication away from the schemes of the authority.

The political activities and the programs of change were paralyzed by these detentions; thus, the position demanded preserving what remained. In spite of the storms that shook the world and changed its political map, the bodies of security were able to paralyze the Syrian political elite, moreover, concealed its preliminary right to discuss the surrounding events. In these conditions, which accompanied Assad's attempt to untie his international political isolation through his attitude toward the Gulf War, it was important to open the file of political repression, directly, as a starting point for political reformation. Thus, since 1990 till 1995, I concentrated my writings and struggles on analyzing the main characteristics of the political oppression. The political oppression was clarified in arbitrary detention, torture and compulsory or involuntary disappearance, as well as, in canceling the legitimate existence of any independent expression or opposing the authority, regardless of the extent of its independence and its method of struggle. Also, the political repression was clarified in studying the social, political and cultural chronicle results of the state of emergency, besides, paralyzing the Judicial System. This tendency attracted the most important elite of human rights in Syria except some, who demanded a less sharp speech and less activity. In fact, most of the subscribing individuals found that it was necessary to consolidate the legal speech with a political speech in order to have a unified gathering.

Our tendency succeeded to open the principal files of political oppression in Syria on the international level and paved the way to open the file of political reformation. Since 1995, the mutual evaluation of the organization abroad was that Syria was passing the end of an era and the authority of Hafez Assad was not futuristic anymore except by security meaningژ(5)گ. A big number of the organization's friends, inside Syria, had these mutual ideas until 1998 after the release of the lawyer Aktham Ne'aiseh, who proposed the idea of dialogue with the security authority for obtaining legitimacy. Whatever the pragmatism of this tendency was, its initiative way was not satisfying. Thus, in addition to the absence of any discussion among the surrounding committees, this way put many essential symbols of the organization aside. Actually, those symbols were the bases for the continuity and existence of the committees, in the Arab and international world during six years. Thus, they became beyond this matter of such size and importance.

There were external factors too. One of the factors was the crisis with the International Federation of Human Rights after the conference of Dakar. The crisis was complicated; as a result, the unity of the federal organization was shattered and deprived of being a big organization of fundamental plurality. In August 2000, a new framework, named the Committee for the Defense of Human Rights, was established. This organization included a part from the old group plus new elements, whom some of them resigned after little time.

The tendency of those who withdrew from the commissions was to link between the political reformations and the human rights as a penalty paid by the activists of human rights in all the dominating countries. Actually, there could not be equality between the repressor and the repressed or the heralds for liberty and autocrats; besides, there could not be neutrality in the matters of freedoms. The Syrian society has to pave the way of Democracy through education and struggle; therefore, the essential and fundamental dialogue should be with the society.

During that period, Damascus Center for Civil Rights and Theoretical Studies was fortifying. The Center included various important symbols of the Syrian movement. Through its intellectual magazine "Mukarabat", the Center attracted the most important political and legal trends. Furthermore, the activities of the Syrian Committee for Human Rights in London increased and the preparation for a Syrian Association of Human Rights in Damascus started. Also, due to the contacts between the Arab Organization for Human Rights and the Arab Commission for Human Rights, the Friends of Civil Society Association was established at the end of August 2000. This Association produced the Revival of Civil Society Commissions and the Statement of the One thousand. Also, an important number of the Syrians, who belonged to the Revival of Civil Society commission, activated in the Arab commission for human rights and the Amnesty international. The cultural forum for human rights, which was declared by the lawyer Khaleel Ma'took, was closed at its beginning. The institutions of security called the lawyer several times for inquiry and he was ordered to join the commissions for defending human rights. Thus, while preparing this study, Mr. Ma'took decided to resume his own activity without obtaining a license. Also, a number of senior members in the Syrian League for Defending Human Rights decided to resume their activities because the regime's decision to stop the league in 1980 was an illegal decision and against the law.

- 3 -

On the 2nd of July 2001, after prolonged discussions, 40 persons from different cities of Syria and various social and political tendencies established the Association of Human Rights in Syria. On 26.07.2001, the first conference of this organization was held at the office of the lawyer Haytham Al Maleh in Damascus. About 60 well-known personalities attended this conference, like Dr. Ahmed Fayez Al Fawaz, Dr. Hassan Abass and the political struggler Nihad Nahas. At the conference, Haytham Al Maleh was selected as the head of the association and the engineer Saleem Khair Baik as his deputy. Both Haitham and Saleem had been detained among others, during the launched attack against the free associations in 1980. The Association of Human Rights in Syria is still unlicensed and has no official permission for activity as the rest of the most important independent and growing organizations and forums. This new association is distinguished by including important lawyers, experts from different fields and esteemed personalities; besides, it is distinguished for gathering various groups and plurality of important representatives. The first Statement of the new association is included within the documentary part of this book.

Preliminary Conclusions:

The experience of Eastern Europe confirmed that the dominating bureaucracy is not ignorant of the political plurality's basics, but it fights it in order to protect its privileges and locality, which depend on favoritism instead of qualification and bigotry instead of democratic election. The enemies of democracy are not always those who are ignorant of its value. They, often, know the results of democracy on the individual and bigotry level. We believe that any ruling social or political minority would reject the principle of democracy because it simply means dismissing the minority from rule. This is not only the way of the political systems, but also, the actual condition of many political organizations and civil associations. In fact, the absence of democracy is a part of conspiring mentality for leadership and a dominating mentality for ruling on all the levels of gathered human organizations. This is also found among the civil associations, especially the ones who claim secrecy to block any democratic tendency for dialogue and burden big words to cover small practices. The secrecy reminds me of the communist organizations' experience in Egypt during the forties. They claimed that they included big numbers of members, but only the security institutions knew that the members of some organizations did not exceed 30 or 40 persons. The plurality of these organizations was the main motive for its distinguished activities, which mostly exceeded its number and capacityژ(6)گ.

There is another important matter, which is related to the activity limits outside the country. Obviously, secret work or the work in exile are coercive methods and not normal. If the defenders of human rights have an aim, it is to cancel these two forms of work, which resemble the patient's breathing from an Oxygen bottle due to the deficiency of his respiratory system, which cannot inhale normally and naturally. In fact, this is an expression of an ill case that the society suffers from, if the society is not its cause.

Fortunately, the space channels and electronic means of communications canceled the distances and limits between people. Thus, the person who lives outside the country is able to obtain information more comprehensive and quicker than those who are inside. The direct contact with society and the attentive cadres for human rights enable the organization abroad to become a device of pressure, a power for suggestion and an initiative and cultural storage for serving the restrained people inside. Therefore, it helps those who are subjugated to repression, hunger and daily running to earn the simplest primacies of living and survival. So, if there is any advantage of the outside experience, it is the capacity to have always, a step into the front in comparison to those who are inside. On the other hand, its existence becomes unjustifiable if its role is diminuend or its initiatives are restricted and turned to be limited and conservative like the actual position inside the country. There has not been any single experience in the world in which the refugees praised the political system that ostracized them and faced them by two choices, either immigration or prison, especially, if the system continues in the same manner that we present.

Since the death of Hafez Assad, Syria lives a new period that has many characteristics as follows:

- For the first time, since the Massacre of Hama, fear and worry become a common denominator between the ruler and the ruled.

- All people are convinced that the president is incapable and the political legitimacy is absent from the top of the authority, according to the concepts of Max Weber and Ibn Khaldoun. Consequently, the institutions, which were fed by Assad the father, snap the inheritance of his legacy. This reminds us of Shatheli ben Jedeed's example in Algeria, where the military organization strengthened on the expense of the dictatorship personality's absence.

- The courage to present the fundamental problems and to be organized in various social mediums beside searching for symbols and names that were not polluted during the era of domination to reestablish the nucleus of civil resistance.

- Reformation and peaceful changes form an essential part of the social speech. This gives us the actuality and power to defend the tendency of the political reformation, the theoretical and legal participation to visualize the substitute for constitution and the necessary institutions for the democratic transfer. Of course that will happen away from a conference of Ba'ath Party, the speech of appointment and others.

All these factors make us confirm the role of human rights' activists to assist the peaceful withdrawal from the authority of the ruling military minority into the state of law. Thus, we need a state of law that respects the legal international commitments of Syria and rehabilitates the country and citizens.

__________

Notes:

1) We published important paragraphs of this book in my book "the Childhood of a Thing, the First Labors of Human Rights in the Arab World", Al Jamal publishing, 1999. Other documents from overseas were published in a study 'Freedom in the Overseas Creativity', Dar Al Ahali, 2001.

2) See the lecture of the engineer Saleem Khair Bek, the Professional Associations in Syria, 01.07.2001.

3) The cadres of the league spent five to six years in prison, some of the associates remained 12 years without any tribunal or any accusation.

4) In spite of my first role of leadership in the CDF from 1990 to 1998, where in 1998 I demanded to freeze my position, I did not, personally, know these details because of the organization's secrecy inside the commissions. Since the first day of establishing a branch abroad, I approved openness and was the first one to declare my membership and opinion. I believe that the personal political experience of the establishers and the absence of the well-known names were the reason for not giving openness the importance that it deserved.

5) I expressed this tendency in many written interpositions and lectures. One of which is my interposition in the National Academy for Sciences in Washington "Syria, the End of an Era", written in English, 1996.

6) I presented my interposition in the symposium, which was organized by the commissions, Amnesty international organization and the International Federation for Human Rights in 1993. In this interposition I concentrated on the necessity for the plurality of organizations in the field of human rights. Also, I confirmed that the plurality of political Parties could accomplish one guarantee of dynamism in society. See the third part of the mentioned meeting's publications, in French language.

          In fact, since we received the letters from the prisons, I do not have any more illusions about the future and the capacities of the Committee for the Defense of Democratic Freedoms and Human Rights. Still, I pressed all my efforts to preserve their existence. In spite of the occurring raptures that followed the launch of detention, I wanted the organization to hold together and remain comprehensive as much as possible to include the Syrian geographical, social and political map, away from the twisted circles and personal problems. This tendency delayed the formation of some initiatives, because it has a trustful and respectful relationship among the different spheres of human rights, including the approach to the movement of Muslim Brotherhood and the Democratic National Assembly. Frequently, I asked my self and the others this question: Is the Tunisian experience the best in the world? Or, is the monist organization responsible for all the occurring catastrophes, in which the society paid the price first, then the league? Isn't the Plurality of the Moroccan experience a healthy phenomenon?