Universal Human Rights Should Prevail Over Sovereignty's Fragile Facade

Dec 21 , 2024
By Fikre Mariam Tsehai (PhD)

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The United Nations Convention on Refugees clearly excludes individuals who have committed crimes against humanity from the protections generally afforded to refugees. Article 1F of 1951 stands as a moral and legal guardrail, a direct response to the atrocities of the mid-20th Century and a reminder of the pledge engraved in the United Nations Charter 75 years ago. Its architects were determined to spare future generations from the ravages of war.

Yet the recent history of Syria shows how easily this principle can be set aside.

Under Bashar al-Assad’s regime, Syria has been engulfed in a brutal conflict for more than 13 years, with hundreds of thousands of lives lost and millions forced to flee. It has become symbolic of how a state’s leader can preside over systematic human rights violations, including the documented use of chemical weapons, while the international community struggles to hold him to account.

Syrians, fleeing bombardment and repression, have risked dangerous crossings through war-torn territories and across the Mediterranean Sea. In one of the most wrenching instances, a young child named Alan Kurdi, drowned off the coast of Turkey in 2015. His small body washed ashore, a heartbreaking image that riveted global attention to the plight of refugees, a reminder of the world’s failure to confront Assad’s bloody tactics.

Over the last 24 years of Assad’s rule, there were multiple opportunities to steer Syria toward unity and stability. Instead, the regime’s legacy has become a chronicle of forced disappearances, barrel bombs, and the targeting of civilians. Since the conflict began in 2011, these acts have radiated beyond Syria’s borders, destabilising neighbours and contributing to one of the largest refugee crises since World War II.

At camps such as Zaatari in Jordan, Syrians recount stories of terror and loss, describing the permanent rupture of family life and the erosion of any hope that peace and justice might prevail. Countless Syrians have died without ever seeing an end to Assad’s brutality.

Against this backdrop, why should a leader who has presided over war crimes find sanctuary abroad?

There is international precedent for denying refuge to those who commit atrocities. After conflicts in Yugoslavia and Rwanda, key figures were brought before international tribunals. The principle was clear. Those responsible for heinous acts would be held to account. Yet by offering asylum to Assad, Moscow undercuts the Refugee Convention’s very purpose. The Convention’s exclusion clauses ensured that those who commit grievous crimes cannot hide behind the veil of humanitarian protection.

If its provisions can be circumvented this easily, international law's credibility will suffer, and the moral integrity of global governance will erode.

The failure speaks to a deeper problem of silence and inaction. The promise never to tolerate crimes against humanity is tested when leaders invoke sovereignty as a shield. The idea that a country's internal affairs are its own business rings hollow when that business includes atrocities against civilians. Assad’s reign showed that unchecked abuses create spillover effects, sowing instability that can spread well beyond a single country’s boundaries.

If human rights are truly universal principles, they should supersede the notion that state sovereignty can excuse cruelty.

Justice is not a quest for revenge. Holding those responsible for war crimes accountable is about ensuring that such horror does not repeat itself. When global norms fail, perpetrators grow bolder, believing their actions will be met with little more than outrage and empty words. It falls to the international community to prevent impunity. To uphold the moral and legal foundations of human rights, the lessons of Syria should be heeded.

Transforming human rights from lofty rhetoric into enforceable standards is urgent, not just to deliver justice for the victims of today’s conflicts, but to deter the autocrats of tomorrow. No leader should be allowed to commit atrocities and then slip quietly into exile, beyond the reach of law and conscience.

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PUBLISHED ON Dec 21,2024 [ VOL 25 , NO 1286]

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