The Yarmouk Camp: Glimpses of IHL and Human Rights Violations

A refugee camp designed as a safe haven for Palestinians, the Yarmouk camp, has become the most awful place on earth. It has been a shadow phase in Yarmouk camp since two years where it has been completely isolated from the rest of the world. Yarmouk camp was the first Palestinian refugee camp in 1957, situated in Damascus, Syria; it’s a gate way to enter into the capital.   As a result of the  Arab – Israeli war, Palestinians took refuge in Yarmouk and currently it is a ground for an armed conflict between Syrian government and the rebels (Free Syrian Army and al - Nusra) who are pro democrats trying to overthrow the authoritarian regime of President  Bashar – al – assad.  As the civil war in Syria spread sporadically, it turned Yarmouk camp into despair. Yarmouk has the most number of civilians trapped, around 18000, where the residents are the prisoners of siege.  Throughout the uprising, the residents of the camp, mainly the Palestinian refugees stayed neutral, this attracted few Syrians who too were neutral in the conflict.

Syrian government surrounded the camp creating siege, thereby cutting off food and humanitarian aid to the civilians in the camp. This created a poignant condition where the civilians had to feed on stray cats and dogs. Recently, ISIL took over 90% of the camp’s territory, brutally beheading and mass killing of Palestinian women, Christians, along with secularists.

There has been an extensive tension inside the Yarmouk camp, between the three rebel groups i.e., the Free Syrian Army, Jabhat al – nusra , and ISIL. This has created a siege inside the siege. This ostensibly attracted the attention of the international community, as it violated both international humanitarian law and international human rights. This captivated the attention of United Nations Relief and Agency work (UNRWA) for Palestine refugees, which was established by the United Nations General Assembly after the Arab – Israel war, specifically for the protection of Palestinian refugees. UNRWA extended the humanitarian aid to the deteriorating humanitarian situation at the camp, which is at the brink of humanitarian catastrophe. Assistance has been extended to both Palestinian and Syrian family but was futile, as the internal rebels specially the ISIS were isolating the civilians to ensure that the UNRWA assistance did not reach them. The convoys were shot during the distribution of food or any other humanitarian aid.

As affirmed by the monist that International humanitarian law and International human rights law co-exist, they have been blatantly breached in Syria.

Basic principle of IHL such as distinguishing between civilians and non – civilians, no direct attack against civilians are severely breached. Argument that the civilians and non civilians are non distinguishable, as it is a civil upraising cannot stand as the civilians of Yarmouk were neutral in their stand. According to Article 50(3) of Additional protocol I of Geneva Convention the presence of non civilians among the civilians do not deprive the population of civilian character.

Further, according to Article 54 of Additional Protocol I of Geneva Convention there is express prohibition on starvation of civilian as a warfare method which is noticeable in this regard. Further, Syria being a signatory of the Chemical Weapon Convention 1993, which obligates them to curtail the use of chemical weapon, which has not been the case here, as Syria has made an overt use of Chemical Weapon (sarin gas) thereby killing 1400 people. 

Syria is a party to the international conventions like ICESR and ICCPR, hence it is under the obligation to maintain the rights of civilians. Unfortunately the basic rights of civilians is candidly taken away by the Syrian government itself.

The discussion on the violation of laws would be continued in the subsequent post.

Priyanka Vaidyanath (4th year student, School of Law, Christ University. She may be contacted at priyanka.vaidyanath@law.christuniversity.in)

Endnotes:

1.  http://www.unrwa.org/crisis-in-yarmouk

2. http://www.theguardian.com/world/2015/apr/10/yarmouk-is-being-annihilated-palestinians-in-syria-are-left-to-their-fate

3.https://www.icrc.org/eng/resources/documents/news-release/2014/02-10-syria-damascus-protection-aids-workers.htm

4. Ruth Abrilstoffels Legal regulation of humanitarian assistance in armed conflict: Achievements and gaps, , IRRC September 2004 Vol. 86 No 855.

5. Yoram Dinstein The Conduct of Hostilities under the Law of International Armed Conflict, Cambridge University, 2004. (https://www.law.upenn.edu/live/files/2921-dinstein-the-conduct-of-hostilities-under-the-law)