The Syrian conflict has raged for 3 bloody and traumatic years. A quarter of a million civilians live under siege across the country. Many have endured appalling conditions.
The siege in and around Yarmouk camp has been particularly prolonged and harsh. Government forces have all but completely cut off food and medical supplies for months. According to Amnesty International’s research, 128 people have starved to death since the brutal siege of Yarmouk by Syrian government forces began in July 2013.
Medical workers have been harassed and arrested. At least one doctor is believed to have died as a result of being tortured in custody. Schools, hospitals and a mosque – some of which were used as shelters – have been shelled with heavy weapons. Launching indiscriminate attacks on civilians, targeting medical workers assisting the sick and wounded – these are war crimes.
Click here to urge the U.S. government to step up its work with the UN Security Council and advocate for Syrian civilians.
In 2011, after three stays of execution and a final appeal to the Supreme Court, Troy Anthony Davis, who was convicted of the 1989 murder of a police officer in Savannah, was executed by the state of Georgia, despite a compelling case of innocence. Prominent human rights advocates, fifty-one members of Congress, and many civil rights and peace and justice organizations, including Amnesty International, NAACP, and National Coalition to Abolish the Death Penalty, had joined his family in a twenty-year fight to prevent his execution and reveal evidence that pointed to Troy’s innocence.
AIUSA Group 48 