Syria Support Movement solidarity with the Syrian people
Statement and Petition by Global Network for Syria
WHY STOP ECONOMIC SANCTIONS ON SYRIA?
Economic sanctions contribute to large-scale poverty, destroying Syria’s health and social services infrastructure, whilst traumatising the civilian population and driving mass displacement. They:
- Restrict access to essential food supplies and basics like soap and disinfectant.
- Restrict access to ventilators and other life-saving medical equipment, at a time when thousands of Syrians are dying of COVID-19.
- Hamper the rollout of COVID-19 vaccine programmes by depriving local healthcare services of fuel and electricity.
- Have accelerated the Syrian currency’s devaluation, contributing to skyrocketing prices and falling wages.
- Enrich and empower armed groups, who profit from smuggling essential goods after legitimate commercial channels are closed.
- Deter aid organisations from supporting much-needed reconstruction projects.
Sign the petition to ask our leaders to end economic sanctions on the Syrian people.
Scholars, UN experts, humanitarian organizations agree: the sanctions on Syria are harming the Syrian people, while doing nothing to promote human rights.
Syria’s currency has collapsed. Over 90% of Syrians are in poverty. This year may bring starvation. This is collective punishment, and it is wrong.
On January 21st, over 90 academics, human rights activists, diplomats, politicians and religious leaders wrote to President Biden, Prime Minister Johnson, and President Macron with a simple message: Stop Economic Sanctions on Syria.
Now, it’s your turn. Sign the petition to ask our leaders to end economic sanctions on the Syrian people.
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To U.S. President Joe Biden, and the leaders of all other countries which have imposed unilateral economic sanctions on Syria:
On 21 January 2021, over 90 prominent figures addressed an open letter to you, asking you to lift sanctions on Syria. We add our voice to theirs. The present economic sanctions on Syria block access to vital goods, prevent reconstruction, and are contributing to an unprecedented collapse of Syria’s economy and healthcare system. They are killing and impoverishing Syrian civilians, and constitute collective punishment of Syria’s innocent civilian population. We ask you to remove, without condition, those sanctions which harm Syria’s general population.
Sign the petition to ask our leaders to end economic sanctions on the Syrian people.
