text:
Linden railway station is located on the North Island Main Trunk Railway (NIMT) in Linden, New Zealand and is part of the suburban rail network of Wellington.  It is double tracked, has an island platform layout, and is 14.91 km from Wellington railway station, the southern terminus of the NIMT.

Services
Linden is served by Kapiti Line commuter trains operated by Transdev Wellington under the Metlink brand operating between Wellington and Porirua or Waikanae. Services are operated by electric multiple units of the FT/FP class (Matangi). Two diesel-hauled carriage trains, the Capital Connection and the Northern Explorer, pass through the station but do not stop.

Off-peak trains stop at all stations between Wellington and Waikanae. During peak periods, trains from Wellington that stop at all stations may terminate at Porirua or Plimmerton and return to Wellington while a number of peak services run express between Wellington and Porirua and thus do not stop at Linden.

Travel times by train are seventeen minutes to Wellington, four minutes to Porirua, and forty-three minutes to Waikanae.

Trains run every twenty minutes during daytime off-peak hours, more frequently during peak periods, and less frequently at night. Before July 2018, off-peak passenger train services between Wellington and Waikanae stopping at Linden ran every thirty minutes but were increased to one every twenty minutes from 15 July 2018.

History

The line through Linden was originally part of the Wellington - Manawatu Line built by the Wellington and Manawatu Railway Company (WMR). The single track line opened on 24 September 1885 when services commenced on the first section of the line from Wellington to Paremata with the full line to Longburn completed in 1886. Trains were operated by the WMR until December 1908, when the New Zealand Railways Department purchased the WMR and incorporated its line into the NIMT.

On 19 June 1937, the Tawa Flat deviation to the south of Linden was opened to passenger services with double track from Tawa Flat to Wellington.  It eliminated the circuitous single track route via Johnsonville to Wellington. The line through Linden was electrified in June 1940 and double track from Tawa Flat to Porirua was completed on 15 December 1957.

Linden station opened with trains stopping there from 28 July 1940, after more than thirty years of requests to the New Zealand Railways Department (NZR) by developers, and by local residents wishing to avoid a walk of up to a mile from the Tawa Station. Apparently, those wishing to alight used to pull the emergency brake cord so that the train stopped in the vicinity of Collins Avenue; Don Carman recalls passengers debating as to whose turn it was to pull the cord. Deputations and letters to the minister in the 1930s were told that the time (for a station) was not yet ripe; though a petition in April 1939 got agreement after completion of electrification (in 1940), though delayed by the war. Originally conditional on not asking for a shelter, the Railways department was approached by Arthur Carman to agree to residents erecting a shelter. The department relented and erected a simple 6-metre by 3-metre wooden shelter, opened on 30 April  1941.

In 1954, a diversion of the meandering Porirua stream north of Linden station cut off a loop of the stream and eliminated two old wooden road bridges by taking the stream under a new bridge built at the intersection of Collins Avenue, Linden Avenue, Beachamp street, and Findlay Street. This allowed the Linden shopping centre to be developed on Collins Avenue on both the east and west sides of the railway.

In conjunction with the double-tracking of the line from Tawa Flat to Porirua in 1957, an island platform was constructed at Linden and a new larger shelter built from precast concrete panels replaced the original shelter. The original straight track through Linden became the northbound line and a new southbound line was constructed that curves around the station. Pedestrian access between the north and southbound tracks was provided from Collins Avenue at the north end and a steel and concrete overbridge with ramps was constructed at the south end to provide access to Rawson and Hinau Streets.  A feature of the overbridge was the high wooden sides to shelter pedestrians from the strong winds which are prevalent above Linden Station.

With the double tracking, barrier arms were installed for vehicular traffic on Collins Avenue and pedestrian cribs or zig-zags were provided. However, because northbound trains stopping at Linden prolong the operation of the flashing lights, bells, and barrier arms, and following trains, or trains approaching from the opposite direction, can also keep the warning alarms operating for long periods, many pedestrians became habitual risk-takers. The very short pedestrian cribs were poorly designed forcing some pedestrians to walk with their backs to approaching trains before stepping onto the railway line. A series of pedestrian deaths at Collins Avenue followed. This led to the installation of second train coming indicators and, in the late 1980s, redesigned pedestrian cribs. The new cribs eliminated the high death rate by ensuring pedestrians faced oncoming trains and took sufficient steps to look up and see the trains before stepping onto the track.

In the late 1970s, the original incandescent platform lights that automatically lit when stopping trains approached were replaced with more efficient permanently lit mercury vapour lights.

From April to June 2014, the corroded steel overhead footbridge was refurbished and new lighting and signage provided. However, the original high sides of the bridge were replaced with lower sides leaving pedestrians exposed to the strong winds and driving rain. In early January 2019, the pedestrian overbridge was closed when structural engineers found it was below the required seismic rating and was earthquake-prone. The bridge remained closed for over a year while options were considered and remedial action taken. With many commuters living south of the station and most of the parking at the south end of the station, commuters were required to walk some 400 metres extra distance from their cars to the single remaining station entrance at Collins Avenue and back to the station to catch a train. Tawa College students who commute from other stations were also required to walk the extra distance. The resulting extra pedestrian traffic, including the extra use of the Collins Avenue level crossing by students, increased the risk of another serious accident at this high-risk level crossing.

Initially, electric passenger services stopping at Linden were trains hauled by ED and EW class electric locomotives, and DM/D and EM/ET class  electric multiple units. ED locomotives hauled passenger trains from their introduction in 1940 but were rarely seen on passenger trains after the introduction of the EW class locomotives in 1952. The last ED operated in 1981. EW class locomotives introduced in 1952 pulled the majority of passenger trains from 1952 but became redundant with the introduction of EM/ET class multiple units in the early 1980s. The last EW hauled passenger service through Linden was on 11 February 1983. DM/D electric multiple units first ran on the line on 5 September 1949, and the last of this class were withdrawn from service after the arrival of the FT/FP class (Matangi) multiple units in 2011. The EM/ET class multiple units were introduced between 1982 and 1983 to replace locomotive-hauled trains and some of the DM/D electric multiple units and last operated on 27 May 2016 after additional FT/FP class (Matangi) multiple units were introduced (instead of upgrading the EM/ET units).

References

Rails through the Valley: The story of the construction and use of the railway lines through Tawa by Bruce Murray and David Parsons (2008, Tawa Historical Society)

External links
 Photos of Linden railway station

Railway stations in New Zealand
Rail transport in Wellington
Railway stations opened in 1940

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaWikipedia


Upbeat, fun and funny, includes singing and spoken word.
Please be advised that purchase on CDBaby of Brain Balance Music CD or download is ONLY intended for individuals and patients and not for purchase directly by any owner or representative of Brain Balance Achievement Centers or other providers.
REPRODUCING OR DISTRIBUTING COPIES OF OUR MUSIC TO ANYONE IS A VIOLATION OF APPLICABLE COPYRIGHT LAWS.
Listening to this "Gargle Guy" CD may help to improve reading, language skills, writing, math, calculating skills, balance, and coordination.
BrainBalance Music is designed and customized to Dr. Robert J. Melillo's specifications, based on extensive research and knowledge that certain types and frequencies of sound are specifically processed by the two hemispheres of the brain differently. By using specific music and sounds BrainBalance Music may help to stimulate one hemisphere more than the other and possibly create more balance in the brain.
The majority of symptoms in children and adults including attention deficits, learning disabilities, autism, obsessive compulsive disorder, depression, anxiety, chronic pain and many more are all directly a result of an imbalance of electrical activity in the brain. There are many environmental factors that can produce an imbalance of electrical activity and function of the two sides of the brain documented as either an increase of activity on one side or a decreased activity on the other. Research has shown that the side of the brain that is most problematic is most often the side that is understimulated. The use of BrainBalance Music as as source of stimulation to the brain may be a very powerful tool to achieve a balance of brain activity.
Adverse activity is the right hemisphere, which is thought to be the one in ADD, OCD, anxiety disorder, and autism is specifically stimulated by low frequency tones, negative, or downbeat music, and music that creates images such as environmental sounds without words. Decreased activity in the left hemisphere which is seen in dyslexia, learning disabilities, poor memory and depression too name a few, is stimulated by high frequency tones, positive or upbeat music, words and repetitive mathematical, rhythmic sounds. We have created BrainBalance Music utilizing these facts as well as other research into how sound effects the hemispheres. BrainBalance Music is designed specifically to create a balance of activity between the hemispheres.
Dr. Robert J. Melillo, an internationally known chiropractic neurologist, has been in private practice for 17 years. For most of that time, he has been a postgraduate professor of neurology and rehabilitation. Dr. Melillo has devoted the later half of his career to the study of learning disabilities and behavioral disorders in both children and adults. He has searched to find the cause of childhood disorders like ADD , ADHD, Dyslexia, Obsessive compulsive disorder,Tourettes syndrome,and autism to name a few . He also has researched depression and anxiety disorders in both children and adults.
Research findings: What Dr. Melillo's research has found is that most childhood and adult cognitive and behavioral problems are a result of an electrical imbalance in the brain. This imbalance can be produced by a lack of stimulation or a skeletal or muscular imbalance of the body. These imbalances result in the brain focusing on using the more active side and ignoring the under-stimulated hemisphere. Therefore information is processed consciously and subconsciously by only one hemisphere instead of two, and the result is abnormal behavior and/or emotions or other physical symptoms of illness.
Dr Melillo has devised a unique approach to improving these symptoms known as The Unlimited Potential Program utilizing specific forms of physical activity coupled with sensory stimulation (such as specifics types of music, light, smells, etc.), cognitive therapy and nutrition. This is all done with specific attention to balancing an individual's brain activity between the right and left hemispheres.
You should listen to the music three to five times a day for at least ten-minute sessions. An mp3 player or cd player should be used with one earpiece taken out or removed. In this instance, you will listen to the music in the ear opposite the side of the brain hemisphere that we wish to stimulate i.e. music in the left ear for the right brain etc. If a player with headphones is not used and instead music is played through speakers, an earplug can be used in the ear that is on the same side of the brain as we wish to stimulate. For example, to stimulate the right hemisphere, place the earplug in the right ear. With the earplug in place, music can be played in the background. In this instance, the music should be kept on for at least 15 minutes. If you cannot tolerate either a player or an earplug, simply play the music in the background at the same volume level for 15 minute intervals. Since Brain Balance Music is specifically designed to stimulate either the right or left brain, it will still have a specific stimulating effect without the isolation of one ear from listening.


text:
EMPIRE OF LAWS - The Legal History of the 50 American States > 4. MOUNTAIN SOUTH LEGAL HISTORY > 4.5 Mountain South: Depression, War and the Death of Jim Crow (1920-1965) >
4.5.2 Mountain South (1920-1965): The Slow Death of Jim Crow (Post-Brown)
A Mixed Reaction to Brown: Mountain South Legislatures
In its initial Brown decision (1954), the U.S. Supreme Court confined itself to announcing that school segregation was unconstitutional, without prescribing a remedy. The court tried to defuse potential opposition by conceding that school integration would be difficult and announcing that it would study its options further.
In 1955, the court announced that no remedy short of full integration would suffice. That generated a firestorm in many parts of the South. Many legislatures, particularly in the deep South, passed "interposition" resolutions condemning Brown and hinting (but only hinting) at future defiance. Action spoke louder than words in many parts of the South: some states essentially shut down their public schools or passed laws throwing up obstacles to integration, and as a result the school integration process did not begin in some Southern states until the mid-1960s.
The anti-Brown resolutions of the 1950s were reminiscent of earlier Southern resolutions, particularly the Kentucky and Virginia Resolutions of 1798-99 opposing the federal Alien and Sedition Acts (§§ ___). But there were important differences: 1950s legislatures took pains to acknowledge the Supreme Court's primacy in matters pertaining to the federal Constitution and pointed out that under Plessy, segregated schools had been perfectly legal. Even the most fiery anti-Brown resolutions stopped short of advocating direct resistance to federal authority; all talked about working within the framework of the established legal system.
Mountain South states were more restrained in their reaction to Brown than other parts of the South. The West Virginia, Kentucky and Missouri legislatures were quiet and integration in those states proceeded relatively smoothly. Tennessee's assembly passed an interposition resolution, but the state senate refused to go along and after some grumbling and delay, school integration proceeded. Only Arkansas followed the deep South pattern: its legislature approved a strong interposition resolution, state and local officials actively resisted integration, and as a result Little Rock became the focus of national attention in 1958 when federal troops were brought in to enforce a violence-marred integration process.
"[T]he power to operate public schools in the State on a racially separate but substantially equal basis was granted by the people of Arkansas to the government of the State of Arkansas; … by ratification of the 14th Amendment, neither the State of Arkansas nor its people delegated to the federal government … the power to regulate or control the operation of the domestic institutions of Arkansas." - Arkansas Legislature, 1956
"[Brown] threatens to result in a deterioration of the good relations that have been cultivated and developed between citizens of the white and negro races in Tennessee … [We resolve] to take all appropriate measures, honorably and legally available, to resist any and all illegal encroachments upon the powers reserved to the State of Tennessee in order to control its own domestic institutions according to its own exclusive judgment." – Tennessee Assembly, 1956 (not concurred in by Senate)
A Mixed Reaction to Brown: Mountain South Courts
Roy v. Brittain – Tennessee, 1956 (297 S.W.2d 72); Smith v. Faubus – Arkansas, 1959 (327 S.W.2d 562); Marshall v. Kansas City – Missouri, 1962 (355 S.W.2d 877)
Brown triggered a huge volume of integration litigation which lasted for decades. Those battles were fought mainly in federal courts. Southern state courts remained mainly on the sidelines, but in the few instances when mountain South courts had to grapple with integration they approached it with acceptance, even in Arkansas.
In Roy, Tennessee's supreme court rejected a request that it intervene on the side of segregation: the justices stated bluntly that they were bound by the Brown decision. Integration opponents argued that the state could fund integrated public schools because the Tennessee constitution prohibited integration, but with equal bluntness the judges refused to go down that path: the state's constitutional commitment to educate its children too priority over its commitment to segregation.
After Brown, segregationists in some states launched an attack on the NAACP by trying to subpoena its membership records. In Faubus, Arkansas's supreme legislature held that the State Sovereignty Commission (created in 1957 to oppose segregation) could not subpoena such records because in this case, civil rights organizations had a basic right to privacy and to be free from harassment.
When Kansas City enacted an accommodations ordinance – the first Southern community to do so since Reconstruction – Missouri's supreme court narrowly upheld the ordinance. None of the justices criticized the law's policy: the issue was whether Kansas City could act independently of the state legislature, which controlled municipalities and had recently refused to enact a state accommodations law. Three judges argued the city must wait for the state to act but the majority, in a strikingly expansive reading of the police power, held that integration of public facilities promoted the public welfare, health and safety.
The Demise of Racial Real Estate Covenants
Kraemer v. Shelley – Missouri, 1947 (198 S.W.2d 679), reversed, 334 U.S. 1 (1948); Weiss v. Leaon – Missouri, 1949 (225 S.W.2d 127), subsequently overruled, 346 U.S. 249 (1953); Stratton v. Conway – Tennessee, 1957 (301 S.W.2d 332)
An important but often overlooked part of the 20th century civil rights revolution involved racial real estate covenants. Prior to the 1940s it was common for real estate developers throughout the United States to foster segregated housing by inserting covenants in deeds of sale prohibiting homeowners from selling to persons of another race. Unlike municipal segregation ordinances, which fell in the 1910s because they involved governmental promotion of discrimination, most courts treated racial covenants as strictly private matters and, thus, not subject to the 14th Amendment.
Missouri was the catalyst for change: after its supreme court applied the well-established rule in Shelley, the U.S. Supreme Court expanded the concept of "governmental promotion" by holding that court enforcement of a racial covenant would "promote" discrimination and would violate the 14th Amendment. Thus, white owners could now sell to black buyers without fear of being stopped by a court injunction.
That left open the question: even if neighbors could not stop the sale, could they sue the seller for damages? Many white property owners believed sales to blacks would lower their property values. In Weiss, the Missouri court was not willing to say that courts were barred from hearing damages lawsuit, but it recognized that the final decision would be up to the U.S. Supreme Court – which ultimately decided that damages lawsuits were also unconstitutional. By 1957, the new rules were sufficiently established that in Stratton, Tennessee's supreme court made clear that racial covenants were a thing of the past.
Sit-In Cases in the Mountain South: Cat-and-Mouse With the U.S. Supreme Court
Briggs v. State – Arkansas, 1963 (367 S.W.2d 750), vacated, 379 U.S. 306 (1964); McKinnie v. State – Tennessee, 1964 (379 S.W.2d 214), reversed, 380 U.S. 449 (1965)
Change through non-violent action, a concept promoted heavily by Dr. King, was a core guiding principle for most civil rights activists. They practiced non-violent agitation for change in a number of ways, beginning with Rosa Parks's decision to sit at the front of a Montgomery, Alabama bus in 1955. In the late 1950s activists adopted the "sit-in," which became a major tool of change. Typically, a few people would sit at a whites-only lunch counter at a restaurant or department store, would request service (and be denied), and would either: (i) leave when asked, (ii) refuse to leave until they were served, or (iii) would be arrested without any request to leave. They were usually prosecuted under trespassing or breach-of-the-peace laws that did not mention race. When arrested, they usually did not resist. The sit-ins attracted national attention and raised the profile of the movement substantially.
Southern state courts did not know quite what to do with the protesters: they disliked them and did not want to be seen as condoning their actions, but many judges were uneasy about the heavy fines and jail sentences lower courts often imposed even when no violence had taken place. As with the jury cases of the 1930s and 1940s, the U.S. Supreme Court kept a close watch on sit-in cases that were appealed, but Southern courts were less receptive to the high Court's directives than they had been in jury cases.
Briggs and McKinnie were the leading state "sit-in" cases in the mountain South. In Briggs, which involved a 1961 ____ sit-in in __, Arkansas's supreme court upheld constitutional challenges to the breach-of-the-peace ordinances under which the protesters had been charged, reasoning that they were racially neutral on their face, but it overturned the protestors' convictions: the court concluded that because they had scrupulously observed their code of non-violence, they could not be blamed for the disturbance they caused by attracting opponents to the scene. Justice __, who dissented, warned that the majority was effectively shackling police ability to preserve order and was giving protesters a tool which, used repeatedly, would force segregated stores out of business. In McKinnie, which involved a [yr] [place] sit-in in ____, Tennessee's supreme court reached an opposite result because the protesters had physically forced their way in to the store. Both cases reached the U.S. Supreme Court after the 1964 Civil Rights Act was passed, and the Court overturned all convictions because all such segregation was now outlawed.
"The mere fact that the exercise of a lawful right may result in a disturbance or breach of the peace does not make the exercise of that right a violation of the law so long as the right is exercised in a peaceful manner and without force or violence or threats of same. … [But] to hold [that black patrons have a right to be served] would be to employ judicial fiat to coerce unwilling lunch counter operators to afford service to patrons they do not want and did not seek." – Justice ___, in Briggs
"Under the decision handed down by the majority, a large number of people can go into any place of business, create a disturbance by their presence, disrupt business and annoy the proprietor to no end, and there is nothing he can do except request them to leave, which they can do and immediately return to the restaurant or other place of business and go through the same procedure until the owner breaks down and does business with them or goes out of business." – Justice __ Robinson (dissenting), in Briggs
"Even if we assume that the owner of the cafeteria had no right to exclude these defendants, this does not excuse their conduct in blocking this narrow passageway As citizens, we are not permitted to take the law in our own hands and correct what we consider to be wrongs… We are presented with the timely question of how far a person can go to secure his constitutional rights. Now it seems clear that a person cannot commit an assault on another to gain these rights. It seems equally clear that one cannot damage the prop of another with impunity because the other has committed an act of racial discrimination against him." – Justice __, in McKinnie
Desegregation of Little Rock Central High School, 1957 - courtesy New York World Telegram archives,Library of Congress, U.S. Army and Wikimedia commons
[Get Roy, Faubus quotes]
"We are constrained to hold that this municipal ordinance, designed to prevent discrimination by reason of race or color in restaurants, bears a substantial and reasonable relation to the specific grant of power to regulate restaurants and to the health, comfort, safety, convenience and welfare of the inhabitants of the city and is fairly referable to the police power of the municipal corporation." – Justice __, in Marshall
Sit-in at Nashville, Tennessee lunch counter (1960) - courtesy New York World Telegram archives and Library of Congress

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


Hit Factory is proud to announce a partnership with Trombly Baseball Arizona starting Summer of 2019! This "Season" runs from May 1, 2019 – December 31, 2019, with the months of January, February, March and April being taken off for the High School season.
Trombly Baseball first set foot on the diamond in the Summer of 2003. In the years since, the program has thrived both on and off the field. Their teams have won 7 National Championships and over 100 tournaments since their creation, establishing Trombly Baseball as one of the top travel baseball organizations in the country. More importantly, this level of success has been carried on by participating players, with over 600 Trombly Baseball Alumni continuing on to play college baseball and over 150 Alumni being drafted to play professionally; including 27 players who have reached the Major League level.
The success of Trombly Baseball is due to the outstanding group of players and parents that participate with them each year. As the proud partner of Trombly Baseball Arizona, we are looking for players and parents to help continue that level of success, helping to promote and grow the organization within the Phoenix/Scottsdale area.
Our program, Trombly Baseball Arizona, is for the serious baseball player who wants to compete and improve their skills each and every day, which can only be achieved through hard work and playing against the best competition available. Players with dedication and commitment are the one's we are looking for. If that sounds like you, come be a part of something great! Learn more and request a private tryout today!
I am thankful to each family for making the decision to participate with our organization. I know there are many options for travel baseball in Arizona, Southern California and Colorado, and your commitment to Trombly Baseball means so much to me. I promise you that I will work as hard as I can and will put in as much time and effort as possible to ensure that each and every player has the best experience possible. Our goal is to help each player improve their skills, have our teams compete in the biggest and best events and to make sure our players get exposure to college coaches and professional scouts.
We have a very talented group of players and an awesome group of coaches so get ready for an exciting, successful and fun season!


text:
Clint Eastwood's three rules for directing
He doesn't play Dirty Harry on his sets, but there are a few things Eastwood won't tolerate
By Liane Bonin
March 30, 1999 at 05:00 AM EST
Sure, he's the original Dirty Harry. But as a director, Clint Eastwood isn't so tough… as long as his coworkers follow a few rules. And we're not just talking about skipping the "Every Which Way but Loose" wisecracks. Here are the "True Crime" director's three laws of filming, according to cinematographer Jack N. Green, who has worked with Eastwood on 27 movies.
DON'T SWEAT THE SMALL STUFF Forget Stanley Kubrick and his million reshoots. This is one director who doesn't think it's so nice to be precise, opting for jazz-inspired improvisation over perfectionism. "Clint gives what I call a finger-wave rehearsal, where he points and says, James (Woods) will be standing over here, I'll be roughly over here, and Denis (Leary) will be over here," says Green. "He hates putting marks on the ground." Eastwood also films rehearsal, preferring the natural quality of a first read. "There's an adrenaline motivator that makes actors either paraphrase or stumble for the words in a really natural way," explains Green.
TAKE IT EASY All work and no play doesn't fly with Clint. Eastwood's easygoing approach means shorter hours (9-hour days instead of the Hollywood average of 13 plus) and a history of bringing in the finished product early and under budget. "It's not that we're slackers at all," says Green. "It's just that in a happy environment you have better output."
FRANKLY, MY DEAR, I DON'T GIVE A DAMN Audiences haven't always loved Clint, and he couldn't care less. While "Unforgiven" and "The Bridges of Madison County" struck gold, Eastwood flopped with "Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil." And "True Crime" finished a disappointing No. 7 ($3.3 million) in its second weekend in release. But that's not what truly matters to the film legend. "I remember a time when we were filming 'Bird,"' says Green, "when, after finishing a take with Forest (Whitaker), Clint looked at me and said, 'I don't care if anyone sees this film, this is such a wonderful film to work on."' One wonders if he said the same about "Honkytonk Man."


text:
Letter to Egyptian Foreign Minister on Syria and the ICC
H.E. Minister of Foreign Affairs Mohamed Kamel Amr
Cornish El-Nil
Dear Foreign Minister:
We write to request that your government support an initiative led by Switzerland calling on the United Nations (UN) Security Council to refer the situation in Syria to the International Criminal Court (ICC). The letter, set to be delivered by Switzerland on January 14, 2013, points to a record of severe human rights violations in Syria with no prospect of justice at the local level, and appeals to the Security Council to therefore take up the issue of accountability. It is time Egypt join the over 50 nations, including Tunisia and Libya, that have supported this call and signal to all sides in Syria that the days of absolute impunity for these severe human rights violations are at an end.
As you know, serious violations of international human rights and humanitarian law have been committed in Syria. The Syrian government continues to conduct indiscriminate air and artillery strikes on residential areas, and to arbitrarily detain, torture, and execute civilians. In August 2012, the UN Commission of Inquiry on Syria issued its third report in which it found reasonable grounds to believe that crimes against humanity and war crimes had been committed in Syria. Human Rights Watch has likewise documented and condemned serious violations including kidnapping, torture, and extrajudicial executions by opposition forces.
The humanitarian situation in Syria is dire. A preliminary analysis carried out by data specialists on behalf of the Office of High Commissioner for Human Rights suggests that over 60,000 persons have been killed in Syria to date. Approximately two million people are internally displaced and over 600,000 are seeking refuge in camps and other arrangements in Turkey, Jordan, Lebanon, Iraq, and Egypt.
Egypt has been one of the strongest proponents of ending atrocities committed in Syria. Egyptian efforts to secure strong resolutions on Syria at the League of Arab States and at the UN General Assembly have helped to galvanize attention and action to stop violence against civilians. Most recently, we understand that Egypt worked to secure an August 2012 General Assembly resolution, supported by 133 states, which stressed the importance of holding those responsible for human rights violations in Syria to account, and encouraged the Security Council to consider appropriate measures in this regard. In an interview with CNN on January 6, Egyptian President Mohamed Morsy also supported calls by Syrians for international justice. Egyptian support for this global appeal would be in step with its advocacy on Syria and advance these efforts.
However, we understand that Egypt has yet to sign the letter spearheaded by Switzerland calling on the Security Council to act concretely and refer Syria to the ICC.
Egypt's support of this initiative would send an important message on how the Council should be reacting to the deteriorating situation in Syria. We believe that broad support including from states in the region could contribute to generating greater pressure on those in positions of authority in Syria to halt the violence. Indeed, the threat of serious criminal prosecution would send a powerful message to those most responsible for the atrocities there.
The call for justice through the ICC has been echoed by other parts of the international community. The UN High Commissioner for Human Rights has, on multiple occasions, recommended that the Council refer the situation to the court. In conclusions adopted in December 2012, the European Union Foreign Affairs Council called on the Security Council to urgently address the situation in Syria, including the issue of an ICC referral.
We understand that there may be questions about how justice could affect prospects for a peace settlement in Syria. However, the record from other conflicts such as those in the Balkans confirms that criminal indictments of senior political, military, and rebel leaders can actually strengthen peace efforts by delegitimizing and marginalizing those who stand in the way of the conflict's resolution. Further, the failure to hold perpetrators of the most serious international crimes to account can fuel future abuses.
Human Rights Watch believes that strong Security Council action is overdue, including the referral of Syria to the ICC. We urge your government to urgently associate itself with Switzerland's initiative. While the international community has underlined the need for accountability, there has been no action to make this a reality. Ongoing delay of any concrete action has devastating consequences for the Syrian people where human rights abuses continue to be committed on a daily basis.The stakes are extremely high for the victims of atrocities there and for global efforts to curtail impunity for the most serious crimes.
Richard Dicker
Director, International Justice Program
Sarah Leah Whitson
Executive Director, Middle East and North Africa Division
Cc: Ambassador Mootaz Ahmadein Khalil, Permanent Representative of Egypt to the United Nations
August 6, 2012 Commentary
Syria, A Path to Justice
Syria and the ICC
Syria: US Coalition Should Address Civilian Harm
First Public 'Condolence' Payment Provides Way Forward
Lebanon: Syrian Refugee Shelters Demolished
Coercive Measures Intensify Pressures to Return to Syria