e-4881 (Foreign affairs)

Petition to the House of Commons

• Syria is in the grip of a humanitarian catastrophe and the economic sanctions have a lot to do with it, as revealed in a UN report in November 2022 by the special rapporteur, Alena Dohan, concluding that this amounts to crimes against humanity against the Syrian people as a whole;
• Since 2018, the war in Syria has become less intense, new economic sanctions have been imposed on it, among the most severe in modern history, these starve and impoverish the people, and 90% of Syrians live below the poverty line;
• These sanctions prevent Syria from trading with the outside world to purchase spare parts for electricity generation, water purification and treatment, and infrastructure repairs;
• These sanctions are making medicines and medical equipment scarce, and hospitals are struggling to serve citizens in need of basic treatment, whereas before Syria had one of the most advanced health systems in the Middle East, self-sufficient in 90% of the medicines it produced; and
• Syria’s substantial oil resources are being confiscated by foreign powers, resulting in a permanent fuel shortage that is affecting civilian life as a whole.