The U.N. Human Rights Council has strongly condemned “the continued widespread, systematic and gross violations of human rights” in Syria where the government is entering its ninth month of a bloody crackdown on dissenters. A Look At Syria’s Main Opposition Groups Syrian National Council: – Turkey-based coalition of varying ideologies is Syria’s largest opposition grouping. – Secular dissident Bourhan Ghalioun announced the council’s formation in October and said it rejects foreign intervention. Rejects dialogue with President Bashar al-Assad’s government and has been urging him to resign. – Has created a general assembly, a general secretariat and an executive committee whose members will chair the council on a rotating basis. National Coordination Committee: – Primarily based in Syria. – Wants the government to enact reforms though dialogue and by building new civilian institutions. – Headed by Hassan Abdul-Azim, who has been demanding an end to President Assad’s crackdown as a condition for any dialogue between the government and the opposition. Free Syrian Army: – Comprised of military defectors. – Initially formed to protect civilians but has increasingly gone on the offensive against pro-government forces. – Activists say the group launched a high-profile attack Wednesday against a military intelligence complex near Damascus. It used rockets and other weapons to damage the building. Also, the group says it has created a temporary military council that intends to unseat President Bashar al-Assad’s government. – The group claims to have at least 15,000 members but those claims have not been independently verified. – Colonel Riad al-Asaad formed the group shortly after he defected in July. During an emergency session convened Friday in Geneva, the U.N. rights body overwhelmingly adopted a resolution that will establish a special investigator to probe human rights abuses in Syria. U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights, Navi Pillay, told the Human Rights Council’s 47 member states that more than 4,000 people have been killed since the crackdown began in mid-March, including 307 children. She said tens of thousands of people have been arrested and some 14,000 remain in Syrian jails. Earlier this week, the U.N. Human Rights Council’s Independent International Commission of Inquiry delivered its initial report, which concluded that Syria’s security and military forces have committed crimes against humanity. Pillay urged the U.N. Security Council to refer the matter to the International Criminal Court at The Hague and said the international community needs to urgently act to protect the Syrian people. “The Syrian authorities’ continual ruthless repression, if not stopped now, can drive the country into a full-fledged civil war,” said Pillay. “In light of the manifest failure of the Syrian authorities to protect their citizens , the international community needs to take urgent and effective measures to protect the Syrian people.” In a vote of 37 in favor, four against and six abstentions, the Human Rights Council strongly condemned the violence and established a special rapporteur to investigate the situation of human rights in Syria. Russia, China, Ecuador and Cuba were the four members who voted against the measure, while all four of the Human Rights Council’s Arab members were among the states supporting the resolution. The resolution stops short of explicitly referring the commission’s report on Syria to the U.N. Security Council — which could then refer the matter to the International Criminal Court — but it does charge the U.N. Secretary-General with taking “appropriate action” and transmitting the report to “all U.N. relevant bodies” which could include the General Assembly or Security Council. Speaking before the vote, Syria’s envoy in Geneva, Faysal Khabbaz Hamwi, dismissed the draft resolution as “one-sided” and “biased.” He urged members not to vote for it, saying it would not help the Syrian people. “In addition to the false message they are addressing to the situation in my country, we would have hoped to have a more balanced draft resolution that would call on ceasing all forms of armed violence in my country,” said a translator on Hamwi’s behalf. “We would have liked the draft resolution to call on all sections of the Syrian people to start an effective, real national dialogue to put an end to the crisis. Nevertheless, it did not refer to that whatsoever.” As the death toll continues to climb, international pressure on Syria has been intensifying, with the European Union, the United States and the Arab League all separately sanctioning the regime of President Bashar al-Assad.

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The United States and the European Union tightened sanctions on Syria Thursday as the United Nations said the death toll in the Damascus government’s crackdown on protestors now exceeds 4,000.  A top State Department official said Syrian President Bashar al-Assad’s departure is inevitable. The Obama administration has added two close associates of the Syrian leader and two companies with ties to the government to a U.S. economic blacklist aimed at hastening the departure of President Assad. The Treasury Department identified the Syrians as Muhammad Makhluf, an uncle and financial enabler to the president and his family, and General Aus Aslan, a commander of the Syrian army’s 4th Armored Division, identified as a “key regime-protection unit.” The entities cited were the Syrian Real Estate Bank, the second largest bank in the country, and the Military Housing Establishment, a company controlled by the defense ministry said to provide funding to the regime. They join a long list of Syrian firms and individuals barred from access to the U.S. financial system and facing the seizure of any U.S.-based assets. The U.S. move came as the European Union extended its own Syria sanctions list, adding 12 individuals and 11 companies. In a written statement, President Barack Obama welcomed the EU announcement, which also included new sanctions against Iran, as a signal of the world community’s resolve to address what he termed “the assault on the fundamental rights of the Syrian people.” At a Senate committee hearing on Iran sanctions, Under-Secretary of State for Political Affairs Wendy Sherman said the downfall of President Assad, a critical ally of Tehran, is just a matter of time. “The international environment is changing on a daily basis. And probably one of the most significant things that will happen sometime in the near future is a change in Syria. Iran really has only two allies left, Syria and Hezbollah. And when indeed Basher al-Assad steps aside, which he most undoubtedly will do, it’s just a matter of when, not if, Iran will lose one of its last proxies in the world,” she said. In Geneva, U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights Navi Pillay said the cumulative death toll in Syria is at least 4,000. She said the situation, with military defectors from the self-described “Free Syrian Army” claiming attacks on government targets, can now be characterized as a civil war. At the State Department, Deputy Spokesman Mark Toner said the United States is reluctant to describe the situation as civil warfare since the “overwhelming” share of the violence has come from pro-regime forces. He said Assad government tactics are taking Syria “down a very dangerous path” but that the United States counsels non-violence by its opponents. “We have been very clear in saying that we believe the opposition needs to remain peaceful. We’ve also been clear in saying that it is Assad’s reaction to these peaceful protests that has led us to, on the part of some, the Free Syrian Army, this violent reaction to the ongoing onslaughts from the Syrian regime,” he said. Toner said the Obama administration still intends to send U.S. Ambassador to Syria Robert Ford back to his post in the near future, when his safety can be assured. The outspoken U.S. envoy, withdrawn in October, drew the wrath of the Damascus government for his outreach to opposition figures. Toner said it is important for the United States to have a credible, senior-level observer on the ground in Syria to “bear witness” to what is happening there.

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Europe got more bad news on Thursday, as the European Union’s executive arm sharply downgraded growth forecasts for the region. This has major implications for a continent buffeted by the financial and political crises in Italy and Greece. The new figures predict economic growth across the European Union of only 0.6 percent next year – and just 0.5 percent in the 17-nation eurozone. That is substantially less than the 1.8 percent growth predictions earlier this year for the euro currency area. European Economic and Monetary Affairs Commissioner Olli Rehn delivered a sober assessment of the region’s problems at a press conference in Brussels. “GDP is now forecast to stagnate around the turn of this year, with some member states, in fact, experiencing a contraction,” said Rehn. Rehn called on five EU members – Belgium, Cyprus, Hungary, Malta and Poland – to cut their budgets or risk facing sanctions. He also summed up international worries about the ailing region. “Concern about the sovereign debt crisis in several euro-area member states, together with the weakening global economic conditions, have led to a sharp fall in confidence since April this year,” said Rehn. Rehn is only the latest official sounding a warning. International Monetary Fund chief Christine Lagarde is urging “clarity” from Italy and Greece, which face political as well as economic turmoil. And noting the sluggish growth and high unemployment in the United States, she is warning of a “lost decade” ahead for the world economy. “Our sense is that if we do not act boldly and if we do not act together, the economy around the world runs the risk of a downward spiral of uncertainty, financial instability and a potential collapse of global demand,” said Lagarde. A Reuters report said officials from Germany and France have discussed a fundamental overhaul of the European Union, to create a smaller, more integrated eurozone group compared to the rest of the 27-member EU. Officially, however, both France and Germany say it is essential the eurozone remains intact. Additionally, analyst Philippe Moreau Defarges, of the Paris-based French Institute of International Relations, said creating these two European systems would be problematic in practice. “It’s very difficult because the juridical issue… in English you say ‘the devil is in the details’ – I would say what is important is in the details. It means that, of course, you can imagine a very ambitious scheme, very ambitious modification on the paper, but when you want to implement that… it’s much more difficult,” said Defarges. What is certain is that the eurozone crisis is likely to dominate the news here for the months to come, with pressure growing for European leaders to come up with a comprehensive and sustainable solution.

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