The bloody clashes in Syria, verging on an all out civil war, have continued for the past ten months. Despite the protesters being peaceful, their treatment by the authorities has deteriorated at the same rate as Assad's fear for the survival of his regime grew. As dire as the situation was at the outset, the human rights violations multiplied further and further: extreme violence of security forces resulting in deaths during protests and while in detention was just one gruesome facet of this. The killings of mourners attending their loved ones' funerals was another.

Assad's initial appeasement techniques, such as the introduction of a number of reforms and freeing numerous political prisoners were nullified by the continuation of the violence on the streets. The UN High Commissioner for Human Rights reported a figure of 5,000 dead in connection to the protests by mid-December 2011 – mainly civilians and soldiers who have refused to 'pacify' their compatriots. Those detained in relation to the unrest are brutally beaten, electro-shocked and burned with cigarettes; for lack of space, or rather the abundance of prisoners, schools, hotels and stadiums are being filled with people accused of turning against the regime.

Yet all of this has until recently attracted limited attention of the international community. Of course, a lot was said to condemn the ongoing bloodshed by all major international actors, also in the EU. Catherine Ashton has made several strongly worded statements, the European Parliament has adopted a damning resolution and most concretely, the Foreign Affairs Council passed increasingly restrictive sanctions to pressure the Syrian regime. With regards to diplomacy, all stops have been pulled and reasonable non-military measures have been exhausted.

While it’s hard to blame European states for not wanting to rush into a military campaign in Syria, it’s difficult not to be cynical when analysing the reasons (apart from general military weakness) for this situation. The numbers of civilian casualties of the clashes in Syria are atrocious, and the overall situation is bordering on a humanitarian crisis. For months now, the human rights violations within the country have been deployed in a systemic fashion. Assad’s regime has repeatedly defied the ultimatums of the Arab League to impose a ceasefire.  Much less was necessary for the international community to decide to take military action on Libya. Of course, at the time, Gaddafi’s regime had not been embargoed and was therefore supplying oil internationally, which the revolution interrupted – the restoration of business as usual required a military solution. What more, the Syrian crisis has not caused a dramatic influx of refugees to arrive at European shores, therefore decreasing the cost-benefit ratio of intervening to resolve the crisis.

At last, the UN is considering a resolution calling on Assad to surrender power and immediately end the crisis. This gives the Syrian people a flicker of real hope. Severe global pressure on the regime, with the potential for military intervention in case of resistance, has been long overdue. But before that can be applied, another leader reluctant to give up his stronghold must be pressured into agreeing the resolution: Vladimir Putin. The EU in particular must take a strong stance and push Russia to help adopt the resolution in its current form. It’s the least it can do after months of half-hearted engagement.

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