UpFront

Has the world betrayed Syria?

We speak to Lakhdar Brahimi, the former UN and Arab League Envoy to Syria; and ask if the ICC is biased against Africa.

With Syrian peace talks due to resume next week and a partial ceasefire in place, is there an end to the conflict in sight?

In this week’s UpFront, we ask Lakhdar Brahimi, the former United Nations and Arab League envoy to Syria.

In the Reality Check, we question the Israeli prime minister’s assertion that unlike Palestinians, Israel does not praise “terrorists”. And in the Arena, we debate whether the International Criminal Court singles out African leaders with the court’s first chief prosecutor Luis Moreno Ocampo and professor Mahmood Mamdani.

Lakhdar Brahimi: ‘No good guys in Syrian tragedy’

This month marks five years since protests against Syrian President Bashar al-Assad began, evolving into a conflict that has led to more than 250,000 deaths.

Last month, the United States and Russia brokered a ceasefire, and, despite numerous violations, the partial truce has led to a 90 percent drop in the average number of civilian deaths each day. With peace talks due to resume next week, will the ceasefire hold?

In this week’s Headliner, we ask Lakhdar Brahimi, the former UN and Arab League envoy to Syria about the current state of Syria and whether the world has ignored the plight of the Syrian people.

Brahimi tells Mehdi Hasan, “there were no good guys in the Syrian tragedy”, placing blame on all parties involved.

He says the conflict could have been resolved in 2012 had there been a better understanding of the situation, adding that none of the countries involved in the conflict or negotiations “had the interest of the Syrian people as their first priority.”

Reality Check: Israeli double standards?

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has often said, “[Palestinians] consider murderers to be heroes, they name public squares after them, we don’t”.

A look at Israel’s history, however, proves that sometimes they do.

Arena: Is the ICC biased against African countries?

The International Criminal Court was set up to prosecute war criminals and human rights violators, who proponents argue would otherwise go free. In recent months, however, African countries have threatened to pull out, citing what they consider a bias against the continent.

Critics point to the fact that of the nine countries the ICC has opened inquiries into, eight are in Africa.

So, is the ICC obsessed with targeting only African countries? And, just how effective is the court? In the Arena, Luis Moreno Ocampo, the first chief prosecutor of the ICC, debates Mahmood Mamdani, a professor at Uganda’s Makerere University and one of the strongest critics of the court.

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