Imprisoned Syrian Human Rights Activist at Risk of Death

Nizar Nayouf, a 36-year-old writer and human rights activist, is serving a ten-year sentence at Mezze military prison in Damascus. He was recently diagnosed with Hodgkin's disease. According to information made public by the Paris-based nongovernmental organization Reporters Sans Frontières (Reporters Without Borders), Nizar has been denied the medical care necessary to treat his serious illness unless he renounces his political beliefs, pledges to refrain from political activity, and signs an admission that he made "false declarations concerning the situation of human rights in Syria."

Nizar Nayouf should not have been imprisoned in the first place, and it is a tragedy that he is now forced to confront a life-threatening illness from behind the bars of a solitary cell in a military prison. His health and medical treatment should not be linked to coercive demands that fundamentally compromise his right to freedom of expression, including his right to hold opinions without interference and to communicate information and ideas to others.

The denial of medical treatment to Nizar Nayouf is a threat to his inherent right to life, protected under Article 6 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, and amounts to cruel and inhuman treatment, forbidden absolutely under Article 7 of the Covenant. In addition, the internationally recognized Standard Minimum Rules for the Treatment of Prisoners specify that prisoners who are ill and require specialist treatment "shall be transferred to specialized institutions or to civil hospitals." The rules further specify that the qualified medical officer of a prison must "report to the [prison] director whenever he considers that a prisoner's physical or mental health has been or will be injuriously affected by continued imprisonment or by any condition of imprisonment."