The case for Syria applying the essential legal principle and pillar of bi-lateral international relations, Reciprocity, in order to encourage Lebanese officials to meet their international legal obligations and thereby spare the lives of countless Syrian and Palestinian refugees being denied life-saving refuge at Syria-Lebanon borders is a strong one.

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In fewer than 48 hours Syria could achieve relief for her endangered citizens seeking lifesaving refuge in LebanonBy Franklin Lamb

Syrian Embassy, Beirut

The case for Syria applying the essential legal principle and pillar of bi-lateral international relations, Reciprocity, in order to encourage Lebanese officials to meet their international legal obligations and thereby spare the lives of countless Syrian and Palestinian refugees being denied life-saving refuge at Syria-Lebanon borders is a strong one. Legally and morally.

The use of reciprocity in international relations is considered an instrument for achieving relations of mutual trust and long-term mutual obligations, and an incentive for compliance with international standards. Likewise, it is considered a fundamental principle for the interaction of states to effectively manage crises.

The legal status of those fleeing from the crisis in Syria is mostly governed by Lebanon's national laws concerning foreign nationals. But international standards, including the principle of nonrefoulement still apply, and all countries have an obligation to not to block from entry or to force return person's whose life would be threatened. This obtains because nonrefoulement is part of customary law, a set of rules which are binding on all states, even if a country has not signed a specific convention outlining this law.

Both are applicable to the current situation at Lebanon's border crossings, and Syria, if it takes the bold action and invokes reciprocity, has the opportunity to immediately strengthen this international legal standard, promote international humanitarian law and grant a life-saving reprieve to her country's refugees facing a possible death sentence at the Masnaa border crossing. Syria is within its right to refuse particular treatment to Lebanon if the latter refuses to take an attitude similar to that of the former and or violates international humanitarian law.

Along the 365 km (226.8 miles) Syrian-Lebanese border there are 5 official border crossings: Aarida (between Homs and northern Lebanon), El Aabboudiye (between Tartous and northern Lebanon), Qaa Baalbek(at the northern end of the Bekaa valley) Al Masnaa(between rural Damascus and Bekaa) and Wadi Kahled (between northern Lebanon and Homs).

Since the 1943 establishment of Lebanon, historically part of Syria, when exiting their country for Lebanon, Syrians are provided with a Return Coupon and exit stamp by the Syrian authorities. On the Lebanese side of the border, an individual holding a valid national Syrian identity card or a valid passport receives an Entry Coupon (also called Return Coupon) with an entry stamp. This stamp allows him/her residency for a period of 6 months and can be renewed free of charge for another 6 months at any regional office of the General Security. This procedure granted Syrians the possibility of residing in Lebanon for one year without any fees. After this period, Syrians would be allowed to apply for a 6 month residence permit for a fee of 300,000 LL (US$ 200), renewable free of charge for another 6 months.

Reciprocity is a universally accepted principle of international law that normally many Lebanese politicians love. In fact they have misapplied if for six decades as a means of depriving Palestinian refugees in Lebanon of even the most elementary civil rights, including the right to work and to own a home. With sad faces, some of them regularly explain to this observer that they would love to grant Palestinians civil rights but they are prevented from doing do because Lebanese law currently requires that in order to receive rights here in Lebanon, the home country of the refugees must grant the same on the basis of reciprocity to Lebanese refugees. And, appearing very sad still, some politicians here explain that since there is no state of Palestine, these refugees are out of luck.

But this month, the mutually beneficial arrangement has been unilaterally changed by the government of Lebanon. Lebanon's side of the above noted entry points have been sealed and they now bar Syrian and Palestinian refugees fleeing for their lives. This is because on New Year's Day, Lebanese officials announced a new policy requiring half a dozen types of visas for Syrians wanting to enter this country who are not refugees fleeing for their lives. Refugees fleeing the killing in Syria are blocked formally, as most of them have been informally for over a year.

Some Lebanese officials, including the Speaker of Lebanon's Parliament, apparently ever dismissive of the intelligence of their subjects, use double-talk in explaining to the public that the visa requirement is not really a real visa. Rather it's more like a 'permit to enter." (!) Interior Minister Nouhad al-Mashnouq has also stated that the Lebanese government has decided to stop the influx of Syrian refugees to Lebanon.

The new visa requirement for Syrian refugees is causing additional hardship and much panic to civilian victims of war who are exactly those that a whole body of international humanitarian law seeks to protect. Lebanon's latest refugee targeting measures are also a flagrant violation of several Lebanese-Syrian bilateral agreements.

On 1/11/14 Syria's Ambassador to Lebanon, Ali Abdel-Karim Ali, reiterated his country's rejection of new Lebanese entry restrictions, which many human rights organizations claim constitute a politically motivated attack on Syrian refugees. "I cannot find a justification for what is happening today (regarding Syrian refugees being blocked at Lebanon's border), and logic says that the decision should not be enforced." Some analyst's inferred from the Ambassador's remarks that if the Lebanese Ministers of Interior and of Social Affairs do not cancel the new visa requirement, this could lead, in the words of Ambassador Ali, to "an escalation of bad relations."

Personally, I have not been asked by the Syrian Lawyers Syndicate, where I occasionally spend some time discussing legal issues, including US sanctions targeting the civilian population of Syria for the purely political purpose of regime change, how to quickly fix this problem. But were my opinion to be sought, my legal memorandum would surely include the following brief recommendations.

One historically effective remedy with respect to similar violations of international humanitarian law that the Syrian government could immediately employ is for Syrian authorities to take retaliatory action, under standards of reciprocity, by closing the transit borders between Lebanon and Syria. This simple measure would also block Lebanon's shipments of its products to regional countries. A sort of tit for tat arrangement, until Lebanese officials, some deeply anti-Syrian for a variety of reasons, reconsider their violations of the 1951 Refugee Convention which prohibits their latest measure. Even though Lebanon has refused to sign the Refugee Convention, the country is nonetheless bound by all its provisions because this treaty's' provisions, signed and ratified by 164 UN member states is subsumed into international customary law, which binds all countries on refugee issues, regardless if they refused to formally adhere to its provisions.

If Lebanon has not lifted the visa requirement within 24 hours of being notified by Syria's Ambassador, Syria should issue a reciprocal visa requirement for all citizens of Lebanon.

Secondly, if Lebanon has not lifted the visa requirement within 24 hours of being notified by Syria's Ambassador, the government of Syria should block all Lebanese commercial traffic from entering Syria, whether its destination is Syria or any other Arab country. This would provoke a massive traffic jam of hundreds of trucks parked along the highways of the Bekaa Valley loaded mainly with perishable agriculture produce. One professor at the Lebanese American University estimates that within 24 hours, hundreds of trucks with frustrated owners, drivers, merchants, and a delegation representing the thousands of Lebanese families who live on agricultural exports to Arab markets, would likely descend on The Grand Serail and Lebanon's Parliament, carrying black tires to burn, in order to help remedy the problem.

This observer trusts that his proposed 'civilian protection' in exchange for 'commercial profits' reciprocity would fix the problem quickly, and Syrian-Lebanese relations could return to the situation of no-visas for Syrians or Lebanese at their borders and temporary life-saving passage to Lebanon for Syrian and Palestinian refugees.

Reciprocity applied by Syria in the current case of Lebanon denying safe haven to refugees fleeing for their lives would be a sound measure that may well encourage Lebanon to withdraw its barriers blocking Syrian refugees until they can return to the own country which hopefully, whether by ceasefire, freeze or negotiated settlement, will be soon.

Authors Website: http://mealsforsyrianrefugeechildrenlebanon.com/

Authors Bio:

Since 2013, Professor Franklin P. Lamb has traveled extensively throughout Syria. His primary focus has been to document, photograph, research and hopefully help preserve the vast and irreplaceable archaeological sites and artifacts in Syria.

Like Iraq, Syria is the cradle of civilization, and as such it has been a rich source of our shared global culture and historic heritage. Already endangered from illegal excavation, looting, international trafficking and iconoclasm; the theft and destruction of these sites has greatly increased as a result of the conflict in the Middle East.

Many of the endangered archeological sites and artifacts are over 7,000 years old. The oldest remains found in Syria are from the Paleolithic era (c. 800,000 BCE). The most endangered artifacts and archaeological sites currently are in Tell Halaf, the north of Syria near the Turkish border with Syria. These archaeological sites date as far back as 5,500 BCE. They include archeological sites and artifacts of the Babylonian, Sumerian, Egyptian, Assyrian, Phoenician, Aramaic, Greek, Roman, Byzantine, Umayyad, Ayyubid and Ottoman civilizations and empires.

Professor Franklin Lamb has also been working, sometimes under dangerous circumstances, to record and photograph the war damage done to religious icons, images, monuments, and ancient structures that span pre-Roman civilizations, and structures such as Islamic mosques, Christian churches and Jewish synagogues.

Professor Lamb is working tirelessly to record and photograph these sites and artifacts because they are in danger of complete destruction for religious, political and illegal trafficking reasons, especially due to the ongoing wars in the Middle East.

Professor Franklin Lamb's website and his latest book, "Syria's Endangered Heritage, an International Responsibility to Preserve and Protect" presents exclusive and never published before photographs, records, data, articles, and interviews from across the whole of Syria. His book can be purchased at his website http://www.syrian-heritage.com/.

In addition to Dr. Lamb's urgent archaeological work he is also deeply committed to rescuing and aiding refugee children in Syria. He is a volunteer with the Lebanon, France, and USA based "Meals for Syrian Refugee Children, Lebanon (MSRCL)", which seeks to provide hot nutritional meals to Syrian and other refugee children.

Lamb says that the goal of MSRCL is to be able to provide one meal a day to 500 children. More donors are needed in order for him to reach that goal. At $2.25 per meal x 500 children per day ($1,225), the budget for a month (30 days) requires approximately $36,000. Over 95% of each donation goes directly towards the cost of each meal. The MSCRL volunteer teams give their time, energy and even their own money to help the refugee children so that they will not become part of the "lost generation" of Syria.

Lamb's books and publications include "Pollution as a Problem of International Law"; "International Legal Responsibility for the Sabra Shatila Massacre"; "Israel's 1982 War in Lebanon: Eyewitness Chronicles of the Invasion and Occupation", "The Price We Pay: A Quarter Century of Israel's Use of American Weapons against Civilians in Lebanon in addition to the three volume set, "Palestine, Lebanon & Syria Palestine, Lebanon & Syria (Commentary and Analysis 2006-2016)." Due out during Fall 2016, in English and Arabic, is "The Case for Palestinian Civil Rights in Lebanon: Why the Resistance Sleeps."

Dr. Lamb's most recent book is "Syria's Endangered Heritage: An International Responsibility to Preserve and Protect". www.Syrian-heritage.com

Lamb's Academic Credentials include: BA, and Law Degrees from Boston University, Master of Law (LLM) Master of Philosophy and Doctor of Philosophy from the London School of Economics (LSE); Diploma in International Air & Space Law from the University College of London; Post-Doctoral Studies at Harvard University Law School of East Asian Legal Studies Center, specializing in Chinese Law; International Legal Studies at Cambridge University in the United Kingdom; Studied Public International Law at The Hague Academy of international Law, at the International Court of Justice, in The Hague, Netherlands.

Lamb's Professional and Political Activities include Assistant Professor of International Law, Northwestern College of Law, Portland, Oregon and Assistant Counsel to the US House of Representatives Judiciary Committee, During the Administration of President Jimmy Carter, Lamb was elected for a four year term to the Democratic National Committee, representing the state of Oregon. Lamb served on the Democratic National Committee Judicial Council with California Congresswoman Nancy Pelosi as well as the Platform Committee on East-West Relations. Professor Lamb served on the presidential campaign staff for Presidential Candidate Edward M. Kennedy of Massachusetts.