The Universal Declaration of Human Rights was adopted by the UN General Assembly on 10 December 1948.
Article 3
Everyone has the right to life, liberty and security of person.
Article 30
Nothing in this Declaration may be interpreted as implying for any State, group or person any right to engage in any activity or to perform any act aimed at the destruction of any of the rights and freedoms set forth herein.
However, because Russia and China reserve the right to do the same in eg Chechnyia and Tibet and have vetoed a Security Council resolution, the citizens of Syria are denied the very rights that we take for granted.
I'm not advocating unilateral armed intervention as that would quickly domino into a world war - the Russia Navy has a Mediterranean base at Tartus in Syria and Iran would dive in to protect the links across friendly territory to its Hezbollah and Hamas interests in Lebanon and Gaza. Besides, the anti-Ba'athist opposition is dominated by islamist groups that oppose western interests and human rights. Like Hillaire Belloc's Jim: "Always keep a-hold of Nurse/For fear of finding something worse".
However, something must be done.
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