Unite for Syria campaign spreads across the networks

Political campaigns and international issues have a way of garnering human interest across the social networks. March 15th, 2011, anti government protests started in Syria and thus ensued constant violence between the government of Syria and protestors. While there have been many casualties, including those involving non-Syrians, like reporters Marie Colvin and Anthony Shadid, there has been much dissent among protesters in Syria and reporters sending inside stories that by and large, the Syrians have been ignored and the international community has done little to get involved. Russia and China have vetoed United Nations Security Council resolutions to condemn the President of Syria, Bashal Al-Assad. However, now, a campaign, #UniteForSyria is making its way across Facebook, Twitter and YouTube.

Syrians should hopefully find more support and international awareness through this campaign

Initially, a lot of tweets raising awareness for Syria was coming from Syria itself. Protestors put up images on Twitter and videos on YouTube of the violence the Syrian government was waging on its people and the weaponry they were using. #UniteForSyria has not only gained the attention of civilians of different countries around the world, but also celebrities like Susan Sarandon, Stephen Fry and Sir Patrick Stewart. According to Mashable, the United Nations director at Human Rights Watch has made a statement on the matter saying that the aim of the campaign is not only to gain attention to end the violence in Syria, but also to put pressure on the Syrian government and its ally, Russia. 

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The campaign was started by 200 NGOs over 27 different countries, including Human Rights Watch and the International Federation of Human Rights. The campaign calls for Russia and China to back the UN Security Council resolution condemning Bashar Al-Assad, whose government reacted with force and violence to the protests, and putting an end once and for all to the violence.