Syria's Emergency Laws

For the last 48 years, Syria has had multiple emergency laws in place that gave state security forces extraordinary powers to arrest and detain people without any charges. The government however has stated that they will be immediately replaced by new anti-terrorism legislation. Over the last month, Syria has seen a massive increase in demonstrations, mainly against these emergency laws. Only time will tell if this will appease the protesters.

It is crazy to me that Syria has been under emergency laws for so long. It seems like enacting an emergency law would be a temporary thing, not something that would last almost half a century! It will be interesting to see how the protesters in the country will take this news.