This statement follows one and a half years of preparation, and is in response to the disappointment felt over the last five years due to the inability of the international community to implement international resolutions and support any efforts that aim to implement ceasefires, end bombing, protect civilians, support the release of detainees and know the fate of the disappeared.
Accordingly, Syria’s civil society organizations announce the launch of the Syrian Civil Society Platform on the 10th of February, 2016 in Istanbul.
The Syrian Civil Society Platform consists of eleven local platforms in eleven of Syria’s fourteen provinces as well as three platforms representing the Syrian community in the neighboring countries of Lebanon, Jordan and Iraqi Kurdistan. The Syrian Civil Society Platform represents 191 organizations and 145 community leaders. Based on the importance of civil society in achieving civil and social peace the Syrian Civil Society Platform calls for the effective and continual participation of civil society to play a consultative and monitoring role in the entire political transition process.
It urges all the parties involved in Geneva negotiations, which will continue on the 25th of this month, to take into consideration what is contained in the Statement of Principles which was publicized on the same date as this Syrian Civil Society Platform announcement and which was approved after deep consultation with all the local platforms, expressing the needs and desires of the Syrian community.
Syrian Civil Society Platform – Statement of Principles February 2016