Syrian Women Working to Build Peace and Democracy on the Basis of Human Rights
Space for Collaboration VIII Conference 2024
Concluding Statement
We are a group of Syrian women concerned with the issues in our Syrian homeland, including women’s issues. During our meeting at the Space for Collaboration’s 8th Conference held in Mersin, Turkey, November 19-22, 2024, we gathered over fifty women in-person and online and worked on the three main themes:
- Promote human rights in Syria as a basis for building peace and democracy
Space for Collaboration women members work to:
– Push towards reaching a comprehensive political solution in Syria based on Security Council Resolution 2254 that fulfils the Syrian people’s aspirations to obtain rights, freedoms, justice, and the peaceful transfer of power.
– Ensure the effective participation of women, youth, civil society, political parties, and all marginalized groups (such as people with disabilities) based on Security Council Resolutions 1325 and 2250 within the peacebuilding process and in public affairs.
– Participate in building a democratic system in Syria based on the rule of law and good governance principles, such as transparency and accountability, and achieve full equality based on human rights.
– Support the documentation of human rights violations and ensure a transitional justice process that takes into account the sensitivity of the situation of women in Syria and supports the efforts of the independent institution concerned with the affairs of missing persons in Syria.
– Criminalize any violation of human rights under Syrian law and ensure compliance with international human rights laws, including the provision of women’s rights.
– Ensure support for humanitarian aid to all Syrian men and women and find effective mechanisms to link the humanitarian sector to peacebuilding.
- Strengthen the relationship between the humanitarian sector and peacebuilding
Space for Collaboration women members work to:
– Ensure the right to clean, potable, and usable water for all Syrians, and transform water from a tool of conflict to a measure that contributes to cooperation and peacebuilding.
– Ensure Syrian women are included and that they effectively contribute to developing and implementing water management plans, programs, and water security in Syria.
– Work to increase humanitarian support for agriculture to provide for the right of all Syrians to have necessary, sufficient, and healthy.
– Include agriculture as one of the measures to enhance peace and security in Syria and endorse policies and procedures that include the priorities and needs of Syrian women.
– Ensure the right of all Syrian children to obtain good and free education at all educational levels by proposing increasing humanitarian support for the education sector to contribute to the development of students and teachers.
– Focus on education as a tool for change to achieve gender equality and access to education in Syria—support women’s participation as decision-makers and developers of strategic and executive educational policies.
- Protection mechanisms for Syrian Women peacebuilders
Space for Collaboration members affirm our commitment to self-care to ensure the continuity of our work for Syria and commit to finding mechanisms to protect Syrian women peacebuilders. To this end, Space for Collaboration members work to:
– Develop a comprehensive approach combining legal, psychological, social, and institutional support to provide a safe and supportive environment for women peacebuilders.
– Strengthen legal frameworks, national policies, laws, and legislation to meet the needs of Syrian women, and adopt laws that protect peacebuilders and punish any threats or attacks against them wherever they are. Provide special measures, such as witness protection, to ensure the safety of women working in this field.
– Identify a list of Friends of Peacebuilders from the international community and institutions who will support Syrian peacebuilders in the event that they are threatened find places of refuge in order to intervene to protect them.
– Emphasize that self-care is an urgent and necessary need for all Syrian women, and in particular for women peacebuilders, and ensure continuous and free access to self-care centres as needed.
– Provide psychological and social support services for peacebuilders as they face psychological pressures and challenges that may affect their performance. Emphasize the Space for Collaboration (as a solidarity network) that brings together women peacebuilders, to exchange experiences and support to each other.
– Provide safety and security training to deal with threats,security risks and respond to emergencies, such as how to act in the event of physical or electronic threats. Train women peacebuilders how to use secure communication methods and encryption applications to protect their information and prevent exposure to hacking or threats via the Internet.
The members of Space for Collaboration believe a Syrian woman’s individual success is a collective success for all Syrian women. Space for Collaboration is the safe space that truly supports us as active, effective women who belong to different work and living environments.