Socio-Politics Research Studies
Large territories in northern Syria have been controlled by various opposition and other forces and non-state actors, after these territories were liberated from the control of the Syrian regime. While these entities govern the liberated areas, and are in charge of the affairs of the Syrians residing there by providing public services, maintain security, and resolve disputes, it is important to note that there is no single administrative and military entity which has a monopoly of control across the different parts of the region.
The present study was conducted to find out the reality of the liberated Syrian north, through identifying the entities responsible for governing each of these pieces of land, the status of public service provision and the level of citizen satisfaction, as well as understanding the state of affairs in terms of security, criminality, access to justice, and rule of law. Finally, the study aims to shed light to the decision-making mechanisms for important issues within the region, the extent to which citizens can participate in these mechanisms, and external influence on the governance and decision-making processes of the region.
The research has been designed and executed during the first half of 2021 in Idlib, Olive Branch and Euphrates Shield areas. It is based on field research involving survey of Syrians both from host communities and internally displaced persons (IDP’s) residing in the research area, and complemented with interviews with key informants (KIIs) from local government bodies or non-government organizations (NGOs).
The results of the study demonstrate a low level of knowledge of the residents of northern Syria of those responsible for governance and the provision of public services, mainly due to confusion between service providers and those responsible for managing the sector concerned. Another important result is in general, the residents of the region have low level of satisfaction for the services provided, which is being observed across all three regions.
Local Community Perceptions Regarding Services and Decision Making Processes in NW Syria
With regard to the security situation, Idlib was the safest area according to the opinions of key informants and participants in the survey, where Hay’at Tahrir Al Sham was able to firmly control the security situation in the area and deal to a large extent with the security threats of bombings and kidnappings. Theft remains the main security concern in Idlib. In the areas of Euphrates Shield and Olive Branch, the level of safety was found to be very low, where both areas suffer from explosions targeting markets and residential areas as well as many cases of theft, kidnappings, killings and factional fighting. The people of Olive Branch area suffer especially from the seizing of their rights and property by military factions, and are being subject to arbitrarily arrest and kidnapping and have to pay funds get released.
view of the importance of working to achieve the integration of Syrian refugees into Turkish society, to reduce the tension among Turks towards the Syrians, and to determine the role of the Turkish language in achieving that integration, we have conducted this study, which aims to reveal the level of mastering the Turkish language among Syrian refugees in Turkey, identifying the reasons that hinder their ability to learn the Turkish language, knowing the degree of integration of Syrians into Turkish society, and the impact of their mastery of the language on their integration and Turks acceptance of them. and to know the situation of Syrian refugees in Germany regarding learning the German language in order to benefit from the German experience in developing the language abilities and skills of Syrian refugees in Turkey.
The study was conducted during the second half of 2020 and covered the states of Istanbul, Gaziantep, Hatay, and Urfa, which are the states in which the largest number of Syrians reside. During the study, key informant interviews were conducted with key informants interested in refugees’ integration in Turkey and Germany, and questionnaires were conducted with 340 Syrians residing within the states covered by the study, and the study adopted a stratified random sampling method to ensure including Syrians according to several variables such as gender, age, and educational level
Given the severity of the IDPs in Syria being subjected to sexual or financial exploitation, we conducted a study in this regard, as we shed light on:
Showing the percentage of people who were subjected to exploitation and abuse by some humanitarian or relief sectors.
The reasons that made the victims of such abuses refrain from filing complaints.
The type and form of the abuse or exploitation they were subjected to
Their extent of their knowledge about how to get help and support in case they are subjected to such abuses.
The constitution is of great importance in the legal system of countries since it is the supreme law of the country, and it includes the general and basic rules that define the form of the state (simple or complex), the type of ruling in it (monarchy or republican) and the form of government (presidential, parliamentary or mixed). The constitution also regulates the general authorities (legislative, judicial and executive) in which the state carries out its tasks, the jurisdiction of each of them, and the relationship of these authorities with each other, and clarifies the economic, social, political and cultural principles. The constitution also has a great impact on the citizens of countries, as it defines their rights, freedoms and duties, and stipulates the guarantees that guarantee these rights for them in the face of arbitrariness of the authority. The constitution has preponderance over all other legal rules in the state, which means that the state’s authorities must abide by its provisions when issuing any decisions or enacting any legislation, and that any other decisions or legislations that contradict it are null and void.
In Syria, and following the military coup carried out by Hafez Al-Assad in 1970 and his assumption of power, the permanent constitution of the republic was issued in 1973, and in fact the provisions and texts of that constitution were intended to consolidate the rule of Hafez Al-Assad and the Arab Socialist Baath Party, as Article 8 of the constitution affirmed that the Baath Party is the leading party of the society and the state, and that it leads the National Progressive Front that includes other political parties in the country. The 1973 Constitution has also granted the President of the Republic great powers that make him able to interfere in the work of all state authorities in a way that hollows the concept of the principle of separation of authorities from any content or meaning.
With the outbreak of public protests in Syria in March of 2011 and the expansion of their geographical area, the Syrian regime undertook some nominal reforms, including the adoption of a new constitution for Syria in 2012, which abolished Article 8 of the 1973 Constitution and stipulated party pluralism in Syria, but it has preserved the great and semi-absolute powers of the head of state, as he is the head of the executive authority and has the power to unilaterally issue legislations or block the passage of legislations decided by the People’s Assembly. He is also the president of the Supreme Judicial Council which appoints judges of the Supreme Constitutional Court, and he is also the supreme commander of the Army and Armed Forces, in addition to other powers such as appointing civil and military employees and conducting referendum of the people in cases considered to be contradicting the constitution, in addition to the seven-year electoral cycle that is open to repetition.
Objectives:
The study aims to explore the views of Syrian activists, community leaders and jurists, other influential people within the Syrian society, and people who are interested in political affairs, on the most important constitutional principles that they believe should be stipulated in the new constitution, which is currently being drafted, with the aim of presenting a clear conception for members of the Constitutional Committee on the aspirations and desires of Syrians to be taken into account during committee meetings and discussions that take place within the framework of the constitution drafting process.
Since the early years of the conflict in Syria, the international community has sought reaching a political solution to end the current state of violence in the country. In 2012, the Action Group for Syria held its talks in the Swiss city of Geneva which was headed by the then UN envoy to Syria, Kofi Annan, who announced after the conclusion of the talks that the meeting has issued a detailed statement known as the Geneva 1 statement, which stressed the need to pressure all parties to implement the six-point plan (the Annan plan) . The statement also condemned the continuation and escalation of combat operations, destruction, and human rights violations, and recommended the commitment of all parties to cease armed violence and intensify the pace of release of the arbitrarily detained people, and called for the formation of a transitional governing body and the review of the constitutional system and the legal system in Syria.
Later, on the 18th of December 2015, the Security Council unanimously approved Resolution No. 2254, which outlined the features of a political solution in Syria, as the resolution affirmed that the Syrian people is the party which shall decide the future of the country, demanded ceasing attacks on civilians, and stipulated that the United Nations Secretary-General shall call each of the representatives of the regime and the Syrian negotiating committee to participate in formal negotiations on the path towards the political transition. The resolution also expressed its support for the commencement of a Syrian-led political process facilitated by the United Nations that establishes a credible governance that includes everyone and is not based on sectarianism, and sets a timetable for drafting a new constitution for the country and conducting free and fair elections pursuant to the new constitution and under the supervision of the United Nations in a safe and neutral environment including all Syrians including those living in exile.
In fact, it can be said that none of the items of the statements and decisions related to the path of the political solution in Syria have been practically implemented due to the regime’s procrastination and its unwillingness to enter that path seriously, which led to the prolongation of the political process, which went through several rounds of talks. The roadmap for a political solution in Syria was adopted in 2017 based on UN resolutions 2254 of 2015 and 2118 of 2013 containing the Geneva Declaration. This roadmap stipulated the work in parallel or successively on the following four axes: governance, constitution, elections, and a safe and neutral environment. In this context, the Sochi Conference affirmed its support for the implementation of Security Council Resolution No. 2254 and called on the United Nations to form the Constitutional Committee as a contribution to the United Nations-led political process in Geneva, and to the implementation of Security Council Resolution No. 2254 of 2015, accordingly, the United Nations conducted indirect negotiations between the regime’s government and the Syrian Negotiating Committee to form the Constitutional Committee and to agree its reference standards and the basic elements of its internal regulations.
Objectives:
This study aims to identify the views of Syrians of all sects and components about the Constitutional Committee and its work and to identify the issues that are a priority for them regarding the path of a political solution in Syria, including working on drafting a new constitution for the country and revealing the extent of their confidence in the work of the Constitutional Committee and its ability to advance the political process and to identify their restrictions about its work and method of formation.
The study also aims to identify the Syrians’ position on the three delegations of the Constitutional Committee (the delegation of the Syrian government – the delegation of the opposition – the delegation of the civil society) and to identify the most prominent means they believe that it can increase their ability to communicate their desires and aspirations to the members of the Constitutional Committee to be taken into consideration when drafting constitutional texts. The study also aims to identify the views of Syrians about some constitutional issues, such as the Arab identity of the Syrian Republic, the relationship of the state with the religion, the relationship of state authorities to each other, and women’s issues.
Due to the importance of personal identification documents and the negative consequences of not possessing them on the lives of individuals, this study was conducted, in order to reveal the numbers of Syrians who do not have personal identification documents, and to define the most prominent personal identification documents that Syrians suffer tremendously to obtain, while listing the negative consequences of not possessing them.
The study was conducted in the cities of Idlib and Salqeen in Syria, it also included the city of Urfa in Turkey and the regions of Arsal and the Bekaa in Lebanon, in which 305 male and female participated, taking into consideration while selecting them a number of variables such as status of residence, age and social status, and data collection was conducted using a questionnaire with closed-ended questions.
The results of the study showed that many Syrians, whether residing in the liberated areas or in the countries of refuge, do not possess the personal identity documents of all kinds, especially passports, civil registry record or educational documents.
Additionally, many Syrian children are still not registered at official state departments and many young people, who are more than fourteen years old, still do not possess IDs. Many Syrian have lost their personal identification documents as a result of the bombing of their areas or during displacement, or it was confiscated or destroyed by the various military bodies and forces dominated by the Syrian regime.
The fear of being arrested by the pro-regime forces prohibited many Syrians from traveling to regime areas which constituted the main reason for the Syrians’ inability to obtain any official document. In addition to the fact that many of them cannot afford paying for these documents, considering that paying bribes to employees of the governmental institutions or hiring a lawyer is the most common ways to obtain these documents.
As for the negative outcomes of the non-possession of official documents and not registering personal affairs documents in the official government departments, the most concerning issue is depriving unregistered children from their nationality, particularly in the event of the inability to register the marriage documents, and the inability of people without personal IDs to vote or run for public services jobs or state departments jobs, in addition to depriving them of many of their most basic rights that people cannot live properly without it, such as the right to education, the right to work, the prevention of travel and the restriction of individual freedom and deprivation of health care.
According to United Nations statistics, 15% of the world’s population has disabilities, and they are suffering from several types of discrimination in their communities, or difficulties resulting in denying them from having equality with other people in having some of their basic rights, such as the right to education, the right to work and the right to freedom of movement. Knowing that all international conventions related to people with disabilities guarantee them these rights and promote equalizing them with other groups of society and states the necessity of removing obstacles that are hindering them from accessing the main services provided.
Regarding the effort to integrate people with disabilities into society and to preserve their basic rights, most countries enact laws that protect them from all forms of discrimination. However, in countries suffering from internal conflicts, where the role of state institutions is absent and their services in the areas that are out of their control are ceased, as in the case of Syria, where these state institutions are replaced by bodies, institutions, non-governmental organizations or humanitarian organizations that carry out the tasks of providing essential services to people affected by crises, without being abided by specific laws, but whose work is governed by the principle of working to meet the needs of the most vulnerable people and people with most urgent needs.
In this context, we wonder about the ability of humanitarian organizations to abide by the principles of humanitarian action, which is based on the need for equality between the groups affected by crises, especially in the Syrian situation, where we have a large number of affected people, including people with disabilities, whose number has significantly increased due to the current war to reach 2.8 million people who are physically disabled according to the United Nations estimates.
Therefore, we will discuss through this study the extent of the humanitarian organizations targeting for people with disabilities through the projects that they are implementing, and the extent to which they consider their most important requirements and needs, and to analyze their ability to identify the people with disabilities and deal with the challenges these organizations face when trying to reach them, with highlighting obstacles that confront people with disabilities in accessing the services provided by those organizations.
Online working doesn’t need the working to stay in the same place, which is make it suitable for Syrian situation, while Syrians can work wherever they move, they only need an internet connection and a computer to continue their work.
Another benefit comes from the income, which it will be in foreign currency, that means higher income comparing to the low prices of Syrian pound. This also brings money to the local market which increases its movement.
Brief of the assessment:
Objectives: This assessment is trying to increase the opportunities of Syrians online working, by screening the available competencies that suitable for such business, and discovering the projects that can be most effective and helpful for them to start working via internet, then share them with the NGOs that interested Syrian employment.
Main themes:
- Syrian competencies for online working.
- Description of the situation of current Syrian online workers.
- Barriers and challenges of online working, especially for Syrians.
- Expectations of growth for online working in Syria.
- Recommended projects to prepare Syrians for online working.
Scope:
The assessment will cover 3 governorates: Idleb, Daraa, and Aleppo.
Will be conducted in January/2018.
Target groups:
The questions concentrate on Syrian youth, females, and people with disability.
Data sources:
- Syrian individuals: to screen the competencies they have for online working, their awareness about it, and the equipment they have for such business.
- Syrian online workers: to provide full stories about some online workers, how they started their work, their monthly salaries, the challenges that face them, their needs to improve their business…
- Online working consultants: to have in depth information about online working, what they recommend for Syrian situation, what they recommend to deal with the challenges of Syrians online working, what kind of trainings Syrians need to be able to start working online…
- Secondary data: to review any research have been done about online working, what are the most demanded services, how online working platforms working, how to manage money transfers…