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Gender-Sensitive Transitional Justice in Syria Lama Kannout

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Gender-Sensitive Transitional Justice in Syria Lama Kannout Gender-Sensitive Transitional Justice in Syria Lama Kannout \ Gender-Sensitive Transitional Justice in Syria Lama Kannout September 2019 All rights reserved The Day After organization © The Day After organization (TDA) is a Syrian organization working in support of the democratic transition in Syria, with a focus on the following points: Rule of law, transitional justice, security sector reform, design of electoral systems and election of a Constituent Assembly, constitutional design, economic reform and social policies. The Day After - Istanbul, Turkey Pürtelaş Hasan Efendi Mahallesi, Cihangir Caddesi, No:3 , D:1 Estambul Tel : +90 (212) 252 3812 Email: sy.org-info@tda www.tda-sy.org Ms. Lama Kannout is writer, researcher, and an independent political activist. She earned her BA in Interior Design. She works on democratic change, citizenship and gender equality. In 2017, she published A book-length research titled “In the Core or on the Margin: Syrian Women’s Political Participation,” and in 2019 she published a book documenting the oral memory for a number of Syrian women detainees, under the title " So I’m not Kept in the Shadows." Furthermore, Ms. Kannout presented several papers on various topics such as the democratic change in Syria, the principles of gender-sensitive constitution, gender-sensitive electoral system, citizenship, and many other related topics. Additionally, Ms. Kannout has co-founded and managed a number of civil society organizations concerned with democracy and human rights. GENDER-SENSITIVE TRANSITIONAL JUSTICE IN SYRIA CHAPTER I: THE THEORETICAL FRAMEWORK OF THE RESEARCH 1 EXECUTIVE SUMMARY 2 CHALLENGES 5 RESEARCH STUDY OBJECTIVE 6 RESEARCH METHODOLOGY 7 THE IMPORTANCE OF THIS RESEARCH STUDY 8 RESEARCH CHALLENGES 9 TRANSITIONAL JUSTICE KNOWLEDGE PRODUCTS 10 CHAPTER II: BACKGROUND AND CONCEPTS 13 INTRODUCTION 14 KNOWLEDGE PRODUCTS 18 SECTION I: THE LEGISLATIVE FRAMEWORK IN SYRIA 23 SECTION:2 GENDER-SENSITIVE TRANSITIONAL JUSTICE 35 CHAPTER III: GENDER-SENSITIVE TRANSITIONAL JUSTICE MECHANISMS 43 SECTION 3: MECHANISM I: TRIALS 36 44 SECTION 4: MECHANISM II: FACT-FINDING COMMITTEES 49 SECTION 5: MECHANISM III: REPARATION 52 SECTION 6: MECHANISM IV: INSTITUTIONAL REFORM 59 SECTION 7: MECHANISM V: LEGISLATIVE REFORM 62 SECTION 8: NEWLY MECHANISMS FOR SYRIA 67 SECTION 9: GENDER-SENSITIVE TRANSITIONAL JUSTICE FROM THE PERSPECTIVE OF SURVIVORS 70 CHAPTER IV: CRIMES AND VIOLATIONS 79 SECTION 10: SEXUAL AND GENDER-BASED VIOLENCE 80 SECTION 11: ENFORCED DISAPPEARANCE, ARREST AND PRISONER-EXCHANGE AGREEMENTS 108 SECTION 12: COLLECTIVE PUNISHMENT 122 SECTION 13: OWNERSHIP 138 SECTION 14: WORK 155 CHAPTER V: GENDER GAPS IN SOME ORGANIZATIONS AND IN SOME REPORTS 163 SECTION 15: REPORTS 164 SECTION16: GENDER GAPS IN SYRIAN ORGANIZATIONS 168 SECTION 17: RECOMMENDATIONS 183 CHAPTER VI: GLOBAL EXPERIENCES 187 SECTION 18: SIERRA LEONE 188 SECTION 19: MOROCCO 193 SECTION 20: THE OPINION OF SOME RESPONDENTS ON TRANSITIONAL JUSTICE IN GLOBAL EXAMPLES 197 APPENDIX I: NAMES OF RESPONDENTS AND PARTICIPANTS IN THE STUDY 202 APPENDIX II: GENDER SENSITIVE TRANSITIONAL JUSTICE QUESTIONS IN SYRIA 203 1 Chapter I: The Theoretical Framework 2 Executive Summary Seven years after the start of the peaceful revolution in Syria, Syrians of all gender victims, including human rights defenders, and organizations working on transitional justice, are all still working to make war crimes, crimes against humanity, torture and extrajudicial executions visible. They are also working on highlighting the importance of transitional justice, given the international community's failure to protect civilians; as well as striving to put an end to impunity in Syria. The pain of Syrians the victims, has reassured all criminal parties involved, that transitional justice is absent from the political solution in Syria. Especially for Syrians who are far from being able to shape and influence that transitional justice, and are given an "either/or" option of achieving democracy and transitional justice, only if they give up peace in exchange; even though transitional justice is the necessary pathway to building sustainable peace and democracy. The conflict in Syria, is considered one of the largest documented conflicts to be captured on video, and recorded in human rights reports, and via testimonies of victims, of all genders. However, the gender impact of crimes is still not sufficiently visible in the human rights violations reports, and in reports of organizations working on transitional justice in Syria. Many of the reports focus on victims’ numbers, or a specific crime and its time and place of occurrence, but tend to overlook the impact of violence against women and girls, who were subject to political, societal, sexual, legal and economic violence. This misleading approach in highlighting violence in Syria, has resulted in the perpetuation of an extremely negative impact on women and girls, both individually and collectively, and for generations to come. The trends of some organizations working on transitional justice focus only on sexual violence, including rape; which, despite its importance, is ignoring the broader crimes, of direct and indirect violations that women suffer from, and continue to do so. Depicting violence against women as mostly sexual, such is the case of rape, entrenches in the public 3 consciousness that women are merely a body, and their honor comes from a man’s honor or their families, and that they have no independent honor themselves, that they are responsible for. These trends reinforce their inferiority in the community, and simultaneously strengthen the structural violence against them supported by state-enforced laws. All while they were, and still are struggling for freedom, equality and citizenship. On the other hand, women are absent when the subject of institutional reform, or rebuilding security are presented, as if those issues concern men alone. Furthermore, the representation of organizations in international public meetings and advocacy is almost exclusively limited to men. The proportion of women's rights organizations in the sphere of organizations working on transitional justice is limited. Without women’s participation, their perceptions, experiences and entitlements, and response to their rights and needs, transitional justice would reflect only the views, priorities and experiences of men regarding violence. With the exception of women-led organizations and women's rights activists working on transitional justice, many other organizations face a host of challenges that hamper gender mainstreaming in their programs, including the absence of gender equality from the structure of organizations, limiting gender mainstreaming in their policies and programs. Many organizations do not consider gender equality to be their priority and believe that it can be postponed for the future. Women are absent from decision-making positions for the most part, but if they happen to be in such a position, they are still disconnected from the structures of power. There is weak coordination between Syrian organizations and women’s organizations and women’s rights organizations, in addition to weak collaboration among human rights organizations to issue joint reports that cover all crimes and violations in various geographical areas in Syria, particularly crimes and violations that include sexual and gender-based violence. That effort is very much needed to redress the large gap in the 4 documentation of socio-economic crimes and violations, their patterns, and their overlap with all forms of political, and sexual and gender-based violence. This large gap constitutes a serious and continuous harm to women and girls, especially when it comes to forced displacement, sexual violence, property rights, ownership, employment, education and health. There is a lack of coordination among organizations working on transitional justice and women's organizations regarding the aforementioned issues, in addition to the issues of institutional reform and legislative reform. Furthermore, there is an absence of a gender expert in organizations, and a lack of specialized gender mainstreaming units for programming, especially in organizations with resources. Many women also face discrimination in the workplace, and are subject to gender stereotyping, and their opinions are not taken seriously, due to the male-dominated public sphere, as well as the male monopolization when representing organizations, especially in international meetings. In addition, the manner in which some female activists attacked human rights organizations for not incorporating gender into their reports backfired; while they could have easily cooperated with human rights organizations, to address gaps in legal frameworks for documenting violations and gender-related crimes. Despite the changing role of women in society, power structures are still male-dominated. Women’s changing roles must be recognized during the gender-sensitive transitional justice process, in order for equity to be achieved, and for the roots of violence against women and girls to be understood; hence enabling the transitional justice process to change the power structures in society by integrating more women. Transitional justice is achieved by ensuring equal participation of women and men, who will set its course at all levels, so as to include not only the direct and indirect crimes and violations against women, and their impact, but also
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