WUNRN
UN COMMITTEE TO END ALL FORMS OF
DISCRIMINATION AGAINST WOMEN (CEDAW) - 58th Session - Geneva, Switzerland -
JULY 2014
Seeking Accountability & Demanding Change: A Report on Women's Human
RIghts Violations in Syria Before & During the Conflict
IN RESPONSE TO THE SECOND PERIODIC
REPORT OF THE SYRIAN ARAB REPUBLIC
Direct
Link to Full 54-Page 2014 Report: http://www.madre.org/images/uploads/misc/1401805514_Seeking%20Accountability%20and%20Demanding%20Change%20-%20MADRE%20Report%20-%20Syria.pdf
Advocates Release Report on Violations of Women’s Human
Rights in Syria
As Syria Holds
Presidential Elections, Women’s Rights Groups Press for Change
June 3, 2014 – New York, NY – MADRE and a coalition of international and Syrian women’s
human rights groups have released a report
on women’s human rights violations in Syria before and during the current war. These
violations include sexual violence, torture and forced marriage, as well as
women’s exclusion from peace negotiations and domestic political processes.
To generate the report’s findings,
Syrian women’s rights activists and their international allies conducted
research and interviews over the past year. The findings are further centered
upon personal testimonies, gathered during a series of fact-finding trips to
the region, carried out by MADRE.
Today, Syria is also holding its
presidential election, in the midst of a three-year war that has displaced over
nine million people or over 40% of its citizens. The vote, already widely
disputed, is projected to result in the re-election of President Bashar
al-Assad.
“If this election were truly
democratic, presidential candidates like Bashar al-Assad would be compelled to
grapple with the issues presented here,” said Lisa Davis, MADRE Human Rights
Advocacy Director and professor of law. “Our report reveals that women have
been specific targets of violence in this brutal war, including rape deployed
as a weapon to target individuals and terrorize communities. It also
underscores that women already faced violence and discrimination long before
the war and that sustainable peace will depend on undoing women’s systemic
political exclusion.”
The report, titled “Seeking
Accountability and Demanding Change: A Report on Women’s Human Rights
Violations in Syria Before and During the Conflict,” will be submitted for
review by the United Nations. It will be presented before a UN Committee of
women’s rights experts next month (known as the CEDAW Committee, charged with
upholding the UN Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination
Against Women).
“The review before the Committee
gives us a window of opportunity,” Davis continued. “Syrian women’s rights
activists will have the chance to challenge their government’s internal
assessment of its human rights record. What’s more, if the Committee endorses
the recommendations in the report, it will lay the groundwork for activists to
demand much-needed legal reforms to protect women in a post-war Syria.”