Report on the State of the Right to Peaceful Assembly and Association in Syria 2023

1-the state of the right to peaceful assembly and association in the area controlled by the Turkish-backed Syrian opposition

Click to read Report on the State of the Right to Peaceful Assembly and Association in the Area Controlled by the Turkish-Backed Syrian Opposition

This report, prepared by the Fraternity Foundation for Human Rights, discusses the state of the right to peaceful assembly and association in the area controlled by the Turkish-backed Syrian opposition for the year 2023.

It covers the specific timeframe within 2023 and is divided into two main sections according to the rights focused on. The report preparation team followed the methodology of the Fraternity Foundation for Human Rights, which has been used since the foundation’s inception, by conducting direct interviews with stakeholders affected by violations of their rights to peaceful assembly and association.

Accordingly, the team divided the state of the right into two main parts as follows:

Part dedicated to violations of the right.
Another part dedicated to the indicators of the right.

The Fraternity Foundation for Human Rights has designed and issued a guide on the right to peaceful assembly and its international standards. It was distributed to civil society organizations and active individuals, and a subsequent awareness campaign was launched on social media platforms to ensure it reached as many Syrians as possible.

The legal support unit designed indicators for the right to peaceful assembly and explained them publicly. The research team focused their interviews in three main areas: Azaz, Al-Bab, and Afrin in northern rural Aleppo, conducting 33 interviews with civil society organizations operating in these areas, human rights defenders, and individual activists between May and June 2024.

2-State of the Right to Peaceful Assembly and Freedom of Association in the Self-Administration Areas of North and East Syria

Click to read State of the Right to Peaceful Assembly and Freedom of Association in the Self-Administration Areas of North and East Syria

The report team primarily relied on field interviews, research, and opinion surveys about the reality of the right to protest and the establishment and exercise of the right to form associations in the North-East Syria region. The legal support unit, comprising researchers and documentarians, conducted 89 interviews with associations, civil society organizations, activists, and human rights defenders in four major cities: Raqqa, Deir ez-Zor, Hasakah, and Qamishli. The focus was on violations of the right to form associations and practice their activities, which the unit’s researchers managed to document. It was found that associations faced varying levels of violations, the most severe of which were the revocation of licenses, threats of deregistration, the prevention of association members from obtaining jobs outside their organizations, and the coercion of associations to work in service and relief sectors outside their specialization in a systematic manner. One of the challenges faced by our observers was the significant fear among organizations that the informants reporting these violations might be identified, leading to retaliatory actions by the Office of Non-Governmental Organizations (NGO Office), including arrest, job bans, and the prohibition of associations. This report covers the period of 2023 within the areas controlled by the Autonomous Administration of North and East Syria, led by Syrian Kurds in partnership with Arab and Assyrian parties.

This report covers the period of 2023 within the areas controlled by the Autonomous Administration of North and East Syria, led by Syrian Kurds in partnership with Arab and Assyrian parties.

Based on the analysis of indicators regarding the state of the right to freedom of association, which are adopted by the Fraternity Foundation for Human Rights and documented through 89 field interviews with organizations and associations operating in the region, the area was evaluated by comparing these indicators with global standards for the right to form associations and conduct their activities. Under the procedures followed by the Autonomous Administration of North and East Syria through the NGO Office, this right was classified as “Partially Free.” The report’s results indicated a general score of 64.5 points for the region on the scale of the right to form associations and practice it. Of these, 38.7 points were attributed to specific indicators, while violations against the right to form associations in the region scored 25.8 points on the scale of the right to form

3- Hay’at Tahrir al-Sham Areas

Click to read Area of Hay’at Tahrir al-Sham and Its Government, Known as the Syrian Salvation Government

This report covers the year 2023, focusing on the state of the right to freedom of association in the areas controlled by HTS, primarily in six cities and towns (Atma, Idlib, Maarrat Misrin, Qah, Harem, Salqin). The analysis relies on indicators of the right to freedom of association as defined by Fraternity for Human Rights, based on 30 field interviews with organizations and associations operating in the area. By comparing these indicators with international standards on the right to association, and after analysing the administrative procedures imposed by the Syrian Salvation Government (affiliated with HTS), the state of this right is categorized as “restricted,” and the civil space is generally considered not free. The area covered by the report scored 22.41 points on the freedom of association scale, with 13.45 percentage points for specialized indicators and 8.96 percentage points for violations indicators.

Report on the State of the Right to Peaceful Assembly and Association in Syria 2023

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