Outputs of the tenth dialogue session in Amuda

Ezdina Organization held its tenth dialogue session at the Kulturvan Center in Amuda city within the framework of its project “A Constitution That Protects Us” project on 25.05.2021 for the category of representatives of religious and national minorities in the region. The session started at 11:00 and ended at 14:30.

Facilitator:
The session was moderated by Dr. Abeer Hassaf.

Participants:
Eleven people participated in the session as representatives of religious and national minorities in the city of Amuda, in North and East of Syria:

• Maher Shikaky - Human rights activist
• Wadah Arian - Fraduate of the Faculty of Sharia
• Hanna Hilon - University student
• Issa Sheikho - Kurdish activist
• Dawud Abdel-Ahad - Co-chair of the Office of Religions and Beliefs in Amuda city
• Sana'a Faro - Co-chair of the Office of Religions and Beliefs in Amuda city
• Hiba Al-Qadri - Dentist
• Hamrin Ali - Civil activist
• Nizar Nabouni - Graduated from the Faculty of Economics and Commerce
• Aziz Farman - Kurdish journalist
• Ismail Darbo - Yezidi activist

The human rights activist, Mr. Ashraf Sino, a human rights activist in the fields of minority rights, also participated in the dialogue session, via the Zoom from Germany.

National background of the participants:
Arabs: 4 - Syriacs: 2 - Kurds: 5

Main topics of the session:

• The Syrian crisis and the Geneva conferences.
• Syria's next constitution.
• The Syrian Constitutional Committee in Geneva.
• The role of the constitution in protecting national and religious minorities.

The facilitator started talking about the nine Geneva conferences and their results in detail, then the door was opened for discussion, consultations and questions by the participants, and all the questions were answered by the session facilitator.

In the second axis, a member of the Constitutional Committee, Dr. Dorsen Oskan, joined the session via the “Zoom” program to talk about the establishment and composition of the Constitutional Committee and the drawbacks of representing the Committee, in addition to talking about the main reasons for the failure of the Constitutional Committee in its work so far.

Mr. Ashraf Sinno from Germany, a human rights activist in minority affairs, also joined the session via the Zoom, and spoke about the importance of constitutions in conflict countries, how to demand rights, and focus on the rights of religious, political and sexual minorities, as well as the negatives and positives Geneva conferences, then the door was opened for discussion.

Then the session facilitator divided the attendees into two groups to develop and discuss a set of recommendations and proposals, to arrive at general proposals that were agreed upon by all participants.

Session results:

At the conclusion of the dialogue session, the participants agreed on a set of recommendations and proposals to be submitted to the Syrian Constitutional Committee, including:

• A pluralistic, decentralized, democratic system.
• Separation of religion from the state.
• Existence of supra-constitutional laws and principles to protect the national and religious rights of all Syrians.
• Adoption of the project of democratic self-administration in Northeastern Syria within the new constitution.
• Ensuring the return of all the displaced to their areas and canceling the demographic change that occurred as a result of the war.
• Annulment of the Arab Belt Law, the 1962 census and compensation for those affected.
• Transitional justice and the establishment of a non-ideological national army.
• Freedom of expression.

Social and cultural recommendations:

• Preserving the national identity.
• Amending the Personal Status Law (which is derived from Islamic Sharia Law).
• Protecting the rights of all components of Syrian society.
• The right of the mother to grant citizenship to her children.
• Everyone has the right to speak their mother tongue.