Still Our Right | Papers & Studies | Heinrich-Böll-Stiftung | Beirut

Women’s Rights in Rojava

This study focuses on the areas permanently under Kurdish control with regime presence. These areas have experienced a quite different trajectory because they have been least affected by military fighting. While the human losses and damage suffered at the hands of ISIS should not be belittled, this area has hardly experienced aerial bombardments or fighting on the ground. Kurdish actors, for a long time tightly controlled by the Syrian regime, have been able to develop governance structures in parallel to the ones set up by the regime. While none of the Kurdish parties has openly called for independence understood as separation from Syria, Kurdish actors have come up with governance structures that explore the possibilities of autonomy within a federal state. They have come up with a constitution and an institutional design, and as far as it is in the range of their possibilities, they have been working on implementing it.

Towards Tangible Actions for Transitional Justice in Syria - Where to go from here?

This paper draws on primary data collected from 15 semi-structured interviews with Syrian organisations and practitioners working on transitional justice. The interviews were conducted by the author via online communication (calls over Skype or WhatsApp) between March and June 2017. The interviewees were selected based on the relevance, access and availability of Syrian activists working on this topic. It is not clear how representative the views expressed here are, but the high level of agreement among interviewees on the subjects discussed suggests that the issues highlighted here merit additional attention from local and international actors working on this topic in Syria.

Where is Home for the Permanently Displaced? Citizens of Daraya

Where is "home" for the permanently displaced? Haid N Haid, Syrian Columnists and Chatham House Fellow, presents the findings of his study on how (and where) citizens of Daraya see their future in light of the mounting pressure Syrian refugees are facing to return home with no clear plans to ensure the security or protection of returnees or any guarantees to ensure their right to return to their own properties.

Northern Syria: Activists and civilians between reality and need

Paper

Whenever war breaks out, no matter where, it casts its shadow over many aspects of human existence. Only naturally, this manifests itself in the changes experienced in the lives of civilians, particularly in the case of a bloody conflict in which the most basic humanitarian principles are disregarded and where there is no serious international will to contain and limit severe loss of life.

The Right to Belong to a Political Community at the Example of the Legal Situation of Refu-gees in Lebanon

Paper

The Right to Belong to a Political Community: Syrian refugees in Lebanon face difficulties in their legal status and in the possibilities they have to claim rights. The reasons are complex and go far beyond the Lebanese context, however, that most of them are illegal is crucial since revealing themselves to the authority with any claim is a risk. Antonia Klein studied the impact of gaps in international law adapting to the world refugee situation and looks at patterns in Lebanon.

By Antonia Klein

No Longer Just a Humanitarian Crisis: The Politicization of Syrian Refugees in Lebanon

Paper

This brief details the history of the Syrian refugee crisis in Lebanon from 2011 to present. As economic and security conditions in Lebanon have fluctuated and weakened over the course of Syria's war, public ire and distrust in Lebanon has turned towards the over 1 million Syrian refugees who have settled there, who many Lebanese view as responsible for Lebanon's economic and political woes. This brief breaks down why the presence of Syrian refugees in Lebanon has become so politicized in both public discourse and the rhetoric of political pundits, arguing that refugees have become a scapegoat to deflect away from more severe structural issues such as sectarianism and poor governance.

New Ways of Resisting: How Art from Syria Changes Regarding New Political Challenges

Research Paper

During the war in Syria, artists played a big role in keeping the fight for freedom alive via peaceful and creative means such as street art, film-making, and documentation at a time when traditional media continued painting the picture as one of hopelessness. Their work has paved the way for possibly new strategies through which they could seek justice against crimes committed by the regime.

Ettijahat Independent Culture - Post-War Trauma in the Literature of Syrian Exile

"You can now check the Seventh Edition of the #Research Programme’s Booklet of Abstracts, To Strengthen the Culture of Knowledge, which was launched with the support of Mimeta and Heinrich-Böll-Stiftung Middle East. The booklet consists of summaries of research papers which were conducted for the seventh edition and presents information about the programme, the participants, and the main topics they worked on. The booklet presents nine research papers, which cover a number of axes and themes within the general research frame for the programme."

Read it here

The Role of Arts and Culture in Reconciliation and Civil Peace in Post-Conflict Countries

"This study examines a number of global instances in which culture has been instrumental in reinstituting interaction in divided societies. It also considers strategies for delivering social change which employ political, social and economic cultural power."

Read it here