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1. The Roots of Mistrust in Coalition Building among Syrian Nonprofits: Lessons from the Truth and Justice Charter

Author:
Marianna Al-Tabba
Publication Date:
12-2024
Content Type:
Special Report
Institution:
Arab Reform Initiative (ARI)
Abstract:
For the past 13 years, the establishment and management of alliances in Syria have not been one of the pillars of public affairs work, whether in political, relief, or human rights work, and the field of transitional justice is no exception. Despite the harmony of the parties in vision, goal, or even ideology – and their shared struggles whether political, revolutionary, or any other form – a lack of trust between groups often surfaced, hindering the formation of strong and strategic relationships and delaying the unification of their ranks at a time of great need. This paper attempts to investigate and explore the extent to which lack of trust affects the formation of alliances as perceived by actors in the Syrian public sphere. It examines the nature of the existing relationships between Syrian institutions and organizations and their ability to build alliances around a specific demand or cause that unites them. Due to the overlapping factors and different schools of thought in explaining the emergence and success of different forms of institutional cooperation and their gradations, the paper focuses on one crucial determinant in building strategic cooperation and alliances: trust. It raises a general question about the causes of weak trust between organizations working in the public sphere; its impact on collective action; and the lessons learned to overcome the obstacle of weak trust, focusing on nonprofit organizations working in the field of transitional justice and the movements by victims’ families and survivors. The importance of the topic emerges not only in understanding the causes and deconstructing the lack of trust, or mistrust, among Syrian public affairs workers, and the impact of this on building strong relationships and alliances based on deep trust among its members – something that is desperately needed at the political, human rights, and civil work levels in general. Its importance also emerges from the lessons learned from a previous experience in contemporary Syrian history – a coalition of Syrian associations and institutions that built high levels of trust among themselves. This paper emphasizes the ability of Syrian men and women to create a demanding grassroots movement around the issue of detention and enforced disappearance, a movement that is geographically widespread, driven by the people themselves and prominent women leaders.
Topic:
Civil Society, Coalition, and Trust-building
Political Geography:
Middle East and Syria

2. Without Hassan Abbas, the World Is a Poorer Place

Author:
Bassma Kodmani
Publication Date:
03-2021
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
Arab Reform Initiative (ARI)
Abstract:
It is on purpose that I sidestep my emotions when writing this. I do so in an effort to make this easier for myself and to avoid what follows coming across as a fleeting remembrance or some tiresome duty where I am compelled to write about Hassan Abbas.
Topic:
Leadership, Academia, Experts, and Scholarships
Political Geography:
Middle East and Syria

3. The Environmental Impact of Syria’s Conflict: A Preliminary Survey of Issues

Author:
Roba Gaafar
Publication Date:
04-2021
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
Arab Reform Initiative (ARI)
Abstract:
The Syrian conflict has had devastating human and economic consequences, but it also greatly damaged the environment in the country. This paper provides a preliminary survey of a set of environmental challenges that impose significant health, social and economic costs, including air pollution, deforestation, soil and vegetation degradation, and water depletion, and suggests green solutions for post-conflict relief and reconstruction.
Topic:
Climate Change, Environment, Health, Conflict, Green Technology, and Pollution
Political Geography:
Middle East and Syria

4. Informal settlements in Syria: What approach after the conflict?

Author:
Ahmad Sukkar, Sawsan Abou Zainedin, and Hani Fakhani
Publication Date:
10-2021
Content Type:
Special Report
Institution:
Arab Reform Initiative (ARI)
Abstract:
A large proportion of Syria’s population lives in informal housing, with estimates that informal housing represented 30 to 40% of total dwellings before the 2011 uprising. Such housing was particularly prevalent in the peri-urban areas that have suffered most of the destruction and displacement during the subsequent conflict. Despite its prevalence, informal housing and the rights of its residents have not received sufficient attention in recent policy discussions around Syria’s reconstruction or with respect to protecting the rights of Syrians to housing. In recent years, the government has approved tens of regulatory master plans in different cities for ‘reconstruction’ and ‘development’. While little actual reconstruction has taken place because of the economic crisis, the economic sanctions, and the absence of international funds, these master plans have paved the way for the government to begin with deliberate mass-scale demolitions in many areas. An examination of the few approved reconstruction projects that have proceeded shows some commonalities: most of the approved master plans are targeting areas of informal urban settlement, and the few projects that have advanced on the ground have tended to be in informal urban settlements. These patterns raise many questions about the government’s intentions and plans for reconstruction and make it clear that informality needs to be a core element in the reconstruction debate. This policy research report aims at mapping and analysing the government’s approach towards informality. It starts by laying a pre-2011 historical background about the interlinks between the rise of informality in Syria and the Ba’ath government’s socialist approach towards housing provision and land management. It provides a critical reading of the trajectory of the legal framework, which underpinned the government policies on land management, arguing that informality was a natural product of the government’s chronic and systematic failure in coping with the increased needs for housing. The report then examines the evolution of the government’s post-2011 approach to informality. It maps a series of planned and ongoing reconstruction projects in several neighbourhoods across different cities in Syria while closely observing the legal foundations underpinning each case, the official narratives around them, the implementations procedures, the progress made, and the impact of these projects on the population. The research deepens this analysis through two detailed case studies: al-Qabun district in Damascus suburbs and al-Haydariyya district in east Aleppo. This selection is based on profound similarities between the two areas that were both opposition strongholds severely impacted by the military campaigns waged by the government to retake them but also the significant difference in the legal frameworks governing the reconstruction, the phase of implementation of the reconstruction project, and, most importantly, the type of land ownership, with al-Qabun existing on private land in contrast to al-Haydariyya where the authorities expropriated the land long before the conflict. Drawing on the interlinks between the different case studies and the historical contexts of the conflict, the research concludes with observational patterns about the political, economic, and technical interests and motivations that might have shaped the government’s approach to informality. It finds that the government has found in the massive informal reality of Syrian cities — which predates the conflict — a loophole through which it can advance a major politically loaded gentrification process that would reconfigure the reality of post-conflict Syria in favour of capitalist cronies at the expense of the rights of local residents. This insight has not yet gained sufficient attention in the important work conducted by Syrian and international actors attempting to tackle the consequences of the government’s urban planning system and its legislative framework that is currently paving the ground for wider reconstruction. Addressing the situation is not just a matter of acknowledging some forms of informal land-tenure in the current legal frameworks. It requires reframing our understanding of informality beyond its mere articulation as a form of illegal tenure.
Topic:
Migration, Diaspora, Settlements, and Humanitarian Crisis
Political Geography:
Middle East and Syria

5. Activism in the Context of Reconstructing Nahr al-Bared Refugee Camp: Lessons for Syria’s Reconstruction?

Author:
Ismael Sheikh Hassan
Publication Date:
10-2021
Content Type:
Special Report
Institution:
Arab Reform Initiative (ARI)
Abstract:
The reconstruction of the Palestinian refugee camp of Nahr al-Bared in Northern Lebanon, destroyed in 2007 after fierce battles between the Lebanese army and an armed Islamist group, is sometimes suggested as a useful case study that can inform reconstruction processes in Syria. Such impressions usually emerge due to the relative success of the local activists – who hailed from a refugee camp where residents lived in informal housing with little formal legal protection – in confronting the security visions of the Lebanese State and military for the reconstruction of the camp. This paper aims to discuss the usefulness but also the limitations of the Nahr al- Bared reconstruction experience to the Syrian context.
Topic:
Political Activism, Refugee Crisis, Settlements, and Humanitarian Crisis
Political Geography:
Middle East and Syria

6. Syria’s Growing Economic Woes: Lebanon’s Crisis, the Caesar Act and Now the Coronavirus

Author:
Jihad Yazigi
Publication Date:
03-2020
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
Arab Reform Initiative (ARI)
Abstract:
The already bleak prospects of the Syrian economy have worsened in recent months with the Lebanon crisis, the enactment of the Caesar Act and now the coronavirus pandemic. This paper examines their impact on the Syrian economy and the population at large. While the cumulative impact is hard to assess at this stage, Syria’s population will remain heavily dependent on the international humanitarian effort. The future of this effort will itself depend on major donor countries whose own economies are likely to emerge weakened from the coronavirus pandemic.
Topic:
Economics, Public Health, Humanitarian Crisis, Pandemic, and COVID-19
Political Geography:
Middle East, Lebanon, and Syria

7. Syria Torture Trial in Germany is an Arab Issue: Where are the Arab Media and Human Rights Organizations?

Author:
Mansour Omari
Publication Date:
07-2020
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
Arab Reform Initiative (ARI)
Abstract:
The opening in Germany of the trial of two Syrian security officers accused of crimes against humanity was marked by the absence of regional Arab interest, despite its importance for the fight against impunity in MENA. This paper seeks to understand this lack of coverage by Arab media and the absence of interest from national as well as regional Arab human rights organizations, and highlights the implications of the trial for Syria as well as MENA’s struggle for accountability.
Topic:
Human Rights, Non State Actors, Media, and Accountability
Political Geography:
Middle East and Syria

8. Syria: Sanctions Should Not Be Lifted, but They Must Be Improved

Author:
Genevieve Zingg
Publication Date:
07-2020
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
Arab Reform Initiative (ARI)
Abstract:
While not the chief cause of Syria’s economic crisis, sanctions have exacerbated difficulties faced by the Syrian people – in particular as new humanitarian needs arise from the Covid-19 pandemic. This paper argues that sanctions are essential to sustain pressure in the pursuit of justice and accountability and should be maintained but that they must be improved to allow for a more effective use of humanitarian exemptions and to lessen their negative impacts on the Syrian people.
Topic:
Sanctions, Public Health, Humanitarian Crisis, Pandemic, and COVID-19
Political Geography:
Middle East and Syria

9. No Homeland, No Future: Alawite Youth As the Backbone of the Assad Regime

Author:
Alimar Lazkani
Publication Date:
08-2020
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
Arab Reform Initiative (ARI)
Abstract:
impacted by the conflict and deteriorating living conditions. This paper examines their reality and the evolution of some of their political views through on the ground research and interviews. It notes that an increasing number of Alawite youth have grown disillusioned and some go as far as voicing discontent in private discussions because they see the regime as having failed to provide them with basic living arrangements. However, it is hard to determine the prevalence of such discontent due to research limitations and the entrenched fear of the security apparatus.
Topic:
Authoritarianism, Youth, Accountability, and Quality of Life
Political Geography:
Middle East and Syria

10. Punishing the Regime, Protecting Syrians: The Dilemma of Sanctions on Syria

Author:
Mechym Zaki
Publication Date:
09-2020
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
Arab Reform Initiative (ARI)
Abstract:
Sanctions have so far failed to change the Syrian regime behaviour, and despite their stated objectives of minimizing harm to the population, indicators show that sanctions are hitting ordinary Syrians the hardest. This paper looks at the mechanisms that Assad has been using to overcome the impact of sanctions on its power structure and provides recommendations on how to make sanctions more effective against the regime while mitigating their negative impact on Syrians.
Topic:
Sanctions, Authoritarianism, Humanitarian Intervention, and Quality of Life
Political Geography:
Middle East and Syria