Announcing the establishment of National Council for Human Rights in Syria n.c.h.r.sy

We, signed below, announce the establishment of National Council for Human Rights in Syria, as a Syrian national rights-defending body and an instrument to implement the general strategies related to:

1. Disseminating and establishing the culture of transitional justice, and ensure justice, establish the principle of responsibility and accounting, and inescapable punishment for those responsible for violence and casualties in Syria, whether governmental or not, and hold them accountable in front of an independent, just, and honest judiciary.

2. Dissemination of a culture of human rights and democracy, and enhance them in the Syrian society.

3. Draw a clear strategy to be the general policy of the body’s work for all human rights issues advocacy in Syria, to create a real capacity of expertise, opinions, and joint work as added value to the human rights work in Syria.

4. Work on enhancing the values of human rights, citizenship, tolerance, equality, renouncing violence, and enhancing the unity of the society by promoting respect of human rights values.

5. Work on stopping and renouncing all types of discrimination among citizens and treating their consequences, and constitutionally recognize national, religious, and ethnic variety.

6. Monitor and document all human rights violations, and work on stopping them regardless of their source or justifications.

7. Work on promoting the status of women in society, recognizing

their full rights, and work on achieving gender equality.

8. Work on establishing the principles and foundations of the state of right and law.

9. Work on establishing the principle of prevalence of international conventions, related to defending human rights, over domestic legislation, and include this principle in the constitution, and realization of the principle of appropriation by cancelling the laws contradicting human rights, through adopting ratified conventions and agreements in the Syrian legislation.

And thus the vision for this instrument (National Council) for human rights in Syria is to become Syria’s meeting point for all the bodies concerned with human rights, that it becomes a major source for Syrian human rights experts, as main values to guide this council to embody respect of individual’s freedoms, their basic rights, promote the prominence of law, actively and transparently take part in making political decisions without any type of discrimination, follow on

officials responsible for the public matters, the right to object in giving an opinion, practice rights within the limits of law, promote for freedom of expression, and for women to have their positive role in development, voting, and elections.

The undersigned agreed that the membership would be open to human right acting bodies in Syria wanting to join the council.

They also agreed, until the holding of the first conference of the

council, the coordinator for the council would be colleague Danial Saoud, chairman of the committees advocating freedoms, democracy, and human rights in Syria(C.D.F).

The bodies participating in establishing the National Council for Human Rights in Syria

1- Committees Advocating Freedoms, Democracy, and Human Rights in Syria(C.D.F)

2- Kurdish Organization Advocating Human Rights and General Freedoms in Syria (DAD).

3- National Organization of Human Rights in Syria.

4- Kurdish Committee of Human Rights in Syria (Al Rasid).

5- Arab Organization for human Rights in Syria.

6- Human Rights Organization in Syria (maf).

7- Organization of defending prisoners of Opinion in Syria (Rawanka).

8- Kaskay Organization for the Protection of Environment.

9- National Gathering for the Rights of Women and Children.

10- National Coordinate Advocating the Missing in Syria.

11- Rooni Association for Kurdish Woman.

12- Syrian Lawyers Society for Transitional Justice and the

Prominence of Law.

13- Syrian Society for Freedom and Justice.

14- Syrian Center for Educating Human Rights.

15- Aibella Center for Transitional Justice and Democracy Studies in Syria.

16- Syrian Center for Human Rights.

17- Syrian Center for Transitional Justice and Promotion of Democracy.

18- Syrian Center for Rehabilitating Victims of Violence and Torture.

19- Syrian National Center for Democracy and Rights of Development.

20- National Center for Tolerance and Anti-Violence Studies in Syria.

21- Kurdish-Syrian Center of Documentation.