Letter of the Secretary-General of the United Nations
Your Excellency the Secretary-General of the United Nations
Mr. Ban Ki-moon,
Our warmest greetings to Your Excellency for your determination on the need for political and humanitarian urgency to find solutions to the catastrophic political and humanitarian situation in Syria, and its threat and challenge to regional and international peace and security. We hope that you would achieved the goals for which you called to hold the Geneva conference 2, and we look forward as Syrians to turn the dialogue sessions in Geneva 2 to realized hopes of peace to stop the violence and the continuation of peaceful solutions in line with the United Nations’ values.
We, in the Syrian federation of organizations and human rights bodies, turn to you to join our efforts to your great efforts to contribute through representatives for us to monitor the sessions in Geneva 2, from our human rights stand and what we possess of documents, evidences, and facts about what happened in Syria over the past years, and the information we can provide you with on what happened to these facts of distortions and cheap manipulations, to contribute to the objective monitoring without any bias toward any party, to serve human rights issues in Syria, and supplement the central role of the United Nations to unite efforts in order to achieve the goals that serve the interests of the Syrian people.
In accordance with your announcement, and for a strong United Nations that issues binding resolutions and have the mechanisms to implement them, we called, since the beginning of the blood shedding, upon all parties in Syria:
to immediately end the violence, murders, and bloodshed in the streets of the Syria, regardless of the sources, forms, and justifications of this violence.
But, as a result of the local, regional, and international intricacies and complexities that control the Syrian crisis, we repeatedly, called upon all regional and international parties concerned, to assume their responsibility towards the people of Syria and the future of the region as a whole. We always demanded serious and fast action in order to reach a peaceful political solution to the Syrian crisis, and to stop the bloodshed and destruction, through a binding international consensus to issue a binding international resolution that includes:
An immediate cease-fire on the entire geography of Syria, including mechanisms for monitoring, verification, and arms embargo, with the initiation of a political process by calling for a national conference attended by representatives of all political, youth, and women trends under regional and international auspices, and leads to the development of a national charter for Syria’s future, the declaration of an interim constitutional, and the consensus on the transition arrangements to a democratic system.
Hence, we have been and continue to appeal to all regional and international parties concerned to assume their responsibilities towards the people of Syria and the future of the region as a whole, and demand them to seriously and quickly work to reach a peaceful political solution to the Syrian crisis and to stop the bloodshed and destruction. We called upon all parties and governmental and non- governmental organizations to work on:
- An immediate end to the violence, murder, and bloodshed in the streets of Syria, regardless of the sources, forms, and justifications of this violence.
- The release of all political prisoners, especially women detainees.
- A quick action for the release of all abductees, women, men, and children, whoever abducted them.
- An immediate disclosure of the fate of missing persons, women, men, and children, after the spread of enforced disappearance phenomena, which created a big file for the missing Syrians.
- The formation of an independent, impartial, fair, and transparent judicial commission of inquiry with the participation of representatives from organizations defending human rights in Syria, to uncover emitters and practitioners of violence, and those responsible for the casualties (dead and wounded), whether governmental or non-governmental, and bring them to justice and hold them accountable.
- Achieving transitional justice by ensuring justice and equity for all the victims of the events in Syria, and to uphold the principle of accountability and no impunity, as it is the main way to open sound channels to achieve national reconciliation, and for a unified future Syria of pluralism and democracy, which requires prosecution of all perpetrators of violations, whether governmental or non-governmental, violations that may elevate to the level of crimes against humanity, and to bring the file of perpetrators to national courts, and in the event of its inability, referred to the international courts.
- Supporting plans and projects that aim to manage the transitional phase in Syria and allocating resources to support the projects of reconstruction and development and intensification of projects and training workshops designed to train Syrian political leaders on practicing the process of democracy and help in integrating the concepts and principles of transitional justice and national reconciliation in the political life in Syria’s future on the basis of national unity and non-discrimination between the Syrians for reasons of religion, sectarian, national, gender, color, or any other reason, thus ensuring the rights of all components and the abolition of all discriminatory policies with their implications and consequences, and ensure equal political participation.
- Supporting efforts to find a democratic and equitable solution based on the constitutional recognition of the legitimate national rights of the Kurdish people, , lifting the injustice, and the abolition of all discriminatory policies and their consequences, because the Kurdish issue in Syria is a national and democracy issue, and compensating those affected within the framework of the unity of Syria ‘s land and people, and this applies to all the other components that suffered from discriminatory policies to varying degrees.
- Meeting life, economic, and humanitarian needs of the stricken cities and displaced people inside the country and outside, and provide relief with all the necessary supplies.
- The relevant organizations and bodies to defend the values of citizenship and human rights in Syria, through safe methods and devise proper means that contribute to deploy and install the values of citizenship and tolerance among all Syrians, to serve as a real guarantees for the maintenance of the unity of the Syrian society and to ensure a democratic future safe for all its citizens equally without any exception.
We would also like on this occasion to warmly congratulate you and all workers at the bodies of the United Nations and wish you every success in carrying out your noble mission in the service of humanity.
Accept our highest appreciation, and best regards.
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- Algmehoria Center for Studies and Human Right (ACHRS).
14- Syrian Society for Freedom and Justice.
15- Syrian Center for Educating Human Rights.
16- Eibella Center for Transitional Justice and Democracy Studies in Syria.
17- Syrian Center for Human Rights.
18- Syrian Center for Transitional Justice and Promotion of Democracy.
19- Syrian Center for Rehabilitating Victims of Violence and Torture.
20- Syrian National Center for Democracy and Rights of Development.
21- The national Center for Tolerance and Anti-Violence Studies in Syria.
22- Kurdish-Syrian Center of Documentation.
23- The Syrian Center for Housing Rights
24- Organization of Reporters Without Newspapers
25- Organization Syrian hand in hand
26- The Syrian Center for Independence of the Judiciary
27- The Syrian Association for the defense of workers’ rights
28- The Syrian Center for Transitional Justice(MSAA)
29- The Syrian Center for Economic and Social Rights
30- The Ugarit Center for Training and Human Rights
31- Arab Committee for the defense of freedom of opinion and expression
32- The Syrian Centre for Monitoring Elections
33- The Syrian Center for Civil Society and Human Rights Studies
34- The Syrian Coalition Against the Death Penalty(SCODP)
The Syrian platform for non-governmental