Strengthening justice and accountability within Syria today – the role of legal professionals and civil society
7 December, 14:00-16:00, In person participation at Hörsalen, Medelhavsmuseet, Fredsgatan 2, 103 21 Stockholm.
The Kvinna to Kvinna Foundation and the International Legal Assistance Consortium (ILAC) are pleased to invite you to our in person event “Strengthening justice and accountability within Syria today – the role of legal professionals and civil society”.
People’s lack of access to justice in Syria is steadily growing and there are few prospects of improving accountability in the near future. The protracted conflict has given rise to a range of violations of human rights law and international humanitarian law, contributing to the sheer amount of cases of everyday justice needs – disputes encountered by regular people in their daily lives including civil, administrative, and criminal matters.Access to justice also looks different for different parts of the population. Women often face other hinders than men and the situation is particularly difficult for women in certain parts of the country. Even before the conflict, the judiciary was tightly controlled by the executive and public institutions and were ineffective or inadequate with low promises of ensuring people accountability. Today, the judicial systems in a fragmented Syria have even more limited capacity to effectively deliver justice and uphold accountability mechanisms.
One of few available routes to justice and to secure basic rights of ordinary people is through lawyers’ and civil society actors’ work to support people’s justice needs, as shown in ILAC’s Rule of Law Assessment Report: Syria 2021. These actors work under very challenging circumstances and are faced with political resistance and interference, high levels of corruption, and low levels of human and material resources.
With this event, ILAC and Kvinna till Kvinna wants to bring attention to the prospects of improving access to justice and accountability, in particular for women, despite difficult circumstances in Syria today, focusing on the fundamental role of legal professionals and civil society actors working in Syria. We also hope to further the discussion on the role of Swedish actors in supporting this work. The event will be held in English.
We are pleased to present the following speakers:
Welcome and introductory remarks by Marie Wikström, Deputy Secretary General at the Kvinna till Kvinna Foundation.
Speakers
Roula Baghdadi, Lawyer, human rights defender and Executive Director of Dawlaty
Dr. Maria Al Abdeh, Executive Director at Women Now for Development
Per Örnéus, Special Envoy of Sweden to the Syrian Crisis
Agneta Johansson, Executive Director, ILAC
Moderator: Bitte Hammargren, Turkey & Middle East Analyst and Senior Associate Fellow, Swedish Institute of International Affairs
Please RSVP for participation to Kathrine Jesting at kathrine.jesting@ilac.se by 5 December the latest.