25 May 2024

SNC member, Alise Mofrej, participated on Saturday in a side event organized by the Arab Organization for Human Rights in Northern Europe on the sidelines of Brussels VIII Conference on Supporting the Future of Syria.

The event was concerned with “Harnessing the Resilience of Syrian Refugees for Peacebuilding, in Alignment with UNSCR 2254”. Other speakers included Alaa Shalaby, President of the Arab Organization for Human Rights (AOHR), Marwan Kawass, AOHR President in Syria and Omar Almasalmeh, AOHR Secretary-General in Northern Europe.

In her intervention, Mofrej emphasized that it was important to harness all efforts at this stage to seek to stop the prejudiced practices and discriminatory views held against Syrian refugees in Lebanon and elsewhere explaining that Syrian refugees should not have to pay for the disasters and corruption of the Lebanese regime or Hezbollah’s influence and control over its sovereign decisions. She highlighted the risks entailed in the Lebanese authorities breach of international agreements by extraditing defectors and refugees to the Syrian regime warning that their return to Syria under the current circumstances constitutes a major risk that threatens their lives.

She pointed out that reports of the UN High Commission for Human Rights depict the tragic conditions of Syrian returnees and the gross violations they are exposed to mainly by the Syrian regime including arbitrary detention, maltreatment, sexual violence, forced disappearance, extortion, property confiscation and deprivation of documents.
She reiterated that a solution in Syrian must comply with international resolutions especially the Geneva Communique and UNSCR 2254 which can be used as a road map for the political process. She expressed disappointment at the obstruction of the political process and the use of groundless interpretations of UNSCR 2254 and attempts to use the issue of Syrian refugees a bargaining chip or addressing it only partially without regard to the major risks entailed in such a return which must instead be part of a comprehensive political transition and accountability process.

Mofrej criticized the ‘step-for-step’ approach because it associates refugee return with lifting economic sanctions on the regime. She commended the European Union’s Three Noes until a political solution is in place. She warned against the risks of talking about ‘early recovery’, if meant to circumvent those three noes, rehabilitate the regime or instilling division and de-facto powers. Recovery, she said, required a political solution negotiated in accordance with UNSCR 2254 and must be preceded by addressing the issue of detainees and forcibly disappeared persons because this is a non-negotiable issue.

She concluded saying humanitarian crises in Syria cannot be solved without moving forward with a political solution stressing that importance of seeking sustainable solutions rather than short-lived remedies.

Comprehensive solutions, she said, must be ushered first and foremost by putting into action a complete map for a political negotiated solution which is the only guarantee for security, recovery and voluntary return.