Introduction:
SYCAC organized a two-day workshop in Istanbul, Turkey, from December 13th to 14th, 2022. The workshop brought together 36 participants, including NGOs, INGOs, donors, and prominent activists from diverse backgrounds in the local and international civil society, as well as legal experts, feminists, and psychosocial support specialists. The workshop aimed to discuss the media's role and the impact of women, youth, and people with disabilities on peacebuilding processes, to seek coordination between organizations and activists, and to study the relationship between mental health and the effectiveness of these roles. Additionally, the workshop discussed the connection between property rights and peacebuilding operations.
The workshop resulted in a set of recommendations that were divided according to working groups during the workshop, as shown below:
Psychosocial support for peacebuilding workers and its relationship to improving interventions:
- Mental health is a state of wellness in which an individual devotes himself to his or her own abilities ,the adaptation with normal types of stress ,works efficiently and effectively ,and contributes to his or her community / .Appreciation / Respect / Empathy / Acceptance /
Listening ,and the use of these aspects in the peacebuilding process . - In order for us to be able to build safe interventions ,our mental health must be health and safety and therefore we must not ignore the interest in our mental health because it will affect others .
- Work to enhance the mental health of the individuals working in peacebuilding ,and enable their psychological immunity ,and their flexibility at work to be ready to face any obstacles that they may face.
- Building specialized programs for training workers in peacebuilding on the skill of dealing with psychological stress / stress management and its awareness .
- It is important to look at mental health from a gender perspective that considers the needs of both sexes and provides services equally according to those needs
- Peacebuilding workers must realize the fact that they are not responsible for the failures that hinder the peace process ,as the peace process in Syria needs comprehensive local and international efforts .
- Shedding light on the experiences and psychological problems facing peacebuilding activists ,
and the direct relationship between the mental health of individuals and local peace in Syria , through an in-depth research study that understands and analyzes this phenomenon.
Restoration of rights and property and its relationship to progress in the peace building process in Syria:
- Work must be done at various levels, starting with defining the scope of property rights problems in Syria ,studying past ,current and future legislation ,and taking appropriate measures.
- Formation of specialized technical groups whose mission is to limit the problems related to the restoration of real estate rights and property ,and to propose solutions to them ,in addition to spreading civil awareness of property rights .
- Emphasis on all international endeavors working towards a political solution in Syria ,that there be accountability ,compensation ,and restoration of rights through international legal committees and courts that assist in this process.
- the involvement of affected stakeholders and pursuit of accountability ,compensation ,and restoration of rights in parallel with securing a safe environment for return and facilitating the right to dispose of property
- Pressure to reconsider the current property laws that are adopted internationally because of the legal loopholes they contain that have contributed to the failure to return properties and rights fairly ,due to previous experiences .
- The non-restitution of property should not be linked to return ,especially since the Syrian regime exploited the law to force people to take unsavory measures in the event of return .
Quality to recover property that was taken unjustly . - The importance of working to form specialized committees from all regions ,consisting of community leaders and jurists ,whose mission is to document the property archives to guarantee the property rights of people and ensure that documents are not lost .
- We must be aware of the risks of demographic change in recent years ,which is one of the biggest risks in the stage of restoring rights .
- There is a difference in the experience of property confiscation between regime-controlled areas and areas outside its control due to the difficulty of restoring rights in regime-controlled areas .Therefore ,the rules and laws that were developed in times of peace cannot be effective in times of emergency or war .
- The issue of housing complexes that organizations build in an ill-conceived manner must be evaluated .
- We must work in parallel to empower societies in property rights ,and return people to their property ,by securing a safe environment ,in addition to the existence of real laws that protect them from persecution .
The role of media in peacebuilding processes
- It is important to dedicate the media to building peace at various levels ,due to the importance of its role on the external scale ,which targets the international community ,and the internal sphere ,which targets local communities ,and focuses on rapprochement between individuals and the creation of common ground .
- There are gaps between social classes ,and therefore the media must speak on behalf of all classes ,and involve them at all levels in order to avoid creating any conflicts .
- Work on directing the media discourse towards enhancing social cohesion and combating hate speech among Syrians ,given the importance of the media and its prominent role in shedding light on any issue .
- It is important that there be peacebuilding experts/consultants within the media channels , who support the media discourse directed to commensurate with the desired goals of the peacebuilding operations .
- The media should play a role in strengthening the Syrian identity ,especially for people who were born outside the borders .
- The importance of designing audiovisual and written media programs for spreading civil awareness in societies ,provided that the speech is close to society and influential .
- There is a clear gap between civil society and the media that must be bridged through coordination ,alliances and joint action .
Involving the local community in the media content is very important ,which makes the discourse more credible . - Pushing for the media to take its role in accountability in society ,especially for violations committed by the authorities ,and to speak about it with the voice of society .
- Given that civil society organizations ,activists ,and media institutions have a role in preserving civil peace ,even after the end of the conflict ,it is important to work on strategic partnerships between them ,which achieves a kind of complementarity in work .
- The media has a responsibility to raise awareness of some terminology and clarify concepts by communicating information smoothly and correctly .It is also important for the media to focus on standardizing terminology rather than changing it under the pretext of taking into account cultures while ensuring its simplification .
- It is important to develop media skills in mobilization and advocacy ,especially on issues related to peacebuilding .
- As a result of the changing political ,social ,cultural and technological changes ,the media must keep pace with change and work on developing new tools commensurate with the different needs of local communities .
- The Syrian media does not have sufficient knowledge of accountability ,so the capabilities of media institutions must be developed with accountability to ensure good results through community awareness and mobilization .
Perception of the coordination mechanism between civil society organizations
Participants developed an initial vision of the coordination mechanism as shown below :
Coordination Mechanism Name: Peace Space.
Vision: Civil action bodies are able to enhance collaboration and interaction with each other to identify best practices and strategies in the field of peacebuilding.
- It is important for the Coordination Mechanism to synergize efforts ,identify best practices ,
and promote interaction and complementarity . - Develop work plans within a schedule of meetings ,provided that the period of time for an inclusive meeting of members does not exceed 6 months .
- There must be coordination with the aim of defining roles ,identifying overlapping matters ,
and interacting by means of :networking ,coordination and taking joint steps . - The mechanism should include :organizations ,individuals ,actors ,activists ,research centers ,
and media institutions . - It is important to focus on the inclusion and inclusiveness of the entire Syrian geography ,in all its spectrums .
- That there be a committee within the coordination mechanism whose mission is to mobilize and advocate for peacebuilding issues.
