As the “Brussels VI Conference on Supporting the future of Syria and the region“ convened, more than 13 million displaced Syrians faced increasingly dire prospects with growing unilateral calls from some hosting countries for the return of Syrian refugees to an unsafe Syria, without any guarantees or the minimum conditions for a safe, voluntary and dignified return. 

The Syrian Association for citizens Dignity clearly communicated that the political process must be reformed to elevate the safe environment to the top of the political agenda. The special Envoy’s office must focus on securing the rights and minimum conditions for return expressed by refugees and IDPs as a fundamental part of any political solution and its elements, such as the new and credible constitution or elections. Adventurism and dubious “pilot projects” on the return must be rejected and abandoned.  

Mr. Wasim Alhaj, member of SACD, participated in the session “Giving Space for Syrian Voices” at the Sixth Brussels Conference to Support the Future of Syria and the Region. These are the essential points he touched on: 

• At the top of the list of priorities, the Syrians are looking forward to a safe and neutral environment with absolute international guarantees that guarantee their return to their cities and villages, which they have longed for. 

• Syrians feel very disappointed with society, as there is still no real international will to implement a comprehensive political solution. 
• The Syrians are deeply concerned about the normalization processes pursued by some countries with the Assad regime because this means that the situation in Syria will not change but will increase. 
• 90% of those I interviewed expressed their desire to emigrate outside Syria if they had the opportunity to do so. 

On the other hand, the deteriorating conditions in reconciliation areas have led to waves of silent displacement from Daraa to the north of Syria, which confirmed the impossibility of the displaced Syrians’ safe, voluntary, and dignified return. SACD illustrated how Daraa stood as a striking example that Russia, the perpetrator who committed crimes of killing and forced displacement against Syrians, cannot be the guarantor of any peace and stability in Syria. 

SACD asserted that it is quite unfathomable that the world that sees Russia as an aggressor in Ukraine would even consider it a guarantor of any peace efforts in Syria. As long as Russia is not held accountable for its crimes, it will not stop in Syria and Ukraine, but its sway will also expand to other regions. 

The Syrian Association for Citizens’ Dignity (SACD) and the Association of Revolutionary Activists in Homs, in cooperation with the Local Administration Councils Unit LACU, participated in an event entitled “Syria is ours” on May 21st in Azaz, northern Syria. The event included an exhibition of photos of Syrian activists who documented with their lenses the displacement of Syrians to remind the whole world of the tragedy of the displacement of the Syrian people. The participants in the event also affirmed their insistence on their right to return to their original homes, a safe, dignified, and voluntary return within the conditions of a safe environment that the Syrians themselves define.