The month of November was marked by the SACD’s efforts to address the fall-out of the conference on return hosted by the Russian Ministry of Defence in Damascus, in collaboration with the Syrian regime. Using diplomatic channels, SACD conveyed to the envoys on Syria of the European Union, the United States, Canada, the UN , and UNHCR office its position on the Russian conference, denying any legitimacy or credibility to the conference organized by Russia. The Association’s detailed position condemned and refused such Russian initiatives, especially that Russia is considered one of the perpetrators causing mass Syrian displacement. The opportunity was used to also relay to the envoys and relevant organisations SACD’s principles for engagement with Syrian IDPs and refugees in order to have the views of displaced Syrians as part of any process, plan, or project in Syria.

As part of the advocacy countering the Russian conference, SACD participated in the popular campaign, #no_return_with_Assad. The campaign reminded the world of the horrors that the Syrian regime, backed by Russia and Iran, committed against Syrians, and that no safe, dignified and voluntary return can take place as long as this regime is still in power.

SACD’s Marwan Nazhan was quoted in Coda Story’s coverage of the conference saying “The purpose of the conference is to secure funds from the West to secure the gains made through indiscriminate attacks against civilians and their forced displacement.” Al Jazeera English spoke to SACD’s Haya Atassi who asserted the Association’s position to deny the legitimacy of the conference, given that Russia and regime have engaged in systematic, indiscriminate attacks against civilians with the aim of forced displacement.

In similar context, “We are Syria: The reality of return and the future of the displaced” was a panel with key Syrian figures from US, UK, France, Germany, Turkey and northern Syria organized by SACD to discuss the displaced Syrians’ vision of return and its conditions, and the ways in which Syrians can have an impact on the future of Syria and their return. This panel included voices of displaced Syrians from all over the world, which was the key missing element in the Damascus conference organized by Russia.

In the second half of the month, we gave prominence to a Human Rights Watch report titled “Targeting Life in Idlib: Syrian and Russian Strikes on Civilian Infrastructure” that documented what the organization assessed may amount to crimes against humanity committed by the Syrian regime, and its ally Russia, against civilians in Idlib with the aim of forced displacement, SACD hosted HRW’s Sara Kayyali and Richard Weir to examine the implications of this important report and its findings on the efforts to firstly prevent the continuation of these crimes against the population of Idlib and also to ensure there is accountability for them.

In its effort to reveal the regime’s systematic policies of cementing displacement, SACD published an article on the regime’s HLP violations in Idlib and Hama suburbs and its confiscations of displaced people’s properties in an effort to cement displacement and deny the displaced from returning. Dr Hamza Omar and Lawyer Fahd Moussa discuss the legal and political dimensions of the regime’s policy to confiscate the properties of displaced Syrians.