Women politicans, activists and people living in North and East Syria discussed the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW) in a panel organised in Raqqa (Reqa), north Syria.
Raqqa was incorporated into the Autonomous Administration of North and East Syria (AANES) in September 2018. The Convention was the culmination of more than thirty years of work by the United Nations Commission on the Status of Women, a body established in 1946 to monitor the situation of women and to promote women’s rights. The Syrian Women’s Assembly organised a panel in Raqqa to discuss women’s rights, as defined by the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women.
The Women’s Committee of AANES in Rojava, the representatives of the Syrian Democratic Council (known as the Meclîsa Sûriya Demokratîk - MSD), the Syria Free Women’s Bureau, representatives of the Future Syria Party (FSP) and local women joined the panel.
Hêvin Şêxo, the Co-Chair of the Ecology Committee of AANES also spoke during the panel discussions. “Many countries who have agreed to be bound by the provisions of the Convention do not abide by the Convention”, Şêxo said.
Meyson Mihemed spoke on behalf of the Syrian Free Women’s Foundation and criticized the countries who do not apply and abide by the Convention. “Many countries do not abide by a single provision of the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women. If the Convention was applied properly, the huge gap between women’s rights and men’s rights would have been closed around the world in favour of the women”, she said. Syrian Women’s Assembly member Sûad Kurdi stressed the violations of women’s rights in North and East Syria that have been and are being committed by the Turkish state.
