Civil Society and Democratization in the Arab World. Annual Report. 2004
Published July 2005

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Syria 

Capital : Damascus

Date of Independence : 17/4/1946

Area : 185,180 Km

Population (in millions) : 18.4 (est. 2005)

Rate of Population Increase : 2.34% (est. 2005)

Ethnic Groups : 90.3% Arabs, 9.7% Kurds, Armenians & others

Religious Groups : 74% Sunna, 16% Alawite, Druze, and others,

10% Christians, and small Jewish minorities

in Damascus and Halab

Illiteracy : 23%

No. of Provinces : 14 governortes

Polity : Republic

Head of State : Bashar El Assad

No. of Political Parties : 8

GDP (in millions)ppp : $60,440 (2004)

GDP per Capita-ppp : $ 3,400 (2004)
 

Overview
 

The modern state of Syria was established after World War I under the Sykes-Pico agreement between France and Great Britain. It was carved out of the one-time Fertile Crescent that included, besides the area of present day Syria, the present areas of Palestine, Israel, Jordan and Lebanon. Syria gained independence from France in 1946, and for most of the period since then has been ruled by the pan-Arab Baath party which took control of the country in 1961. In 1970, a military coup brought General Hafez El-Assad to power. For the next 30 years Assad’s regime was dominated by the Alawite Islamic sect, which, although constituting only 12% of the population, has through coercive measures maintained control over the country’s Sunni majority. Assad’s regime was a military dictatorship that brutally suppressed all dissent. On Assad’s death in 2000, the existing parliament unanimously voted his son Bashar to become president after changing the constitution such that the minimum age for the president was reduced from 40 to Bashar’s 34. Syria’s economy is based on commerce, agriculture, oil production and government services. The country has been ruled by emergency law since 1963, a situation that has placed severe restrictions on freedom and permitted the security forces to operate with impunity outside the legal system.

Political Rights and Civil Liberties

1. The Executive, Political Parties and Elections. Syria has a one-party regime. No party is allowed except the Baath party in association with seven small parties under its umbrella. Its leaders are in the dominant positions of all state institutions. All other parties are illegal. The “election” of the president is not contested by any other candidate, but occurs through a referendum on the person nominated by the Parliament, in which Hafez El-Assad, and later his son Bashar, have invariably been nominated and won public approval by 99% of the voters. The executive dominates, unchecked, the entire political system. All major decisions are made by the President together with his senior aids in the military, the security forces and the party leaders. The Parliament may criticize policies and modify draft laws, but there is no credible effective political opposition in Parliament, and the executive retains ultimate power over the legislative process.

The last elections for the 250-seat parliament was in March 2003. The elections cannot be characterized as fair and free since the majority of the seats (167) were reserved for Baath Party members, the remaining 85 seats were taken by putatively independent candidates. Women and minorities ―except the Jews― participated in the elections without restriction. Though there are no exact figures the results of the election indicate that some Kurds, Christians, Druze and Shi’a gained seats in the parliament.

2. The Judiciary, Trials, and Detention. The Constitution provides for an independent judiciary, but cases tried before military and State Security Courts (SSC) are subject to executive influence, and their verdicts cannot be appealed. Normal civil and criminal courts, however, operate with some independence. Trials are public, and except in security cases procedural safeguards are generally observed. Charges in state security cases are often vague, and defendants seem to be tried for exercising normal political rights such as free speech or free association. For example, emergency law permits trying people for “opposing the goals of the revolution” or “shaking the confidence of the masses in the aims of the revolution”, or “attempting to change the economic or social structure of the state.” In SSC, the defendant is denied basic rights on many counts. For example, defendants did not attend the prosecution’s presentation of the evidence to the court, lawyers could not make oral presentations but were only permitted to submit defense briefs, and trials were usually closed to the public.

3. Civil Society and the Freedom of Association. The Constitution provides for the right of association and assembly, but in practice these freedoms are restricted. all NGOs must be approved and registered with the government, which generally denies approval to reformist organizations. Attempts to organize informally and pursue normal civil rights are prosecuted. Leaders of the Syrian Human Rights Organization, for example, were indicted and tried in September 2002 for illegally forming their organization and for distributing illegal publications. Workers are not permitted to form unions independent of the government. All unions must belong to the General Federation of Trade Unions (GFTU), which is part of the state structure, and acts as a liaison between the government and the workers. The GFTU may suggest legislation, and its president, who is a senior member of the Baath party, may attend cabinet meetings. Strikes are legal, but they rarely occur. NGOs and professional syndicates must be registered and licensed by the government, and are admonished in the Constitution to “build the socialist society and protect the regime.” The activities of all associations are closely monitored. Although human rights organizations are not officially licensed to operate, the government has closed its eye to periodic meetings of such groups. NGOs not engaged in any political activity are usually licensed routinely.

Freedom of demonstration though theoretically permitted is in practice severely curtailed. Some demonstrations are allowed for political reasons; and most that take place are organized by the ruling Baath Party.

Political forums, discussion groups, lectures, and seminars cannot be held except by prior permission and after submitting details of the planned event and a list of the participants. In August, the government arrested and later released 21 persons for attempting to organize an unauthorized lecture on the occasion of the 40^th anniversary of rule by Emergency Law in Syria. In 2002 human rights activists were sentenced to prison terms for calling on the government to expand human liberties. They were charged of committing crimes against the security of the State.

4. Freedom of Speech and the Media. Freedom of expression is severely restricted. The government, utilizing vaguely worded clauses in the Penal Code and the Constitution, may suppress all speech and publications that “oppose the goals of the revolution” or “incites sectarianism.” It could also revoke or deny publishing licenses on grounds related to the “public interest.” All private newspapers must be censored before publication. A “Democratic Spring” began in 2001 when 1000 intellectuals in a widely publicized declaration called for wide-ranging political reforms including an end to rule by emergency law, the release of political prisoners, and free contested elections between several political parties. The declaration brought about the release of some 600 political detainees and the establishment of the country’s first privately owned newspaper. But that “Spring” was short-lived. By 2002, the government launched a campaign against the reformist movement and arrested many journalists, human rights activists, and political dissidents. This regression in freedoms continued during 2003 and 2004. In June 27, 2003 the weekly Domry journal was suspended, then one month later its license was revoked; and on 24 August security forces in Allepo broke into the premises of the human rights activist El-Kawakby and arrested participants in the ongoing debate on “40 years of emergency law.”

In March 2004, some 98 citizens were arrested for congregating in front of the Parliament building, demanding an end to emergency law. On June 21, 2004, another group was arrested for publicly demanding release of political prisoners. On June 27, 2004, three human rights activists were sentenced to a two-year prison term for demonstrating before the UNICEF building calling for respect of Kurdish rights to equitable treatment. Radio and TV are state-owned and support only the government’s policies and propagate its views. The Internet is closely monitored and tens of sites are blocked, specially those concerned with human rights in Syria and the Kurdish problem.

5. Freedom of Religion. There is no official state religion. The Constitution guarantees freedom of religion, and the government generally respects this in practice, except for some restrictions in certain areas. All religious orders must register with the government, which monitors fund raising and issues permits for all religious meetings not convened for worship. Except for militant Islam which is considered a threat, the government refrains from involvement in strictly religious issues. It also approves all publications which present religion as an agent of national unity and tolerance. While allowing the construction of many mosques, the government closely monitors all their sermons, and mosques are closed between prayers. There is a strict separation between religious institutions and the state, and all schools are government–run and non–sectarian. Except for the approximately 100 Jews who still live in Syria, religion is not stated on identity papers. Although the law does not specifically disallow proselytizing it is in practice strongly discouraged. Muslims and Christians are subject to their respective religious laws with regard to family issues such as marriage, divorce and child custody. In March 2004, Aktham Naisse, a human rights activist was arrested for writing a report detailing the government’s oppression of the Kurdish minority. He was charged with “engaging in activities against the socialist regime and opposing its revolutionary aims.” Denied medication treatment in prison for his heart condition, he suffered a crippling stroke.

6. Women and the Marginalized. The government is active in promoting gender equality in public life by appointing women to senior positions in all branches of government, including two cabinet ministers and the bench, where 7% of all judges are women. In the last parliamentary elections of 2003 women won 30 out of the 250 seats. But many discriminatory laws still remain in force, particularly those relating to personal status and family concerns, since they are based on Shari’a which imposes considerable restrictions on the rights of women. Criminal law is also lenient in “honor crimes” committed by men against female relatives for alleged sexual misconduct. The many associations concerned with women that operate in Syria belong to the Syrian Arab Women’s Federation, which receives financial support from the government.

The government generally permits national and ethnic minorities to conduct religious and cultural activities, but its attitude towards the Kurds remains a significant exception. Though the government denies any discrimination against the Kurds, it has placed limits on the use and teaching of the Kurdish language and on publications in Kurdish and Kurdish cultural expression. Kurdish activists are dismissed from jobs, and those suspected of belonging to the banned Kurdish Democratic Unity Party are prosecuted and imprisoned. In 2002, President Bashar El-Assad became the first president in 40 years to visit a predominantly Kurdish province in the northeast and to acknowledge the importance of their cultural heritage.

The Kurds in Syria. The number of the Kurds in Syria are estimated to be between 1.5 and 2 million, representing about 10% of the population, plus some 280 thousand Kurds who are denied citizenship by the Syria government and treated as refugees with little if any civil rights or rights to public services. The Kurds live in many Syrian cities but their main concentrations are along the Syrian borders with Iraq and Turkey. The Kurds in Syria have been much less active politically than their compatriots in Iran and Iraq. This no doubt is partly due to the sanctuary given by the Syrian regime, over the last decades, to Kurds fleeing Turkish forces across the border between the two countries. This Syrian policy attenuated the level of political conflict between the Syrian Kurds and their government and fostered a quiescent attitude among the Kurds, who tended to accept their lot as second class citizens, resorting now and then to only peaceful demonstration in demand for more equitable treatment. But things began to change in 2002 and particularly in 2003. The high profile assumed by the Kurds in Iraq after the fall of Saddam created a demonstration effect which encouraged the Syrian Kurds to be more vocal and assertive in their demands for justice. To this the Syrian government tended to respond with increased repression, using force to disperse peaceful demonstrations and arresting its leaders, and, in February 2003, bringing some to trial in front of state security courts, claiming that the Kurdish actions threatened national security. In March 2003 Syrian forces broke into university student dorms and arrested 5 Kurdish activists. On March 13, 2004 security forces brutally crushed a Kurdish demonstration killing 25 according to official figures and 600 according to Kurdish spokesmen. In protest against continued discrimination Kurdish parties united in boycotting the local elections held on June 21, claiming that in all cases these elections, like the previous parliamentary ones, were a foregone outcome for the Baath party and lacked even the bare modicum of a free and fair democratic process.

Among serious Kurdish complaints is that the Syrian authorities are conducting a continuous campaign to marginalize and suppress all expressions of Kurdish culture, and is imposing a forced Arabization program to expunge the Kurdish language. It seems clear that developments in Iraq have spurred the Kurds of Syria to mount a concerted effort in defense of their rights as Syrian citizens entitled to equal treatment with other ethnic groups. Indeed, they now speak in imitation of Iraqi Kurds, of “Syrian Kurdistan” and “Western Kurdistan.” The international community has recognized the plight of the Syrian Kurds and has provided moral and political support.
 

Prospects for Democratic Change

Syria continues to be a republic with a military regime with a pervasive security police that monitors and controls all aspects of public life. All authority is virtually in the hands of the President, who receives counsel from the senior members of the Baath party. The government’s human rights record remains poor and it continues to restrict basic freedoms. Since the regime is intolerant of political opposition there is very little anti-government manifestations. The present President inherited from his father a heavy legacy of a dictatorial system based on the cult of the supreme ruler. There were initial signs in 2000 and 2001 that the new young President intended to introduce important political reforms that would loosen the grip of the state on civil society. But these promising beginnings did not mature and the years 2002 to 2004 witnessed a regression to the stringent oppressive policies of Hafez El-Assad. Hope remains, though, that the present stagnant economy of the country, coupled with external pressures from abroad, and the recent timid rumblings of discontent within civil society, may eventually prod the regime to liberalize, at least partially, in the interest of its own legitimacy and stability.