"France will always stand up for Syrian women’s rights in line with our feminist foreign policy"

Good afternoon to you all,

I would like to thank the Syrian women’s movement for having organised this event and I would like to specially express gratitude to the panellists for their comprehensive presentations.

France is proud to be one of the co-sponsors of this event as justice for Syrian women is paramount.

I would like to stress three points during my presentation : the war is not over in Syria ; sexual and gender-based violence must not remain unpunished ; France will always stand up for Syrian women’s rights.

Last week marked 11 years since the Syrian people courageously and peacefully took to the streets to demand freedom, political reform, and a government that respects and uphold human rights. The Assad regime met those demands with a brutal assault that continues today against the Syrian people.

As this war is not over, France continue to support the UN-facilitated, Syrian-led process outlined within UN Security Council Resolution 2254. We will continue to call for a nationwide ceasefire and respect for international humanitarian law. There is no other path to a sustainable peace.

The brutality of the regime and the terrorist groups in Syria has been constantly documented by incredibly brave Syrian people who spoke-out despite their traumas, security concerns and social pressure.

On 8 March 2018, United Nations Commission of Inquiry on Syria released a report on sexual and gender-based violence. This report was based on 454 interviews with survivors, relatives of survivors, defectors, healthcare practitioners, lawyers, and members of affected communities, and examines the perpetration of sexual and gender-based violence by parties since the uprising in March 2011 through December 2017. Other survivors’ courageous testimonies have been captured in the 2017 movie of French journalist, Manon Loizeau, ‘A stifled cry’.

I could go along with a long list of reports and testimonies : they all point out the systematic brutality of the regime. Those crimes began at the beginning of 2011, rapes and other acts of sexual violence carried out by Government forces and associated militias during ground operations, at checkpoints, and in detention formed part of a widespread and systematic attack directed against a civilian population, and amount to crimes against humanity.

We welcome your recommendations. They are useful tools to complete the work conducted by the Commission of investigation as well as by the International, Impartial and Independent Mechanism to assist in the investigation and prosecution of persons responsible for the most serious crimes under international law committed in Syria. The later will share a public version of its gender strategy in the first half of 2022 which shall fill gaps on this matter.

We also welcome ongoing effort by national courts to investigate and prosecute crimes within their jurisdiction committed in Syria and encourage increased support for these prosecutions.

There will never be peace for Syrians without justice for victim of gender violence and sexual crimes. France will always stand up for Syrian women’s rights in line with our feminist foreign policy. This is why, France is committed to ensuring that 75% of the projects funded by France’s official development assistance helps to improve gender equality by 2025 ./.

I thank you ./.