The SWN includes democratic, nongovernmental and independent personalities and organizations working on gender equality, stabilization of democracy, human rights, civil peace, and achieving transitional justice, including women in decision making for the prospective Syria, establishing an influential power in the way for democratic change towards reaching free, democratic, united and civil Syria of self-authority. A state of equal citizenship without any distinction based on gender, religion, ethnicity, belief, wealth or fame. The authority of law to be considered the supreme one that guarantee equality among members of one people. Networking with organizations and groups that have common grounds on purpose of women empowerment in all respects.
:The network aims at
- Including within the Syrian Constitution human rights’ legislations that are guaranteed in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, the two international bonds related to the political, economic, and social rights, the seven principal international treaties and the related protocols, treaty of the abolition of all manifestations of women discrimination particularly (SIDAW) abiding by it without reservation and considering it a reference for drafting laws and legislations, in addition to activating the supreme court.
- Including within the Syrian Constitution and laws full equality with women in the civil, political, economic, societal, and educational rights, in all public life scopes and familial life, in front of the law and within the law.
- Reinforcing effective participation of women (until reaching the fifty-fifty) in decision making centres and the legislative, executive and legal bodies, public institutions, general boards, political parties, civil society organizations, and within constitution drafting committees, setting up the transitional justice mechanisms and national reconciliation panels, and even at every mediation or arbitration.
- Held the state committed to convict and combat all manifestations of violence and discrimination against women and children including familial violence, sexual exploitation, honour crimes, and all forms of human trafficking. Developing legal mechanisms in order to ensure ways of protection and treatment for victims, with intense work for changing every article within the Law of Personal Status that is not based on equal footing for both men and women.
- Ensuring protection, health, educational, economic and social care for the inflicted groups of women and children particularly the deported and displaced, families’ breadwinners, detainees’ and lost people’s families, martyrs and the injured throughout sustainable development programmes.
:The Network works to
- Ensure women participation in the transitional period within all the establishment bodies, constitutional drafting and issuing laws for the prospective Syria.
- Encountering the marginalization education, exclusion, societal prosecution and oppression against women and working on dissemination of citizenship education, human rights and equality in the Syrian society.
- Creating general strategies and policies for women rehabilitation, empowering them until reaching the fifty-fifty at authority positions, decision making, ministries, public institutions and local councils.
- Hold commitment to disseminate all human rights’ thoughts, equal citizenship, and accepting the other, respecting multiplicity, social gender and gender equality regarding to the educational curricula since childhood.
- Cooperating with international organizations for the development and training some women in a way to serve women empowerment topics and activating their role within the state and society.
- Observing and documenting all human rights violations, and all types of violence women and children are being exposed to.
- Launching and adopting projects in order to protect the civil peace, conflict resolution and rehabilitating the needed women cadres.
- Change the typical picture of women in the media and the educational curricula, showing her positive role in building society and rehabilitating the required cadres for that.
- Including women in the reconciliation committees within the transitional justice mechanisms as of the various experience they have on peace-making, and preparing cadres for that purpose.
:The network consists of
First: The General Assembly: Includes all member personalities and organizations in the network and is considered the supreme board for decision making in SWN (SHAMS). The assembly holds responsible to draw out network’s policies, set up strategies, observe execution, elect the Coordination and Follow-up Committee and investigate into the financial report.
(Second: The Coordination and Follow-up Committee (CFC
Consists of seven members and administer network’s activities within the period between two conferences.
The Syrian Women’s Network has been created in May, 2013 in the establishment conference which was held in Stockholm.
Since then, several activities have been implemented as follows:
- ‘Syrian Women Initiative for Peace and Democracy’:
The network is considered an active partner in the initiative which has been launched in 2013 through the participation of network’s members in the meetings United Nations has already invited to.
- :‘Syria, a Home, not a State of Detention’ campaign
This is to seek detainees’ and forcibly concealed people’s rights (males/females) as a conditional guarantee for stabilization of Human Rights Principles and ensure building a civil state of authority.
For that, the network launched the first part of the campaign ‘Syria, a Home, not a State of Detention’ in 2013 simultaneously with holding Geneva talks 2 on purpose of advocacy and practice pressures to abide by Geneva 1 Talks’s articles particularly the release of opinion prisoners and adhering to the security council decision No. 1325 and other related international treaties.
The second period was held in February 2016 and aimed at advocacy and social mobilization in order to release detainees (males/females) as a trsutbuilding and good intention step for a political resolution in Syria simultaneously with Geneva Talks 3, build a civil democratic and a state of multiplicity that ensures freedom of expression in Syria and guarantee no threat for civilians, chasing or detaining them.
- :Project of Changing the Syrian Women Typical Picture
Within its strategies, the SWN has adopted the idea of work to change the Syrian Women Typical Picture. For that reason, the network implemented in 2015 two-section project. The first one, the media project ( in cooperation with ‘SyrianOfWomen’ Magazine) aimed to rehabilitate women cadres who are able to write down news, report them , and prepare radio reports on purpose of helping them to find positions throughout marketing of the written products. In addition, one of the project outputs was the women revelation contest.
The other part of the project was implemented in cooperation with ‘Hurras Network’ in which training workshops have been held in the southern Syria targeted the workers of Child Protection Sector, increasing their experience on the way of dealing with children at the time of war.
- :Syrian Women Platform
In cooperation between SWN and a group of a Dutch journalists, a media platform under the title of ‘WOMENOFSYRIA’ has been created on 12 January, 2015.
The platform was operated by a group of network members and Dutch journalists as an individual initiative to get the western world particularly the Dutch to know the Syrian women circumstances and their daily life conditions during the situation of war in Syria.
The platform has presented several stories for Syrian women relating themselves details of their daily life, taking into consideration demographic the diversity when selecting the stories, where all the Syrian provinces have been covered. These stories also have been published in Dutch attached with pictures reflecting the woman relating her story.
- :SWN Political Empowerment Project 2016
This project has been implemented in the northern Syria in cooperation with Alkawakbi Organization for Human Rights (a member organization in SWN), where two organizations have been trained on political empowerment by holding workshops during the year in two different areas. The project aimed at empowering women politically, increasing their knowledge in a way that reinforce their presence in decision making positions locally and nationally.
- :SWN Political Empowerment Project 2017
- This project aimed at building Syrian women self-capacity and empowering them politically by holding workshops about various political topics for a number of Syrian women who have a general level of knowledge on women related topics, also building their capacity through the different activities and programmes such as – English language, administration programmes- computer courses) in order to build a group capable of working individually and own high capacities that qualify them to discuss the different political empowerment topics.
Finally, the Syrian women network was always careful to run projects by which it could provide further support to Syrian women and their families throughout urgent relief campaigns aimed to distribute relief baskets for the refugee families in Turkey.