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Bashar al-Assad has been thrown out of power by his own people. His authoritarian government has collapsed not only due to an armed offensive, but also, since 2011, from a significant and long term element of nonviolent people power. The refusal of the soldiers of the Army to fight, due to widespread popular uprisings around the country and disgust of the regime was crucial to its swift collapse. The loss of its foreign backers also played an important role.
We want to honor and remember the many fearless activists in Syria who have suffered so much torture, imprisonment and repression. Their achievement will inspire others around the world.
We want to thank those in our Nonviolence International family who have helped lead nonviolent resistance in Syria.
Nonviolence International US board chair, Rafif Jouejati, spent the last 13 years working to support the Syrian women’s movement and nonviolent resistance. With inspiration and support from Nonviolence International , she co-founded the Foundation to Restore Equality and Education in Syria (FREE Syria), and was the principal architect of the Syrian Freedom Charter project, which surveyed more than 50,000 Syrians on democratic aspirations and political transition. We urge the transition leadership in Syria will pay close attention to this Charter.
In 2005 Bassam Ishak began directing Nonviolence International’s Syria Program while in Syria to support strategic nonviolent training, human rights, and democracy. Despite repression from the regime, Bassam courageously spoke up against their abuses and malign policies. Bassam is the brother of one of our founders, Abdul Aziz Said, who along with Mubarak Awad spent decades working for a democratic Syria. Bassam was active in the Arab Spring before fleeing the country and participating in the exile resistance.
In 2011 and 2012, in the US and in Cairo, Bassam and Rafif organized for Nonviolence International historic trainings of a broad coalition of resistance leaders in strategic nonviolent struggle. Although a solely nonviolent revolution was hampered by the use of early violence by the opposition, we believe the ongoing nonviolent resistance has eaten away at the regime and has been an unseen but critical element in its collapse.
Nonviolence International will support their efforts to transition to democracy and an end to patriarchy and supremacist sectarianism. The transition will be a challenge because the country is so diverse and the opposition so splintered. In addition, Turkey, Israel and the US still have troops occupying parts of the country.
There is no military solution that can put Syria back together. Only a civil approach can succeed based on human rights, fair elections, and equality for all. All foreign troops must leave for Syria to be whole again. Revenge must not be tolerated. Women must be at every policy making table.
Syria faces many challenge ahead, but we call on friends around the world not to forget Syria in a few months but to ask our governments and civil society organizations to provide massive sustained support for their transition to a better future, determined by the Syrians themselves.