National, international campaign to include women’s rights in new Syrian constitution

The Joint Platform of Women’s Movements and Organizations in Rojava and North and East Syria announced the launch of a national and international campaign demanding the safeguarding of women’s rights in a new Syria and emphasizing women’s active participation in drafting the anticipated constitution.

The announcement came during a statement delivered today, Wednesday, at the 12 March Stadium in the city of Qamishlo, attended by dozens of activists and members of women’s organizations, alongside intellectuals, politicians, and rights advocates.

Twenty-nine women’s movements, organizations, unions, and political parties signed the statement, coinciding with the approaching International Women’s Day on March 8 each year. The statement was read in three languages: the Kurdish version by Kongra Star spokesperson Rihan Loqo, the Arabic version by Mona Youssef, an administrator in the Syrian Women’s Council, and the Syriac version by Samira Gawriah Hanna, a member of the Syriac Women’s Union Party.

Below is the full text of the statement:

“No Alternative to Constitutionalization to Protect the Women’s Revolution and Guarantee a Democratic Syria

First and foremost, we bow in reverence to the great sacrifices written in the blood of the pioneering women and martyrs, who made their bodies a bridge and their will a path for us to cross from the darkness of exclusion into the light of leadership. We, the women’s organizations in Rojava/North and East Syria, affirm that every gain we defend today is a pledge of loyalty to their legacy—one we will never allow to be squandered or bargained away.

Our hearts are wrung with pain and our souls burn with anger as we witness atrocities committed by members affiliated with factions linked to the interim transitional government; brutal practices that violate all human values, from throwing our comrade “Deniz” from the third floor in a barbaric scene, to the crime of cutting a female fighter’s braid in cold blood.

These violations are a stark expression of a reactionary patriarchal mentality steeped in hatred, aimed fundamentally at breaking the will of women who defeated terrorism, and a desperate attempt to intimidate society by targeting its symbols of struggle and dignity.

What the women’s revolution in North and East Syria and across Syria has achieved was not a gift, but a seizure of rights from the jaws of exclusionary thought.

As we approach International Women’s Struggle Day (March 8) with a spirit of resistance, not defeat, we announce from the heart of the field the launch of a major national and international campaign to escalate struggle across all arenas. We do not beg for our rights; rather, we place the international community and democratic forces before their historic responsibilities and present our demands as non-negotiable and non-deferrable entitlements:

- Explicitly enshrine the gains of the women’s revolution achieved in North and East Syria and across Syria within the new constitution, ensuring protection from patriarchal, exclusionary, and reactionary mentalities that historically marginalized women from decision-making centers.

- Full implementation of the January 30 agreements, ensuring completion of integration processes and guaranteeing women’s effective and independent participation in all military, political, and administrative institutions.

- Constitutional recognition of the co-presidency system and adoption of a women’s quota of no less than 50% across all state bodies and constitutional drafting committees as a guarantee of full equality.

- Inclusion of a clear constitutional clause adopting Decree No. 13 on the protection of Kurdish linguistic and cultural rights, while safeguarding the rights of all Syrian components, sects, and cultural pluralism.

- Formation of genuine participatory committees with broad female representation to redraft a new democratic constitution that protects women’s and communities’ rights and establishes a decentralized democratic system.

- Preservation of the autonomy and structure of the Women’s Protection Units (YPJ) and constitutional recognition of them as an essential part of the defense system, in appreciation of their historic role in defeating terrorism and protecting human values.

- Full commitment to women’s laws and achieved civil and legal gains, and categorical rejection of any legislation that entrenches dependency or seeks to reduce women’s social and political roles.

- Revealing the fate of the missing and forcibly disappeared, holding perpetrators of crimes and brutal violations against women immediately accountable, and applying transitional justice principles to ensure victims’ redress and prevent impunity.

- Guaranteeing the safe and voluntary return of all displaced and forcibly uprooted persons to their homes with international guarantees protecting them from retaliatory practices and ensuring dignified living conditions.

- Calling on the international community to recognize the Autonomous Administration model and its pioneering women’s experience as a national model for a comprehensive Syrian solution that ensures transition toward a democratic, pluralistic, and decentralized Syria.

We address this struggle call to all feminist movements and democratic forces worldwide: our battle today is the last line of defense for universal freedom against reactionary darkness and patriarchal mentality. Targeting Syrian women is a stab at the heart of global democracy. We therefore call on you to strengthen feminist alliances and escalate international pressure to ensure that Syria’s future constitution is not written with pens dipped in the ink of exclusion and the marginalization of half of society.

The years have taught us that our organization is our fortress and the escalation of our struggle is our destiny. Neither killing intimidates us nor violations break our will. Those who made the revolution and preserved dignity with their blood alone are capable of protecting it and imposing the logic of a “democratic, pluralistic, decentralized Syria.” In loyalty to the martyrs and the severed braids, we will remain an unconquerable force against tyranny and will not stop until our gains are engraved in the core of the constitution, safeguarded by organized will and the power of justice.

Signatories to the statement:

1. Kongra Star

2. Syriac Women’s Union in Syria

3. Women’s Security Union

4. Sara Organization to Combat Violence Against Women

5. Hilal Zerin

6. Yazidi Women’s Union in Rojava

7. Kurdistan Democratic Peace Party

8. Green Democratic Party

9. Union of Lawyers in Jazira

10. Syrian Kurdish Democratic Party

11. Syrian Construction and Development Party

12. Shawishka Association for Women

13. Free Women’s Foundation in Syria

14. Women’s Council in the Democratic Society Movement

15. Women's Authority 

16. Kurdistan Democratic Party – Syria (al-Parti)

17. Syrian Kurdish Democratic Accord Party

18. Kurdistan Future Movement

19. Kurdistan Democratic Change Party

20. Kurdish Democratic Party in Syria (al-Parti)

21. Justice Council

22. Ambassadors Association for Persons with Disabilities

23. Roz Organization for Support and Empowerment

24. Women Leaders of Peace Organization

25. Women’s Media Union

26. Syrian Women’s Council

27. Syrian Democratic Council

28. Women’s Council in the Syria Future Party

29. Women’s Council in North and East Syria.”

A-H 

ANHA