Date: January 2024
Settling HLP rights issues post-conflict requires significant efforts and different approaches specific to each country, whilst protecting these rights whichever the approach. The current context in Syria means HLP issues are faced with factors that complicate them, including the ongoing conflict; despite a decrease in security and military tensions, the absence of a just settlement and the behaviour of parties to the conflict, especially the Syrian regime which behaves as if it were the “victor” with the right to impose its agenda on the future of the country, including HLP rights violations that serves its interests.
The report analyses this impact by adopting a procedural definition of the concepts of early recovery and reconstruction, and by determining the types of activities this includes based on relevant literature. The report preparation team conducted a study of each of these types under the current situation, as well as the general context, influential actors, and the impact they have on HLP rights, based on available secondary data from researched topics and the results of semi-structured online interviews with nine key individuals (experts) from all areas of control in Syria, distributed as follows: 4 from regime-controlled areas, 3 from northern and northwestern regions, and 2 from northeastern regions. We also benefited from informal interviews with two employees of UN organizations working in Damascus, in addition to relevant studies previously conducted and currently being conducted by The Day After Association. The study covers all Syrian regions, with a focus on the regime’s areas of control, which cover the largest area geographically and the highest in population. The regime’s control over the Syrian state’s legislative and executive agencies and its rehabilitation internationally have increased its control over the outcomes of early recovery projects in a way that serves its interest, including the impact of these projects on HLP rights.
