After more than a year since the fall of the Assad regime in Syria, and with it, the end of half of a century of tyranny and violence, the country has entered a transitional phase that, according to the new leadership, aims to “build a constitutional state.” Achieving this goal, however, appears extremely difficult amid major challenges, perhaps the most complex of which is the state of the current legal landscape. In that regard, a number of contested issues are emerging in Syria around gender inequality and the disenfranchisement of women, as well as the ongoing criminalization of LGBTQIA+ people. While the country is on the road to a political transition, the signs do not appear optimistic for gender and sexual minorities.
Importantly, Syria is a signatory of most international human rights charters, including the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR). Adopted by the United Nations General Assembly in 1948, the UDHR stipulates that it is the duty of states to protect the human rights and dignity of individuals without any discrimination based on race, gender, appearance, or national origin. Despite Syria’s formal signing of the UDHR, the reality of human rights abuses in the country has been far removed from the spirit of this declaration. The lack of the UDHR’s implementation is most acutely reflected in the oppressive social and legal conditions that members of the LGBTQIA+ community experience daily in the country.
Since the foundation of the Guardians for Equality Movement (GEMS) in 2021, the organization has received tens of cases LGBTQIA+ individuals in Syria that concern a variety of legal problems. These problems do not only pertain to Article 520 of the Syrian Penal Code nor other laws that invokepublic ethics and morality. Rather, and in some cases, the problems facing the LGBTQIA+ community have exceeded the scope of these laws and have produced a general situation of homophobic and transphobic discrimination in which the victim, who should be protected, becomes the perpetrator who is criminalized and punished.
The following report highlights the most prominent legal challenges and violations faced by gender and sexual minorities in Syria today. Methodologically, the report uses open-ended and semi-structured interviews and testimonials of which two are featured in the report. Additionally, the report includes an extensive interview with a legal expert working in Damascus, as well as investigatory research undertaken by a contact inside the country.
To read the full report, please refer to the file below.
