The sanctions on Syria & their impacts on women

In this episode, Emma Beilouny explores the impact of the economic sanctions placed on Syria in June 2020, in particular the impact on women and girls.  These sanctions are meant to punish the regime for its actions during the civil war, which began just over ten years ago, but they are having a devastating effect on the Syrian people.

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Transcript

Hello, and welcome to another episode of Human Rights Magazine.
In this episode, Emma Beilouny explores the impact of the economic sanctions placed on Syria in June 2020, in particular the impact on women and girls.  These sanctions are meant to punish the regime for its actions during the civil war, which began just over ten years ago, but they are having a devastating effect on the Syrian people.

Emma Beilouny: In an effort to hold Syria’s government accountable for its crimes against civilians, the U S imposed strong economic sanctions on the country in 2019. Yet those most affected are not the political leaders and the elite of the country,  but those who were already vulnerable. To understand the way the sanctions have been impacting women.  I interviewed three women's rights activists.  I first spoke with Lina AbiRafeh , who is the executive director of the Arab Institute for women at the American university of Beirut. She has been working extensively on gender based violence prevention, both in development and humanitarian context for over 20 years. She started out by explaining what the sanctions mean for women.  

 AbiRafeh: Well, what happens with sanctions? You know, it's a reprimand, it's a tap on the hand. It is part of the global policy toolkit to discipline other countries. It is, you know, like being grounded. It's a very similar kind of approach, but is that really the best way to understand, to learn, to instigate change? Not necessarily because what happens is, it impacts the most vulnerable of the populations. 

It's the poorest who suffer the most when sanctions are in place, you know. Economic sanctions are a major weapon, and the people who are already poor, vulnerable, marginalized women and girls, anyone from minority communities, refugees and the internally displaced.  Whoever happens to be in the country, within the borders that is already treated as less, they will suffer, will feel the impact of this, and will bear the brunt of this in a way that is much more serious. So when it comes to women, you know, I think that's really the question and that's really my concern.   

 Emma: I then spoke with Noha Alkamcha. She's a governance and development advisor at vital voices. A Washington DC based NGO working on women's empowerment 

 Alkamcha: There’s a historical context behind sanctions on Syria since 1979. and then it was renewed  after nine 11. And then once again, it was renewed during the Iraq war . The very major sanctions that was recently imposed. I think that was two years ago, was the Caesar sanctions just considered to be the most brutal  sanctions on civilians, particularly, but previously all of the sanctions they weren't as effective on the government or the regime per se, as much as it was necessarily  harming businesses, local, small businesses inside the country, but basically what the recent sanctions have been doing,  they supposedly target the Syrian government, personnel like freezing the Syrian central banks assets. And targeting repressive apparatus of the regime, as well as targeting certain sectors of those who are doing a lot of like big businesses with the Assad family, particularly. When the Caesar sanctions were imposed, there was a little list by the U S treasury that was published on who they are targeting particularly. And they were all individuals who are making profits off of the black market in Syria, due to the previous sanctions. Be those were affiliated with the Assad regime and the families and basically trying to dry up revenue sources that could exert powerful pressure on the regime and do serious harm. 

The way they are implemented is by tightening the economic grip on the country, forbidding all Syrian like receiving  all goods and services that could benefit the country. Syria. in and out of if itself is a resourceful country, there's a lot of natural, human resources that could basically contribute to the overall economy. But with the way the country is divided right now into  4, 5 different territories. It has been very hard to collectively use the resources for that for the sake of the citizens. Are these sanctions effective? No, they're not, unfortunately. There is slight damage that was done on those personnel, but it's very, very minimum. Most of these persons  they have bank accounts throughout the globe, different names, different forms, different shapes. For example, like sanctioning Muhammad Hamstra sister who living. In Dubai or in Qatar who, you know, they're not going to be affected by those sanctions. They have their money with them.   But unfortunately the economic crisis are affecting citizens on daily basis. In every meaning of the word, you know, there's no access to basic needs, no access to food. We are headed if not already hit famine, that is going to be worse than what is happening in Yemen. Right. But it's not necessarily affecting the regime particularly, or the personnel that were sanctioned previously,  you know, it had worse impact on Syrian citizens inside the country, living inside Damascus right now. I wouldn't say that sanctions have been effective at all. 

 AbiRafeh: What happens is when people lose lives, livelihoods, stability, social safety nets, anything on which they anchor, in any times of insecurity or crisis or disaster or whatever it is, I've seen it in now 25 different humanitarian emergencies. Unfortunately, women and girls bear the brunt because violence against women increases. Now intimate partner violence is the most common. It's the best hidden. It's the most likely, and that's true globally. And we see that everywhere. You know, we see that in a time of crisis, like even here in the U S after hurricane Katrina, for instance, a time of massive insecurity and displacement and people lost their homes and livelihoods and whatever, intimate partner violence increased. So will we see an increase in sexual violence? Absolutely. Trafficking and forced prostitution, for sure. Transactional sex, definitely. Intimate partner violence in the immediate term and in the long-term. And then also for girls specifically being taken out of school and denied opportunities, different forms of economic violence, for instance, that women will face being restricted in terms of, of access to money, even money, they make even money they have a right to make or being forced into making money in ways that are dangerous and risky and put themselves in the face of very serious harm. So girls are married a much younger, sometimes sold off, you know, these are all things that we see over and over in every single country. 

And we'll see it again now. In every country where sanctions are put in place  it punishes the people who are already victims, if you will. for me that is a measure of least resort. And it is a measure that from a humanitarian perspective, ends up being quite irresponsible.  You know, I keep saying for women and girls, the emergency is just beginning, even when we think that we are done and we can look away. Because the long-term impact on their health and wellbeing, on their access to economic opportunities, on their participation, in any kind of public or political life on their mobility, on their freedom, on their choice, on their voice and on violence against women, which is the most deleterious impact, are huge and continue for years, even after sanctions are   I mean, we are talking about a protracted crisis that has lasted far too long, you know, how long have we been dealing with the Syria crisis? And do we see any end in sight? And we certainly don't, we're talking about a mass movement of population. We are talking about extremely vulnerable people. We are talking about a world that has, for the most part, shrugged their shoulders and looked away. And we have too many other crises to manage. And now in the throws of the COVID pandemic as well, and we're not even in the post COVID era, still the idea that this continues and is compounded and we are not paying enough attention to what is going on, you know? Absolutely. We've forgotten how much women are already suffering and with implementation of sanctions that is going to get much worse. It will take a generation for that population to recover, to regain any sense of normalcy. 

 Emma: I then spoke with Maria Al Abdeh. She's the executive director of women now for development and NGO based in Paris. She talked about the financial consequences of the sanctions on the humanitarian sector and on organizations like hers.

 Al Abdeh: On daily life I think the main issue will be the bank over  compliance.  If you have the name Syria in any bank transaction, or you are a Syrian national, the transaction could be impacted. Could be deleted. Your bank account would be closed at sometimes. So it affects even Syrians outside the country. So let's start by this then if we want to speak about people inside the country. First  we can't deal with any bank inside Syria, and there is very few and all of them are controlled by the regime. So I'm not calling to deal with a bank inside Syria, but that means that all the money transferred to Syria would need to be done in cash. So, if you are talking about a huge humanitarian aid,  you are using systems could be not really trustful sometimes and very complicated.   Again,  we know that a lot of company are afraid of being seen as going against the section. So they decide to stop working with Syria. 

So we are more and more depending on Russia and China economy, for example which is very problematic. Any for us as feminist organization. We have another complication, which is the situation in Lebanon and Turkey. Some banks today refuse to transfer money to Lebanon and Turkey. To Lebanon because of all the transparency issue. From France, at least to send money to Lebanon and Turkey. So already we can't send money into inside Syria. We were doing this through neighboring countries. So now even neighboring country, we are not allowed to send the money there. So it's all caused a lot of problems and the difficulties. And when we come to the area, you need woman activism's our, our budget is very small in comparison with a big humanitarian organization. no one will really care. We are not a big client, we are not discussing millions. Sometimes the women initiative inside Syria they run for 2000, $2,000. Would  be enough for a certain amount of months for three months, for example, a year of activity, sometimes for small projects would be $10,000. So it's not an amount that is attractive for negotiations, to allow us to do things. The Syrian regime, like every dictator, he will put every  mistake or  everything that are going bad or even they will do bad things and then put it on the sanction. So if there is no bread, they will say it's just because of the sanctions. You know, so people cannot really understand what is the real impact of the sanction. It's difficult for me to say, what is rail  sanction? What is over compliance from company and bank and what if the regime using the sanction to convince people about how bad the sanctions are or to put his mistake on the other sanction. 

 Emma: Indeed, the issue for women goes beyond the sanctions in themselves, and it lies into social economic and political context of Syria. 

 Alkamcha: Especially in countries like like Syria, where previously we did not have civil society organizations that primarily defended the women's rights.  But I wouldn't tie that to the sanctions particularly, because there were already before the sanctions or the Caesar act have been imposed on Syria. We were seeing this kind of Socioeconomic dynamics play a role in women's lives like. those who have been, for example, detained by the Syrian government and then released, but they were victims of rape inside the detention center. The main link to what is happening to women or even survivors of other gender identities is really the war context and the traditional form of how gender inequality has been in the country since Hafez al Assad was in power, really.  For me as someone who's been working on Syria, knowing that each like each of the territories contexts, I don't think, as much as I hate sanctions. I don't think shedding the lights should be particularly on the sanctions as much as the black market and how the regime has been taking advantage of their sanctions to their own sake and profit. They turned Syria anti-narcotics state for the past, what we've started to hear about it like three or four years ago but I, I think it was way before when the uprising had started.  I don't believe that the sanctions have been effective enough. They have tightened a little bit the grip on the regime, but there regime is still functioning. They're doing whatever they want. They're still detaining people. There's still no release of prisoners.

 AbiRafeh: In those kinds of contexts where even on a good day, even when things are stable, there are hardly any systems and services and support. There isn't enough legislation to protect women. And even if there is it's incomplete, it's an unapplied. It's ignored. You know, people don't much care about those kinds of things. They dismiss them very easily, especially when it comes to something, for instance, like intimate partner violence that people view as within the purview of the family and it's private. And, you know, even when there are laws in place, they fail to adequately protect women. And then when they do, they often make things worse. So the risks end up being greater than the benefits for women and girls. So that's part of it. The other part is a lack of adequate places to report. And even if you can report, if there's no benefit to you in reporting, if you're not going to be protected, if you're not going to have access to services, if you're not going to have health care and psychosocial support, security and access to justice, which is always the weakest link, you know, what is the point of reporting? If you're not going to have some kind of support protection, a safe house, a shelter. And people tend to not want those things or not use those things. Even when they do exist, they can't access them. There's a lot of shame and blame around that. There's cultural stigma, women, risk being further ostracized. They risk losing their children. If they try and seek support or get protection or find a shelter. So there is a lot at stake. 

So very often in such situations, women are just forced to, to endure the violence and tolerate it. And even when they know that it is a crime. They have no choice because the cost of it far outweigh any perceived benefits of leaving or seeking shelter and safety or protecting themselves. So we really put them in a, in a situation where they are well and truly. So NGOs, that support that are working in communities, local women's organizations, all of these are usually the first point of entry or the first to be cut things like community health programs, all that stuff is cut. Anything that is on the so-called softer side, tends to generally be cut. When countries are dealing with the economic impact of sanctions, they're basically reducing their lives and their existence to what is necessary. And those things are never deemed to be necessary, even if they are, even if they are life saving, even if they are. They are not viewed as important. And so those are the first to be cut. And the last to be revived, which is dangerous because all of these local organizations are the ones set up by women. Many of whom were galvanized into action because there are survivors themselves. And that tends to be one entry point into doing this work. 

So these community groups, these grassroots groups, women's groups, frontline, feminist groups, they're the ones who are working miracles on scraps, you know, they already are underfunded and under-resourced and are staffed with hardly any at all. So you can imagine then when any source of funding that's already scammed is cut and they have to shut down completely. You know, they are a lifeline for women in their community. And there was absolutely nowhere to go. And these organizations take a very long time to come back. And even the, the bigger NGOs, even international NGOs, others, the working environment becomes that much harder and much more restricted. People are focused on basic needs and so the priorities shift, and it becomes even harder to get funding for things like prevention and response to violence against. 

 Emma: We then talked about the future and what lies ahead for Syrian woman. 

AbiRafeh: I think right now women are fighting for their survival, you know? So I, I think it's a question of existence day to day. And what is their responsibility say of the international community or humanitarian agencies to also provide support as a buffer? You know, it's from the humanitarian frontline, that's exhausting, continuing to rectify the damage it's created by international sanctions and other global forms of reprimand. So that becomes a great challenge, but really now it's a question of survival. How to keep women safe, how to keep them from having to resort to risky measures of survival. How to help them to access any economic opportunity, to generate an income in a way that is safe and secure for them, that will make them hopefully less likely to put themselves at risk, less likely to marry off their daughters, less likely to pull their daughters out of school. You know, these things will have generational impacts. So right now it's a question of that: getting money into the hands of the women who will use it to protect themselves and their daughters. And that's what we need. 

Emma: Noha Alkamcha has been working extensively with women, civil society in Syria, and she highlighted the role that women play into the social and political reconstruction of the country. 

 Alkamcha: Because essentially right now, the country is divided and may be divided for a very long time to come. However, What Syrian civil society and civil society try to do is to prepare for the next, for the future, to keep that collective vision and dialogue ongoing. There is a huge rise of Syrian civil society, post post 2011.  They constantly mobilize collective action. They try to identify how communications tools could support their movements in general. So women organizations, particularly they take initiatives and they do a lot of consultations with different various civil society actors outside of Syria or inside of Syria, even to constantly keep that in depth dialogue between such groups. It makes me very pleasantly surprised that it is an initiative that is constantly led by women, by women's organizations or feminist organizations in the country. There is a huge transformative impact that grassroots and feminist organizations have had in Syria. There are also indications that women led organizations they attain a lot of resources and they undergo a lot of training and capacity building on good governance and democracy concepts and that they integrate it within communities that they are serving, in preparation for that next phase that we, we don't know what might look like. Most likely will remain divided until we figure out what's going on with Russia and China as the new powers taking over the world.

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