Empowering Syrian women

Within the framework of the EU’s support for the Women, Peace and Security agenda, and in line with the EU’s commitment to advance the role of women in peace processes, the EU organised on 8-9 November 2020 a two-day seminar in Gaziantep (Turkey) on ‘Empowering Syrian Women’. 

The seminar brought together 30 prominent female representatives of the Syrian political opposition and leaders from local councils and civil society from outside and inside Syria. The objective of the seminar was to discuss women’s empowerment in Syria, including ways to increase women’s participation in the political process and in the economic and social sphere while encouraging dialogue between actors involved in the peace negotiations and civil society on the ground.  

A set of recommendations on empowering Syrian women was elaborated by the group. The recommendations lay out a set of concrete and measurable steps to enhance women's political empowerment and participation in the peace process, including in the current context and post conflict phase, as well as in the opposition bodies and at local level. 

These recommendations were shared in a closing session with representatives of EU Member States and implementing partners as well as the leadership of the political opposition’ institutions including the Syrian Negotiation Commission (SNC), the opposition negotiation party in the Intra-Syrian talks in Geneva under the UN auspices. SNC President and Chief Negotiator in Geneva, Nasr Hariri, attended the closing session and thanked the EU for its efforts in empowering Syrian women, expressing full support for the recommendations and commitment of the SNC to implement them and to increase women's participation.