2019 was the year my country faced the worst of the conflict so far and international action dropped to an all-time low. It was a year of resounding silence from world leaders as Russian and Syrian regime bombs killed people as they slept, shopped, and studied. The year the US abandoned millions of civilians in the northeast, and the UN stood by as Turkey forced families from their homes under the guise of establishing a safe zone. It was the year that the world celebrated the end of ISIS, while Syrians who fought against the group’s ideology continued to stand up to other extremist forces.

To say that my feelings about 2019 are those of anger and disappointment is an understatement. Yet as I reflect on everything we did together, I feel immensely proud. Proud of our small team at The Syria Campaign and proud to be a Syrian woman. 

My pride is rooted in the amazing groups and individuals I get to support every day. The Syrian women who inspire me and countless others. The ones that make what I do the best job I could have ever dreamed of. 

Women like Waad al-Kateab, whose BAFTA-winning documentary For Sama celebrates her love for her daughter and follows the heroic doctors trying to save lives while under siege in Aleppo.

Women like Amal Hamo, the White Helmets volunteer who is not only risking her life to save others, but also challenging the men in her community who wouldn’t accept the idea of a woman working in search and rescue. 

Women like Fadwa Mahmoud, whose husband and son were arrested and disappeared by Syrian security forces eight years ago and haven’t been heard from since. Fadwa’s tragedy moved her to co-found the women-led movement Families for Freedom, which advocates for the release of all detainees in Syria. Fadwa never tires – I once asked her as we were knocking on the doors of decision-makers in Europe if she needed a break. She looked at me with determination and said, “no break until we get heard.”  

At The Syria Campaign, we are committed to elevating the voices and demands of Waad, Amal, Fadwa, and the numerous other groups and individuals who are working for a free and democratic future for Syria. In 2020, we will continue the fight. 

We need to keep the spotlight on stories of hope and elevate the demands for protection from human rights activists and humanitarians in northern Syria. We need to ensure that every detained and forcibly disappeared person in Syria is free, recognising justice and accountability for detainees as a central issue for any peace process. We need to challenge the United Nations’ conduct in Syria and fight against the forced return of refugees. We need to ensure the hundreds of thousands of vulnerable people get the medical care and equipment they need in the face of a global pandemic. And we need to resist any attempts to rehabilitate Assad’s regime, which continues to inflict unending abuses on civilians. 

Thank you so much to every supporter, donor, and partner who worked with us in 2019. Your solidarity means everything. 

With the deepest gratitude, 

Laila 

Executive Director, The Syria Campaign 

Hospitals in Idlib: the most dangerous place to be

In June we organised a joint letter signed by dozens of internationally-renowned medics, including Nobel laureates. The letter condemned the regime and Russia’s bombing of healthcare facilities across northwest Syria,  international humanitarian law. It was published as an exclusive by the British newspaper the Observer, which wrote an article about the letter and published it in full. It was further covered by a range of leading media organisations, including the New York Times, CBC, the Independent, and Al Jazeera. Signatories included Nobel Peace Prize Laureate Dr Denis Mukwege and Dr. Peter Agre, a physician who won the Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 2003. The letter played an important role in bringing more international attention to the impact of the regime and Russia’s targeting of healthcare facilities. 

Radio Fresh 

Every year, the One World Media Awards recognises the best journalism worldwide. One of its most prestigious prizes is the Special Award, which is given to “an independent media organisation based in a developing country using media to address social, cultural, political and economic issues”. We nominated Radio Fresh – an independent radio station in northwest Syria that speaks out against extremism, warns people of incoming airstrikes, and provides community programming. Radio Fresh won the Special Award, and we helped the current director of Radio Fresh, Abdulwareth Al Bakour, to attend the One World Media ceremony and collect the award.

In 2019, the Assad regime and Russia unleashed waves of attacks on northwest Syria, which devastated a region already reeling from eight years of conflict. The targeting of schools, hospitals, and medical centres left civilians with nowhere to hide. More than one million people fled their homes between February and November, and many of the displaced were forced to live outdoors without even tents for protection.

In the face of these attacks, White Helmets volunteers risked their lives every day to help their communities. They rescued 4,530 people, including 1,054 children, from under the rubble of bombed out buildings. Thirteen volunteers lost their lives trying to save others, while 50 others were injured as a result of double-tap strikes and direct targeting. 

At a time when many international donors were cutting their funding for projects in Syria, we worked to tell the world the stories of the White Helmets’ heroic work. We shared  their work online, countered disinformation attacks, and helped bring them face-to-face with key decision makers worldwide to generate more support for their work. Our support helped secure  stories about the White Helmets in NPR, Washington Post, The Guardian, and the BBC. We also supported White Helmets volunteers who had been resettled in the UK to tell their stories to the media.

In 2019, we supported five advocacy trips for the White Helmets. This included two visits to Washington, D.C., a trip to New York for the UN General Assembly, and travel to Brussels for a panel discussion around attacks on healthcare facilities at the EU’s Conference on the Future of Syria. Among the officials who met with the White Helmets were the US Ambassador to the UN Kelly Craft, the US Special Representative for Syria Ambassador James Jeffrey, the US Senate Minority Leader Senator Chuck Schumer, US Senators Robert Menendez and Amy Klobuchar, France’s Representative for Syria Ambassador François Sénémaud, and the UK’s Special Envoy to Syria Martin Longden. The White Helmets also talked about their life-saving work to international policymakers at the Halifax International Security Forum in Canada and the McCain Institute’s Sedona Forum in Arizona. 

Despite massive decreases in attention and funding for Syria, political and financial commitments to the White Helmets from international donors have remained strong. We are proud to have played a role in making sure the world recognises  their heroic work. By bringing their stories to the public and policymakers, we have been able to show how funding the White Helmets can help save lives in the most difficult circumstances. In 2019, our direct fundraising appeals for the White Helmets raised $730,000 for their work.

Thank you to The Syria Campaign. Your constant support to the White Helmets means a lot to us. It was my pleasure that I had the chance to tell you how grateful I am, especially for your support to the female volunteers. You also covered so many operations by our volunteers (men and women), whether they’re search and rescue missions, awareness campaigns or community services. Again, thank you for supporting our message and for standing by civilians in Syria.

Anas Al Dyab

On 21 July 2019, the Syrian regime and Russia bombed Khan Sheikhoun in northwest Syria, killing 23 civilians including photographer and White Helmets volunteer Anas al-Dyab. Anas died on duty documenting attacks against civilians in his hometown. His work was published and recognised by international media and his heroism was vital in exposing the targeting of civilians to the world. Despite being injured three times in his work, Anas refused to give up bearing witness to the relentless aerial attacks. 

Rest in peace, Anas al-Dyab (1997-2019).

Anas had the smiling face we needed most in the darkest days. There was no job he wouldn't do, a photographer, rescuer, firefighter, or even a clown to entertain the children. He loved his city Khan Sheikhoun so much and could never be far from it. Our hearts were broken when he was killed in duty in a double attack by Russian warplanes, it was unbelievable. A brother to us all, our White Helmets family will never be the same without him.

Arbitrary detention and enforced disappearance have been used throughout the Syrian conflict. The great majority of people are detained by the regime but armed opposition groups and extremist groups like ISIS are also guilty of arbitrary detention and enforced disappearance. Detainees are subject to appalling conditions, food is scarce, disease rife, and torture the norm. To date, around 100,000 people remain missing in Syria. Though various governments have issued statements of condemnation, little has been done to hold the perpetrators to account or to pressure Assad to release detainees. The families whose loved ones have been tortured and killed in regime prisons or who are still missing are relentless in their calls for action. We stand with them and elevate their demands.  

We also arranged for the Families for Freedom’s iconic red bus to go to Brussels for a public demonstration. With the bus stationed outside the EU’s offices, we live-streamed speeches from the assembled detention groups while attendees held photos of the missing. Visitors included representatives of governments and civil society groups from the conference itself. The visual nature of the event meant that it achieved widespread media coverage in the international press, including Al Araby, the National, and L’Orient le Jour. We also helped secure an opinion piece by Ahmad Helmi of Ta’afi in the German outlet, Taggesspiegel.  

In late 2013, four brave Syrian activists, Samira al-Khalil, Razan Zaitouneh, Wael Hammadeh, and Nazem Hammadi were snatched from their place of work in the city of Douma, eastern Ghouta. They have not been seen since. The Douma Four, as they are now known, are prominent human rights defenders who were active in the Syrian revolution of 2011. Their commitment to democracy, equality, and justice made them an inspiration to so many Syrians who share that struggle.

The available clues about their disappearance strongly suggest the culpability of Jaysh al-Islam, which was the de facto authority in Douma at the time. After being displaced from Ghouta in 2018, many Jaysh al-Islam members live or travel regularly and freely in Turkey. Around the sixth anniversary of the Douma Four’s abduction, we worked with Samira al-Khalil’s husband, the Syrian writer and former political prisoner Yassin al-Haj Saleh to launch a campaign urging the United Nations and Turkey to take concrete steps to uncover the fate of the four abductees and give answers to their loved ones. Our petition received thousands of signatures. Although the Douma Four remain missing, these actions are vital ways of showing that the world is still paying attention and demands justice for them.

Our advocacy on this issue was in partnership with groups based in the region who face real restrictions on their ability to speak out on this issue. The ties between the Lebanese government and the Syrian regime means that refugees fear deportations and civil society groups fear crackdowns. In these circumstances, The Syria Campaign mobilised to interview and broadcast the views and experiences of Syrian refugees in Lebanon. We launched a social media campaign based on the stories of Syrian women refugees and ran a training on human rights campaigning.

Around the world, media freedoms are under attack. Nowhere is this more evident than in Syria where journalists and media activists have been arrested, tortured, and killed. In February, we hosted a screening of A Private War in London, about the life of journalist Marie Colvin who was targeted and killed by the Syrian army while covering the siege of Baba Amr in Homs in 2012. Our film screening featured a talk by the Oscar-nominated Syrian director Waad Al Kateab, A Private War’s director Matthew Heineman, and Paul Conroy, the photographer who was with Marie Colvin when she was killed. In March, we continued our work to promote media freedom, marking International Women’s Day by organising a panel event on Syrian women journalists with Amnesty International in London. The event was attended by several parliamentarians, including the minister for the Middle East, and the panel included Zeina Erhaim and Kholoud Helmi who spoke of their work as journalists in Syria. Also on the panel was the documentarian Sara Afshar, who made the film Syria’s Disappeared. 

In our regular updates from Syria, we focused on elevating the heroic work of reporters such as Merna al-Hasan and Hiba Barakat, and we have helped secure coverage for their work in international outlets. 

Raed Fares’ values and work are critical to the Syrian people, who long to live in a free country. His words are also particularly important to younger generations who have only known war, violence, and extremism. Fares’ work is equally inspiring for anyone struggling under a regime that denies basic human rights and free expression. For The Syria Campaign, the loss of Raed Fares in 2018 was devastating. But his mission and values will continue to be something we fight for every day. Fares’s achievements need to be highlighted and shared with the world to inspire those who are involved in the ongoing struggle to advance democracy and fundamental freedoms. 

Along with The Human Rights Foundation and Space Norway, The Syria Campaign curated an experiential exhibition about Raed Fares work at the Oslo Freedom Forum. The exhibition served as a memorial to the importance of independent reporting in closed societies like Syria, and the role independent media can play in countering extremist narratives. Additionally, visitors learned how Fares succeeded in building the foundations of a strong civil society and how he managed to inspire and draw the world’s attention to Syria.

Our thanks go first to our Syrian partners; the men and women defending the rights and lives of all Syrians both inside and outside the country. You inspire us daily with your courage and defiance, and we are proud to stand with you as you continue to push for a better future for Syria and freedom and justice for all.

We also thank our thousands of dedicated supporters who continue to follow our calls to action and tirelessly call, email, and campaign for change in Syria. Your dedication inspires us constantly and motivates us to continue our work.

We thank our board for their expertise and guidance, and we thank the individuals and organisations who gave generously to us and helped us fund our work. Without you, we couldn’t do what we do, and we are so grateful for your support.