Speech text:
Thank you, Madam Chair.
Cairo Center for Human Rights Studies and Syrians for Truth and Justice emphasize the importance of constitutional recognition of any minority as a first and essential step towards the representation of minorities in public life, education, means of communication, media, and other fields.
Equal rights for any minority in Syria cannot be guaranteed without the government recognizing this country as diverse. Additionally, this diversity must be established in the constitution and be protected legally, which is currently lacking in Syria.
While many countries recognize the languages of all their inhabitants as official languages, as in the case of the country we are currently speaking from, successive governments in Syria, since the establishment of the Syrian state, have refused to consider the Kurdish, Syriac, Turkmen, and Aramaic languages as official languages, whether at the level of regions of these minorities or nationwide.
Instead of recognizing its Kurdish language and culture, successive Syrian governments, especially those led by the Arab Socialist al-Baath Party, practiced systematic Arabization policies against the Kurds, and the names of their villages, and prevented them from practicing their culture, speaking in their mother tongue, and giving their children Kurdish names.
Therefore, from this platform, we demand the Syrian government recognize the diversity of this country, enshrine it constitutionally, and protect it legally. We also call on the United Nations and the Office of the Special Envoy for Syria to restructure the current Constitutional Committee and make it inclusive and ensure that the practices of the al-Baath Party are not repeated. We also call on the United Nations to guarantee a comprehensive political process capable of accommodating everyone without discrimination or exclusion, to build a Syria that is inclusive of all.
Thank you, Madam Chair.
Watch the full Oral Intervention here.