the Swiss human rights NGO UN Watch hosted a side event at the Palais de Nations in Geneva addressing the escalating crisis faced by religious and ethnic minorities in Syria. The event, titled “Minority Rights in the Syrian Arab Republic,” brought together a distinguished panel of speakers from Alawite, Christian, Druze, Kurdish, and other minority communities to provide firsthand accounts and expert analysis on the recent wave of targeted violence affecting these vulnerable populations.
The panel discussion featured prominent voices, including Syrian-born German peace entrepreneur and activist Rawan Osman; Dr. Mouna Ghanem, spokeswoman of the Supreme Alawite Council and founder of the Women Forum for Peace; Sheruan Hassan, diplomatic advisor to the Autonomous Administration of North and East Syria; Wael Mughrabi, a Druze leader who has served as Head of the Ein Qiniyye Local Council in the Golan since 2018; and Mimi Hassan, the first Yazidi woman appointed to a religious role. This critical gathering at the U.N. on the opening day of the 60th session of its Human Rights Council in Geneva aimed to shed light on the urgent human rights situation facing Syria’s minority communities.
Sign our petition to reject terrorist leader al-Julani and protect Syria’s minorities: https://actionnetwork.org/petitions/reject-terrorist-leader-al-julani-protect-syrias-minorities/
Rawan Osman’s Full Remarks:
“Excellencies, distinguished guests, friends,
I am here today as a Syrian activist, the daughter of a Sunni father from Damascus. But more than that, I am here as a witness - and as a voice for communities that are being silenced, besieged, and slaughtered.
I want to begin with a truth that many prefer to ignore: the Syrian people have been betrayed twice. First, by Assad, who destroyed his own nation, murdering hundreds of thousands and displacing millions. And second, by jihadists, who rose in his shadow, promising liberation but delivering the same cruelty, only with a different flag.
It was the massacre of October 7 that made me step forward publicly. When Hamas filmed its atrocities and spread them like trophies, I feared this would become the new standard - to normalize the killing, humiliating, raping, and kidnapping of civilians. And that fear was not misplaced. Because in Syria, we have seen the same scenes: jihadists filming themselves tormenting Kurds, Alawites, Christians, and now, most recently, the Druze of Sweida.
Sweida is under siege. Its people are cut off, its young abducted, its families starved into submission. And the world, once again, looks away.
What do you expect Syrians to do?
The unarmed were killed. The armed were killed. Those who could flee, fled - millions of them. And those who remain, the most vulnerable, are now begging you for help.
Will the international community tell them, “We have had enough of your suffering”? Or will you look the other way, shake hands with extremists seeking legitimacy, and pretend that Syria is no longer your problem?
Some will say, “At least Assad was better than Al-Julani.” But let me remind you: it is because of Assad that men like Al-Julani exist. It is Assad’s prisons, his torture chambers, his massacres that bred a generation of broken men ready to be recruited by jihadists. Assad and the extremists are not opposites. They are partners in a cycle of despair.
And while Assad committed these crimes, the world failed to stop him. He even found recognition, even sympathy, in some capitals. The Syrians, meanwhile, were left with no choice but to flee or to fight.
And I ask you: will you let them down again?
Because when the world abandoned us before, the consequences did not stay inside Syria. We all remember the refugee crisis. We all remember the shockwaves that shook Europe, the Middle East, and beyond. To ignore Syria again is to invite those consequences to repeat themselves.
There is another danger we must confront. Ahmad Ash-Sharaa - Al-Julani - is no longer just a warlord. He is building a political project. He has a base of supporters. And his project is explicitly Islamist. It offers no future for Syria’s minorities, no protection for non-Muslims, no space for diversity.
That is why Syrians - Druze, Alawite, Kurd, Christian, and Sunni - have begun to seek compromise. They are asking for a decentralized system, a structure that can preserve lives and prevent another cycle of bloodshed.
You can deny Syrians this right only if you are able to guarantee their safety, only if you can present a better alternative. Otherwise, denying it is condemning them to slaughter.
Friends, the Syrian people were abandoned once. Will you abandon them again?
Will you allow jihadists to set the red lines, or will you, as representatives of humanity, finally set them?
Syria is a ticking bomb. If ignored again, it will not remain contained. But if you act now - if you save Sweida, if you protect Syria’s diversity, if you stand with those who demand a future beyond dictatorship and extremism - then you can restore faith, not only in Syria, but in international justice itself.
We Syrians are not asking for miracles. We are asking for the simplest of rights: the right to live.
Thank you.”
Sheruan Hassan’s Full Remarks:
“Excellencies, Distinguished Delegates,
I address you today at this important international forum as Syria stands at a critical juncture in its history. Over the past decades, our country has witnessed a steady erosion of state legitimacy and the collapse of its institutions-culminating in the uprising of 2011 and the devastating war that followed. At the core of this failure lies the model of the centralized nation-state, which ignored Syria’s diversity, excluded its components, and transformed the state into an instrument of authoritarianism rather than a framework embracing all its people. Among the most affected were the Kurdish communities, who for decades were denied their national and cultural rights and subjected to systematic marginalization and discrimination.
The experience of recent years has shown that terrorism and violence have spared no one. In 2014, the city of Kobani faced a brutal assault by ISIS, while the Yazidi people of Sinjar endured a tragedy that remains a wound in the conscience of humanity. These events demonstrated that cooperation among Syria’s diverse communities is the only path to survival in the face of extremism and attempted annihilation.
Today, with power in Damascus having fallen into the hands of groups with a radical jihadist orientation, we face a new wave of atrocities: massacres in the coastal region, violence in Sweida, and the bombing of places of worship, including the tragic attack on St. Elias Church in Damascus. These crimes prove that the threat does not target a single community-it endangers all Syrians: Kurds, Yazidis, Christians, Alawites, and Druze alike. And its consequences extend well beyond our borders, posing direct risks to regional stability and to Europe itself.
Senior military positions are now controlled by foreign commanders implicated in crimes against humanity. Educational institutions have been politicized and turned into instruments of indoctrination, while constitutional declarations have been stripped of any democratic content. What we see today is not governance but extremist rule that exploits religion to justify repression and systematic violations.
Excellencies,
The consequences are catastrophic: massacres, displacement, denial of rights, and millions of refugees unable to return home. Leaving Syria in the grip of these forces will not only destroy what remains of our society, it will turn the country into a global hub of terrorism-with Europe as a direct target.
We therefore affirm, with clarity, that the realistic path forward lies in adopting a democratic, decentralized/federal system of governance that respects diversity. This is not merely a political arrangement; it is a practical guarantee for safeguarding cultural, religious, and linguistic rights, ensuring fair participation for all components in shaping the country’s future, and preventing the return of authoritarianism or the emergence of a new “Afghanistan” on Europe’s doorstep.
We look to the support of European states-our partners in the international community-to help us build a new Syria based on democracy, decentralization, and the rule of law. We appeal to you to stand with us in preventing the recurrence of past atrocities, and in advancing a political path that secures peace, dignity, and stability for our people, while contributing to regional and international security.
Thank you.”
Wael Mughrabi’s Full Remarks:
“History does not repeat itself, but it offers valuable lessons.
The issue of minorities has been instrumental not only in shaping contemporary Europe but also in achieving peace, prosperity, and stability. Prior to the commencement of World War I, Europe was characterized by a significant presence of minority groups, with Imperial Germany, Austria-Hungary, and Czarist Russia collectively administering approximately 60 million minority individuals. This figure was subsequently reduced to 25 million because of political agreements such as the Treaty of Versailles and the Treaty of St. Germain. During World War II, 55 ethnic groups underwent significant transformation due to territorial exchanges. In the post-war period, Europe no longer serves as the primary locus of minority issues as it once did; this role has been assumed by the predominantly Muslim Middle East. It was estimated in 1947 that one in every four individuals in the Arab countries belonged to a minority group.
The challenges encountered by minority groups within Islamic societies can be traced to the foundational principles of Islamic governance. This governance is predicated on divine authority, with Muslims acting as representatives of God. In contrast, non-Muslims, such as Jews and Christians, are frequently regarded as second-class citizens, subject to discrimination and marginalization while other nonbelievers may face severe consequences, including the threat of death.
Following World War II, Moslem Arab countries were unsuccessful in establishing modern states that ensured equal citizenship and transcended discrimination against minority groups. By February 1960, only between 14,000 and 51,000 of the original 291,000 Jews who resided in these Arab states in 1948 remained. In May 1941, American sources reported a rise in fanaticism throughout Syria, accompanied by serious anti-Christian incidents. By November 1945, 20,000 Christians had fled to Lebanon. Tensions emerged over Article 3 of the new Syrian constitution, which declared ‘Islam is the religion of the Syrian State’. Christian leaders opposed this clause, arguing it would subject them to Islamic personal code law. The Patriarch in Damascus, Alexdros Tahar, criticized the notion of Islam as the state religion of Syria, stating: ‘Syria belonged to the Christians before it belonged to the Moslems. This time we are not going to embrace Islam to be safe in Syria. Either we will leave Syria to the Moslems and go into exile, or else Syria must belong to all Syrians alike.’
Christians went into exile and history repeats itself with Druze and Alawites.
Following the seizure of power in Damascus on December 8, 2024, Hay’at Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) commenced a series of human rights violations against the Alawite community, an indigenous group residing in Syria since the 11th century. Between March 7 and 11, 2025, brutal massacres targeting the Alawite sect were perpetrated by both Syrian and foreign factions, resulting in the deaths of thousands of civilians. While the estimated death toll is approximately 3,000, a Reuters report dated June 30, 2025, suggests the number is 1,500. This discrepancy may be attributed to undiscovered mass graves. Human rights reports indicate that over 64 women, aged 11 to 55, have been abducted, with 18 being minors. Some of these women were trafficked for sexual exploitation, while others were released following ransom payments. Killing, abduction, and forced displacement persist as ongoing realities.
With radical Islam now dominating Syria and seeking to eradicate all minorities within the country, what options do we have? There is no nation to which our people can turn, no homeland ready and willing to welcome them. They are compelled to remain where they are, if they survive, becoming equally disheartened, frustrated, and resentful like millions of Muslim Kurds who are increasingly losing hope for the realization of their aspirations for unification and autonomy. The cycle of ethnic, religious, social, cultural or linguistic violent conflict will continue to repeat itself, and no peace or stability could be achieved in the Middle East.
At this pivotal moment in history, we must address the root causes of conflict: economic despair, social injustice, and political oppression. We need to make creative efforts that match the severity of the threats we face and find the right political system to govern Syria.
When historical lessons are not properly grasped, history tends to repeat itself. This was evident in Europe with the resurgence of minority conflicts, particularly when the Ukrainian government’s mishandling of minority issues in 2014, including its failed attempt to repeal language rights legislation, provided Russia with an opportunity to claim that the Russian minority needed protection.”
