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Turmoil, Danger Test Syrian MSF Staff in Azaz
Syrian medical staff with Doctors Without Borders (MSF) discuss what it’s like working at Al Salamah hospital in the Syrian town of Azaz on the Turkish border.
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Exploring violations of human rights and international law in Syria.
Follow via RSSSyrian medical staff with Doctors Without Borders (MSF) discuss what it’s like working at Al Salamah hospital in the Syrian town of Azaz on the Turkish border.
Over the past two years, bombs and shelling have made it too dangerous for students to attend official schools in Aleppo city, so a group of volunteer teachers decided to open their own.
Natasha Hall of the Center for Civilians in Conflict discusses enhanced protection mechanisms and ways to put survival in Syria back in the hands of civilians themselves.
Mercy Corps is one of the only international humanitarian groups providing food aid to opposition-held areas of Aleppo city. Its humanitarian director for Syria, Ashley Proud, explains how it delivers aid and how it is preparing for an impending siege of Aleppo city.
It’s been more than a month since some 850 political detainees in Hama’s Central Prison revolted, taking guards hostage and overrunning part of the facility. Negotiations are aiming at highlighting judicial malpractice and the release of about half of the prisoners.
The Norwegian Refugee Council’s Jan Egeland explains that without consistent education, Syrian refugee children risk becoming part of the lost generations – a phrase they have come to loathe.
Mardean Isaac Writer
Unless concrete measures are taken to support the steadily shrinking Assyrian community in Hassakeh province, one of the region’s most ancient communities may soon be gone, writes Syrian commentator Mardean Isaac.
With hundreds of news sources and social media feeds about Syria – some of which publish rumor, hearsay or even fake stories – we speak with Dirar Khattab, the managing editor of the Syrian fact-checking website Takkad, on what they are doing to combat this problem.
The only way to reinstate peace and stability in Syria is to document ongoing crimes in the hopes that those responsible will some day be brought to justice, according to a doctor working with Physicians for Human Rights along the Turkish border.
Overnight airstrikes reportedly carried out by the Russian air force hit civilian targets in rebel-held Idlib city in northwestern Syria, killing more than 60 civilians and putting two hospitals out of service.
Amid the atrocities in Syria, participants at the World Humanitarian Summit vowed to strengthen the so-called rules of war, but without major reforms to the current system, these pledges will never reach the battlefield.
After the United Nations lavishly highlighted its achievements during the World Humanitarian Summit, Syrian NGOs have expressed their dismay that the gathering failed to help develop sustainable solutions to the crisis.
After Médecins Sans Frontières’ withdrawal from the World Humanitarian Summit, its U.S. executive director, Jason Cone, warns against conferences that blur the line between state and NGO responsibilities and calls for better humanitarian responses on the ground.
Christine Mahoney Director, Social Entrepreneurship Department of the University of Virginia
Professor Christine Mahoney, author of “Failure and Hope: Fighting for the Rights of the Forcibly Displaced,” argues from the World Humanitarian Summit that traditional political advocacy is of limited value in improving the lives of refugees and IDPs.
As Istanbul gears up to host the inaugural World Humanitarian Summit, Turkish support for Syrians – including its policy of granting access to education to Syrian children officially registered as refugees – will be in the spotlight.
This week’s WHS promises wide-ranging consultations and a break with convention in order to find solutions fast, but with some high-profile absences – from MSF to Syria and the Saudis – just effective how can it be?
Jeff Crisp Formerly Head of Policy Development and Evaluation, UNHCR
Jeff Crisp of the Oxford Refugee Studies Center examines the Humanitarian Summit’s key premises – a ‘grand bargain’ to bridge the gap between need and funding, and a ‘global compact’ to revive the belief that refugees are an international responsibility.
From underground hospitals to improvised compost to natural power sources, people in Syria’s war-torn neighborhoods have shown a willful and often imaginative resolve to survive against the odds.
Solon Ardittis Director, Eurasylum
Adopting a viable “strategic agenda” on managing migration flows at the upcoming World Humanitarian Summit in Istanbul could serve as a dry run for the U.N. meeting on refugees in September, says Solon Ardittis, director of Eurasylum.
Paul Currion Consultant
Any success at the World Humanitarian Summit will require participants to admit that international refugee law is in crisis and to embark on reform of current humanitarian systems, says humanitarian operations expert Paul Currion.
In Syria and its neighboring countries, an underground network of organ traders has sprung up, preying on the thousands affected by the five-year-long war and offering them desperately needed cash for nonessential organs.
Victims, witnesses and locals interviewed by Human Rights Watch say that in spring 2016, Turkish border guards used violence against Syrian asylum seekers and smugglers, killing five people, including a child, and seriously injuring 14 others.
Sarine Karajerjian Admin and Finance Manager, Issam Fares Institute for Public Policy and International Affairs
Known as “Little Armenia,” Bourj Hammoud has been a refuge for displaced people since Armenians fled Ottoman massacres nearly a century ago. Sarine Karajerjian of the Issam Fares Institute explains why residents are now making room for refugees fleeing war in Syria.
Five years of near-continuous violence have pushed hundreds of thousands of people to flee Syria’s largest city, but not all of Aleppo’s residents have left. As Syria’s war drags on into its sixth year, we meet some of the residents who have chosen to remain.
Conor Kenny Physician, Médecins Sans Frontières
Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) doctor Conor Kenny writes from Idomeni, Greece, where more than 10,000 refugees are trapped at the border with Macedonia.
Twitter users have condemned President Obama’s failure to safeguard civilians in Aleppo after the US leader ruled out a plan to create “safe zones” in the divided city as government airstrikes and fighting with rebels rage on.
Demonstrations in support of civilians beaing heavy shelled by the government in the rebel-held neighborhoods of Aleppo spread to 27 cities across the globe over the weekend.
Local and international NGOs are calling for an immediate end to the escalation in fighting in Syria’s divided northern city, where violence has risen to levels not seen in months and civilian centers like hospitals, mosques and bakeries have been targeted.
Government airstrikes on the opposition-held neighborhoods of Aleppo have targeted hospitals, mosques, bakeries and rescue workers over the past week, as violence in the city escalates to levels not seen in months.
Hundreds of unexploded cluster bombs dropped by Syrian government forces in and around Eastern Ghouta since 2012 pose a deadly threat to people in the besieged rebel-held area of northern Damascus.
After launching an awareness campaign highlighting deteriorating health conditions in Daraya, a Damascus suburb under government siege for more than three years, a group of women hope their efforts will help prevent yet another humanitarian disaster.
Journalist Rahaf Haboub grew up in Daraya, a Damascus suburb besieged by pro-government forces for more than three years. She and her family fled in fall 2012 after the government targeted the area with airstrikes and barrel bombs – these are her recollections of those harrowing times.
Members of an underground activist network named “Deir Ezzor is Being Slaughtered Silently” have scoured government and ISIS-controlled territories across the oil-rich province and discovered 36 mass graves – allegedly the grisly work of extremist militants and government forces.
Hala Droubi Syrian Reporter
While many journalists travel to the Turkish border to hear the stories of Syrian refugees, journalist Hala Droubi and the Karam Foundation are doing something refreshingly different. They have created a program that provides young Syrians with the knowledge and skills to tell their own story.
Following the plan by the EU and Turkey to turn back refugees, many are looking for alternative ways to reach Europe. Syria Deeply explores a new path to the continent that starts on the other side of the Atlantic – in South America.
The series #5YearsWeFled is a collection of interviews with Syrian lawyer Ayman Jalwan. It highlights the difficult choice that Syrians face – between dying in a war zone that the country has become after five years or conflict, or fleeing the land they love with no hope of imminent return.
Violence, poverty and displacement have affected millions of Syrian children, sometimes forcing them to become the sole providers for their households. In the besieged Damascus suburb of Eastern Ghouta, many are forgoing their education and turning to the streets to help support their families.
The Syrian Female Journalists’ Network is a non-profit initiative that trains Syrian female journalists and promotes their role in the region’s media. Syria Deeply spoke to co-founder Milia Eidmouni about the network’s work and its plans for women working in Syria’s media.
Khairunissa Dhala Researcher, Amnesty International
The world must stop failing Syria’s refugees, writes Amnesty International’s head researcher on refugee and migrant rights in the lead up to the United Nations Refugee Agency’s March 30 conference centered on sharing responsibility for the refugee crisis globally.
As the war in Syria enters its sixth year, the Syrian Accountability Project (SAP) at Syracuse University College of Law is set to release a groundbreaking report on Thursday about rape throughout the conflict. Syria Deeply will provide a live stream of the presentation and discussion.
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