YouSaid · the spoken record

Noura Ghazi Safadi

lines on the record
12
first
2020-06-16
most recent
2020-06-16
sittings or episodes
1
sources
un-security-council

Every line below is reproduced as it was said and linked to the record it came from. Nothing here is summarised or generated. Directory · Search · Corrections

  1. “Forgive me, but I cannot end without saying what my heart is urging me to mention, which is the peaceful protests in Suwayda, southern Syria, and the arrest by the Syrian authorities during yesterday’s protest of 10 activists who belong to a minority that the regime claims to protect; it cannot accuse them of being terrorists, and it knows the reason. Finally, I hope that I have succeeded in communicating my message to the world — a message for which I will always be ready to pay the highest price. I thank members for taking the time to hear me out, and my thanks again to the French presidency of the Security Council for inviting me. May we all have a free and fair world.”

    2020-06-16 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/2020/551 (2020) · source

  2. “Yes, I belong to a State — the State that the Syrian regime violates through unfair practices towards all of its legislative, judicial and executive authorities and that is defined by the Constitution as the people, the land and the authority. How can I be against my State? I believe that because of my love for the State, I contend with the regime that robbed the authorities of their independence and subjected the people and the land to it. We are a people who belong to our State, who protect it and who defend it against a security and political system that robs the country every day.”

    2020-06-16 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/2020/551 (2020) · source

  3. “Those women demand that the fate of their loved ones be revealed where a death certificate, as a document containing a date and a fictitious cause of death, is not sufficient for them. I say to all that the whole world is united in its fear of the coronavirus disease. At the very least, why do we not unite around the will to take the decision to protect detainees in Syrian prisons from this virus, which places them at double risk? Our demands are simple and clear to the world. We Syrians want the application of laws and accountability for those who violate them and call us traitors because of our demands. Should we have to submit to injustice and tyranny in order not to be called traitors? I am not a traitor and I am not submissive. I belong to Syria — the land, the people and the State, like other Syrians.”

    2020-06-16 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/2020/551 (2020) · source

  4. “We are the protectors of the Constitution. We do not have a military force; our weapon is the law, and our opponent violates the law. Is it not obvious to the world who violate laws in Syria? Imagine the death of a loved one; imagine how to prepare for a grand funeral for his farewell, wearing the most beautiful clothes, conducting a condolence ceremony and putting the most beautiful flowers on his grave. We are deprived of this in Syria. We want graves for our loved ones; we want to live the mourning process, as every human being on this Earth is entitled to, and we want to close our open wounds. I hope to convey here everything that I have done for the issues of the detainees and the disappeared. I bring messages to the Council from hundreds of women whom I represent.”

    2020-06-16 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/2020/551 (2020) · source

  5. “We want a radical, comprehensive and fair solution for all the detainees and disappeared in Syria, not only for some of them. Today I am talking about violations of laws by the Syrian regime, not only international laws but also Syrian ones, foremost among them the current Syrian Constitution. I defend the Syrian law itself against all those who violate it, or break it, and despise it. Are not the exceptional courts, particularly the military field court and the terrorism court, a violation of the principles of a fair trial stipulated in Syrian and international law? Are not summary executions a flagrant violation of human and prisoners’ rights? Is not torture really a crime in all laws and under all circumstances? There are daily examples of the violation of the Syrian Constitution by those who promote that they are its guardians.”

    2020-06-16 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/2020/551 (2020) · source

  6. “Possibly they did not participate in any act against the authorities but were arrested simply because they belonged to regions that enraged these authorities or as hostages owing to the activism of relatives opposed to the regime. Does anyone here believe that there is a political system that hates and get angry at a certain region? I kindly ask Council members to review the development indicators in Syria before 2011. Allow me to express my rejection, and that of those I represent, of all prisoner- exchange deals that take place between the fighting parties, none of which we belong to. Our detainees are not prisoners of war; they are arbitrarily detained persons, and the central Government uses them as leverage and to make gains. For us, prisoner- exchange deals are nothing but blackmail.”

    2020-06-16 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/2020/551 (2020) · source

  7. “Violence has led to more violence throughout Syria until we have now become unable to count the number of our victims and the names of our opponents who violate our rights every day. Detention, enforced disappearance and torture are being committed by many parties, but the world views the conflict in Syria as a war between a dictatorial regime and extremist factions, turning a blind eye to our existence as non-violent activists who reject everyone who commits violence and injustice by means of our non-violent resistance. There are thousands of innocent women and children in detention centres, hundreds of mothers arrested with their children and children born inside detention centres. All those arrested were accused of being terrorists even though they are faultless except for the fact that they rejected injustice.”

    2020-06-16 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/2020/551 (2020) · source

  8. “Rather, we gathered hundreds of such families despite everyone who wanted to separate us. Pain, suffering and purpose unite us. We want our loved ones. We want justice, and beginning to know the truth will lead us to it. Perhaps the most prominent reason that causes our suffering to continue is the absence of the international political will to stop it. According to many international organizations, there have been tens of thousands of detainees, forcibly disappeared and missing persons in Syria since the outbreak of the protests started in March 2011. One of our priority demands in those protests was to release the detainees, but the result was that we were met with killings and arrests.”

    2020-06-16 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/2020/551 (2020) · source

  9. “This has left women on their own, struggling with all the hardships of life and feelings of loss alone, taking care of their families alone and fighting for this country and to know the truth about the absence of their loved ones alone. We Syrian women struggle to know the fate of our loved ones and to demand justice for them, for us and for our country. We have established many family associations, and I am proud to be a founding member of one of them — the Families for Freedom movement. I am also proud that, together with my team in the NoPhotoZone organization, which I direct, I have succeeded in not discriminating against the families of detainees and the forcibly disappeared on any political basis or on the basis of the party that arrested or hid their loved ones.”

    2020-06-16 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/2020/551 (2020) · source

  10. “Today I am trying to summarize in my briefing the story of a homeland and to address in my words an ethical and humanitarian issue that is certainly historical. Right here and now, I am talking about the suffering of tens of thousands of families of missing, forcibly disappeared and detained persons, in particular women, in this geographical area closest to my heart, namely, Syria. I specify women for many reasons, the most important of which probably is that they are the direct victims of these flagrant violations of human rights with the enforced disappearance of their male loved ones in the most horrific ways. Of course, this does not make me exclude women themselves as detainees, forcibly disappeared or missing. But, as members know, most of those who have disappeared or been arrested are men.”

    2020-06-16 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/2020/551 (2020) · source

  11. “Or will I be used as a tool to highlight the human face of the international community, which, unfortunately, has always failed to advocate just humanitarian issues? During my childhood and adolescence I was brought up on the stories of the struggle of peoples around the globe — in Africa, Latin America and the Arab world — on behalf of issues of enforced disappearance and arbitrary detention that resulted from authoritarian and racist practices. I am not here to talk about myself or my suffering as a daughter and as a wife. I do not have any personal attitude towards anyone or any party despite all my suffering and the heavy price I have paid in my personal and professional life, because hatred has no place in human rights work. This is what our opponents do not understand.”

    2020-06-16 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/2020/551 (2020) · source

  12. “I was very confused when the French presidency of the Security Council kindly invited me to attend this meeting because how, in 10 minutes, can I describe the suffering of a people and a country that has continued for almost 10 years now? I am definitely very proud to address the Security Council. My life is now passing in front of me like a short film, showing all the deprivation and loss I have suffered as a result of my resistance to tyranny and injustice. But, at the same time, I feel that I am facing a difficult test before the eyes of the world. Will my presence really constitute a contribution to finding a solution to the issue of detainees and the forcibly disappeared in Syria?”

    2020-06-16 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/2020/551 (2020) · source