The Syrian Coalition’s political committee decided to increase the representation of women within its ranks by no less than 15%, which will see the number of women in the General Assembly rise from 5 to 20.
During a meeting of the political committee, which started last Wednesday and will be in session until next Thursday, general secretary of the committee Riad al-Hassan said that the decision to increase women’s representation is a first step towards reaching the United Nations standards for the representation of women in official institutions, which is set at 30%.
Hassan pointed out that the political committee wanted to see much more effective representation of Syrian women in the political process, which is not the case now with the women’s advisory committees chosen by the UN envoy Staffan de Mistura as such committees do not represent the Syrian women participating in the revolution.
In accordance with the revolution’s guiding principles, selection of the new General Assembly female members will take place according to the level of activism and active participation in the revolution in order to ensure true representation of the communities to which candidates belong as well as to make sure that all Syrian governorates are represented.
Preference in the selection process will be given to activists, academics, prominent women in the areas of civil society, politics and human rights, as well as those advocating the rights of women. Preference will also be given to mothers, wives, and sisters of those killed by the Assad regime as well as to former detainees who are committed to the revolution and who meet all other criteria. (Source: Syrian Coalition)
