Guiding engagement on business and human rights in Syria: The launch of a toolbox for human rights defenders
The Syrian conflict saw countless international crimes and human rights abuses, including the use of chemical weapons, torture, forced displacement, indiscriminate and targeted attacks on civilians, and abuse of property rights. Businesses operating in Syria may become involved and be considered complicit in these abuses. Even when business activity is legitimate, the proceeds of a business may contribute to human rights abuses.
The Syrian Legal Development Programme has recently launched a toolbox helping human rights defenders working on Syria to identify, document, engage and advocate on human rights issues linked to business activity in Syria, and holding perpetrators of business-related human rights abuses to account. It is tailored to the Syrian conflict and aimed at Syrian civil society organizations (CSOs) and individual human rights defenders concerned about the impact businesses have on the human rights situation in Syria.