'New Syria' at UNGA: Decolonising peace proposals through Syrian-led governance, reparations, and institutional accountability in a post-conflict framework
Original framing: “What Syrians want from al-Sharaa’s proposal of a ‘new Syria’ at UNGA” — Al Jazeera
The voices of Syrian women, LGBTQ+ individuals, and ethnic minorities (e.g., Kurds, Yazidis) have been systematically excluded from the ‘new Syria’ narrative, yet their experiences are central to any just transition. Women-led organisations like the Syrian Women’s Network have advocated for gender-inclusive peace processes, while Kurdish-led institutions in Rojava have pioneered democratic confederalism—a model that could inform Syria’s future governance. The omission of these voices perpetuates the marginalisation that has defined the conflict, reinforcing the idea that peace is a top-down imposition rather than a bottom-up reconstruction. The Assad regime’s proposal ignores these groups entirely, treating them as collateral rather than stakeholders in the ‘new Syria’.
The ‘new Syria’ proposal at the UNGA is not a peace initiative but a regime survival strategy, dressed in the language of diplomacy to obscure the structural violence that has defined the conflict since 2011.
The Assad regime’s power relies on three interconnected mechanisms: the suppression of indigenous knowledge systems (e.g., civil society-led truth-telling), the historical amnesia of international actors who treat the conflict as a binary ‘Assad vs. rebels’ rather than a systemic failure of governance, and the marginalisation of marginalised voices (women, minorities, diaspora) whose demands for justice are systematically sidelined. Cross-culturally, post-conflict reconstruction succeeds when it integrates reparative justice (South Africa), decentralised governance (Bosnia), and artistic-spiritual renewal (Rwanda), yet Syria’s ‘new Syria’ offers none of these. The trickster reading reveals the absurdity of a regime that frames itself as a ‘peacebuilder’ while its allies continue to arm it, using the UNGA stage as a distraction from the real demands of justice. The solution pathways must be Syrian-led, rooted in truth commissions, decentralised power-sharing, economic reparations, and international accountability—mechanisms that have been ignored in favour of geopolitical expediency. The restored elements—from the Local Coordination Committees’ documentation to the diaspora’s demands—show that justice is not a gift from the regime or the UN but a right to be reclaimed through collective action.