On Tuesday 11th July we had a thought provoking panel discussion as part of the Celebrating Syria festival on Syria's arts and culture before and after 2011. The Panel addressed questions such as 'what happened to the arts and to culture under the dictatorship of the Assad regimes?' 'What does oppression do to artistic and creative expression?'
We issued a press release on 3 July in response to The Canary's republishing of Seymour Hersh's propaganda piece denying Assad's commission of the 4 April Khan Sheikhoun chemical attack. Such pieces spread lies and misinformation and contribute to an increasingly misinformed public on the dynamics of the Syrian conflict.
Since the start of the conflict in Syria, the UK has sent over 2 billion in humanitarian aid. However, this aid does not reach many of those in need and it does not represent an effective solution.
We signed on to a joint letter addressed to Jan Egeland, Special Advisor to the UN Special Envoy on Syria, regarding humanitarian access in Syria. We stressed that member States must do more to ensure humanitarian access as was agreed, even by Russia, over a year ago. We also called for credible monitoring and enforcement of the recent de-escalation agreement.
Our Development Coordinator participated in a round table discussion on Refugee self-reliance in cities, held by the University of Manchester on the 20th of June.
