In Geneva, Syrian Minorities Demand Protection And Federalism

(MENAFN- Swissinfo) Representatives of Syria's minority communities this week urged world leaders to block normalisation with the new authorities in Damascus. They called for international protection of minorities and support for a federal system in a country emerging from decades of dictatorship and over ten years of brutal war. This content was published on September 11, 2025 - 11:30 7 minutes

Multimedia journalist reporting for the International Geneva beat and supporting editorial quality control in the English department. Swiss-Chilean multimedia journalist with two decades of reporting experience in the US, Europe and the Middle East, with occasional assignments in South America and Africa. I enjoy investigative and long-form stories, and have also worked in breaking news and every format in between.

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“Our message here today is very simple: normalisation with Jolani's regime cannot be reached at the expense of our lives,” said human rights defender Masoud Aqil, a former hostage of ISIS and a member of the Yazidi community, which endured genocide, displacement and enslavement at the hands of the group.

Gathered at the Geneva Press Club on the sidelines of the UN Human Rights Council's 60th session, Druze, Alawite, Christian, Kurdish and Yazidi activists described massacres, forced displacement and systematic discrimination under Syria's new president, Ahmed al-Sharaa, also known by his nom de guerre, Abu Mohammad al-Jolani.

“We all know there is no difference between the Jolani regime and ISIS,” Aqil said.

From jihadist leader to president

Sharaa was once a close associate of ISIS founder Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi before breaking away to form the al-Nusra Front, later rebranded as Hayat Tahrir al-Sham. In December 2024, he led the armed groups that toppled Bashar al-Assad, who ruled Syria for close to 25 years. He quickly secured international recognition and sanctions relief, while opening talks with Israel.

While no champion of democracy or secularism, Sharaa has pledged to govern for all Syrians. International observers positively noted the absence of large-scale bloodshed as his forces took over the capital. Yet critics argue his rule remains steeped in jihadist ideology, pointing to sectarian killings in Alawite coastal provinces in March and recent violence in the Druze heartland of Suweida.

“ The Syrian people have been betrayed twice,” said Rawan Osman, a Syrian-born activist now based in Germany.“First by Assad who destroyed his own nation, murdering hundreds of thousands and displacing millions, and second by jihadists who rose in his shadow, promising liberation but delivering cruelty under a different flag.”

Rights groups document atrocities

Even as Sharaa has secured foreign investment and diplomatic recognition, his fledgling administration and security forces continue to struggle with consolidating territorial control. The Kurdish-led northeast of Syria remains autonomous, while some Druze leaders in Suweida have openly rejected Damascus and even appealed to neighbouring Israel for protection.

Rights groups have documented serious abuses in the south. Human Rights WatchExternal link reported that nine days of fighting in July 2025 between Druze-led militias and pro-government Bedouin fighters devastated Suweida, leaving families displaced and essential services paralysed. Government forces sent to“restore order” were accused of looting, burning homes and carrying out summary executions.

Amnesty InternationalExternal link corroborated those findings, verifying videos and testimony showing government and affiliated forces extrajudicially executing at least 46 Druze men and women on July 15 and 16. Victims were killed in homes, hospitals, schools and public squares by men in security and military uniforms, some bearing official insignia.

“ I no longer believe that [the new authorities in Damascus] have good intentions for non-Muslims in the country,” Osman told Swissinfo.

The Druze experience

The most detailed testimony in Geneva came from Druze activist Nawras Alsaghbini, who gave a harrowing report on Suweida's ordeal.“The facts documented by the Syrian Observatory are shocking,” he said:“2014 documented victims in just a few days, including 789 civilians executed in the field.”

He described 36 villages which were“completely destroyed, their homes burned, their residents displaced.” At least eight churches were attacked and 293 women abducted, with 235 still missing. He said he had forensic medical reports confirming seven cases of rape. Videos shown at the press club appeared to show Druze men being forced to jump from balconies and others executed.

“What happened in Suweida in July 2025,” he said,“was neither a local dispute, nor a passing battle, but a genocidal attack and a campaign of systematic ethnic cleansing carried out by forces affiliated with the ministries of defense and interior, supported by tribal militias with the knowledge and direct complicity of Damascus authorities”.

Alsaghbini urged a UN investigation and international guarantees that such crimes will not be repeated.

Analysts note that such abuses underscore the need for urgent security reform. While the Assad-era security apparatus was synonymous with torture and disappearances, Sharaa's own forces are drawn largely from former rebels and jihadists, with varying degrees of command-and-control discipline.

The Suweida crisis“exposed the fragility of Syria's post-Assad order, in which outside interference and failure to broaden political representation threaten the national euphoria that followed the collapse of the regime seven months ago,” wrote Syrian analyst Hassan Hassan in an analysis for Newsline magazine link

Other minority voices

From the Alawite community, activist Mouna Ghanem warned that unresolved grievances risk spilling into Europe, where many Syrian refugees now live. Sheikh Ghazal Ghazal, the head of the Religious Council at the Supreme Alawite Islamic Council in Syria and the Diaspora, said extremists were deliberately targeting Alawites and urged international intervention.

Christian activist Joseph Lahdo pointed to the relative freedoms enjoyed by Christians in Kurdish-held northeast Syria, where Syriac schools and defense councils have been established. The Autonomous Administration of North and East Syria presents itself as a working model of federalism, a system its leaders argue can preserve Syria's unity while protecting diversity.

Other speakers echoed that message. Kurdish activist Sheruan Hassan argued that a democratic, decentralised federal system was the only way to protect Syria from tyranny and oppression.

“ It is the realistic guarantee for Syria's unity, for protecting its diversity and preventing it from becoming a new Afghanistan on Europe's doorstep,” he said.

Petition to world leaders

With parliamentary elections slated for later this month, activists warned that any diplomatic strategies to consolidate Sharaa's government would entrench repression rather than resolve Syria's divisions.

The event concluded with a petition to“not normalise” relations with Damascus on the grounds that this would endanger minorities. It is addressed to UN Secretary-General António Guterres and world leaders including US President Donald Trump, French President Emmanuel Macron, German Chancellor Friedrich Merz, United Kingdom Prime Minister Keir Starmer and European Union foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas.

“Do not abandon the Syrian people again,” Osman said.

Edited by Virginie Mangin/dos

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