Displacement

Should governments and international institutions prematurely encourage returns, refugees may feel pressured or forced to return to an environment that they do not have sufficient information about or that may end up being unsafe, unstable, or even life-threatening for them—raising serious moral and international legal considerations.

By establishing compulsory military service and creating an expansive pool from which to draw reservists, Syria’s Conscription Law makes military service a central element of the relationship between the Syrian state and the civilian population.

Idlib’s civil society and governance structures are threatened by the potential resurgence of conflict, which has been kept at bay via a tenuous ceasefire negotiated in September 2018, the deterioration of which may result in humanitarian disaster and give rise to a new wave of jihadist activity.

Syria’s Law No. 10 of 2018, which has significant implications for the property rights of Syrians, was ratified by President Bashar al-Assad on April 2, 2018, and amended on November 11, 2018.

Syria’s hastily drafted Law No. 10 of 2018 makes it even more difficult for displaced Syrians and refugees to come home, codifying the fact that the regime does not want them to return.