Syrian Interior Ministry Regulations on Organising Peaceful Demonstrations

Translation and Overview

In general, since the fall of the Assad regime, the organisation of peaceful demonstrations in Syria has had a better track record. Most notably, the government’s security forces have generally done a decent job in protecting peaceful demonstrators, who, by contrast in the Assad era, were at risk of being attacked by government forces. For example, a person who participated in demonstrations in Damascus city in mid-April (with demonstrators harbouring a variety of grievances about the government’s economic and social policies) told me: ‘Overall I was quite impressed with the conduct of the security personnel from the Ministry of Interior.’

He contrasted this professionalism with the aggressive behaviour of some pro-government counter-protestors who threatened to upload photos of the demonstrators online. He added that in the demonstrations he attended, the security forces subsequently formed a wall that protected the demonstrators from the counter-protestors, commenting: ‘I think the protestors in general were very impressed with the Public Security [forces], and there were some chants in their favour.’

But none of this means that the organisation of peaceful demonstrations is a free-for-all in Syria.