Description
The on-going war in Syria has seen acts of violence and discrimination being committed against persons of diverse sexual orientations, gender identities and expressions (SOGIE) by armed actors across the political and ideological spectrum but also by civilian actors, including direct and extended family members of the victims/survivors. This violence has occurred in a broader context of massive human rights violations against the civilian population and widespread impunity for these acts. Some of the violence experienced by persons of diverse SOGIE has been directed against them precisely because of their SOGIE, while other violence has occurred as a part of wider violence against civilians. For those persons of diverse SOGIE who have fled, the process of fleeing as well as their experiences in their new host countries have also often included a range of violences, of discrimination and denials of their human and civil rights.
Based on field research in Syria and Lebanon, this chapter examines the experiences of Syrian lesbian, gay, bisexual, trans and intersex (LGBTI) persons’ experiences of violence during the Syrian War and in displacement, and their views on what would constitute justice for them. It aims to show the diversity of views and experiences among persons of diverse SOGIE, countering the tendency to see LGBTI as a homogenous population. It also raises complicated questions of what justice can look like for people whose options are limited to not returning to their home country or returning to a state and society which at best is passive hostile to their very existence or more usually actively violent and discriminatory. Furthermore, any quest for justice within Syria must happen within the parameters of a state government that has emerged victorious through often callous disregard of human rights norms. The chapter thus contributes to broadening the nascent academic debate of what transitional justice can mean from a diverse SOGIE perspective of if indeed the channels usually used for transitional justice are in any way workable in a situation such as in Syria and for the LGBTI population.
