Dr. Rouba Mhaissen:

I want to comment very briefly on the issue of sanctions, which I believe my colleague has already addressed. I want to ask a question, however. If a regime can still support military activities that cost so much, why can the same regime not support the humanitarian needs of its own people? The sanctions are mainly addressed by private companies. They are not addressed in the sectors of education or health. The Caesar Act is very clear on that. We should always weigh the opportunity costs of a large-scale humanitarian response against the money falling into the wrong hands. Some of the difficulties mentioned are also with regard to, in general, the banks' counterterrorism legislation, which not only affects Damascus; it affects everywhere. Even Lebanon is affected by the counterterrorism legislation. This is just a small bracket.

I thank Deputy Clarke for her question. I wish a happy International Women's Day and big solidarity to all present. We still have a long way to go as women. I am hoping we will achieve that collectively. I am happy to say that sometimes in wars, outside of the structures which used to dominate the country, such as the cultural, political and social structures, we are seeing great changes in gender roles. I believe this is happening a lot in the Syrian context. I wanted to start on a positive note. As the Deputy said, however, there are many challenges. Of course, many papers have been written about the violence against women. We can definitely send those around after the meeting. Women are being trafficked. They are returning first into Syria and are scapegoated into going there to check on the situation because they are not forced into military service. They are discriminated against in their own communities. They are sometimes forced to have sex in return for aid. Sex is definitely used as a weapon of war by militia factions and people with arms. Therefore, this is definitely still the case.

Gender roles in politics are really shameful. Before the war, there was an image of the presence of women but it was not really a meaningful presence. I am ashamed to say that even when the opposition was in control of so many territories in Syria, the picture was not any better. Only approximately 2% to 5% of local councils were made up of women. In terms of the Geneva peace talks, the maximum participation of women that was reached in one of the rounds was 15%. Everyone who is engaged in funding the talks needs to put that as a main ask. We need to see 50% participation, or at least 30% working towards 50%, of women in all domains of political life. Unless we do it that way, we will not see this. Even in other countries where the distribution is much better, we still see a huge lack of participation of women.

I believe women play a big role in economic development, notably because today in Idlib and Lebanon, the majority of the internally displaced people and refugees are women. There are many female-headed households, as there are in government-held or regime-held areas inside Syria. As I said, women today are taking on new roles they were not doing before. Therefore, we need to push in that direction.

What can Ireland do? I really believe that despite the fact the political process is not happening and the political peace agreement has not been signed, we need to start to prepare today for when it is. This is where our real work will begin. I propose, therefore, that we should start training female community mediators - women who will start working on the infrastructure of the communities in terms of social cohesion, redevelopment and economic development. We need to start to train these women from today to lead as mediators. We can talk about politics with a big "P" and start working on pushing women into that sphere. However, much small "p" politics is going on at a community level and this is where women really have a huge role. I am happy to discuss this idea further with Trócaire and everyone else.

I will make two final comments. Someone asked about the peace process today. Russia and the regime are continuing to stall the peace process; first, by not always participating in the Geneva peace talks. These talks are being held up every single time. In addition, however, the regime or Government always puts themes on the agenda it knows are problematic. For example, rather than discussing the role of the constitution, or the real joint issues that present unity among Syrians, it puts on the agenda things like who will be considered a terrorist if he or she does not support the Syrian army, the issue of Arabness, knowing this will be a huge issue for the Kurdish component, or the counterterrorism issue.

I believe there is a huge role for Ireland to play here. First, Ireland is part of the EU, which is the umbrella for this peace process. It should, therefore, continue to push Iran, Russia and the regime to engage. I know the Iranian foreign minister was visiting. Ireland should, therefore, push Iran to stop supporting the military and push the regime. I believe Iran has even more power over the regime than Russia. Therefore, there is a need to push Iran to force it to start talking and having this conversation, which will be Syrian-led.

On the issue of Damascus being peaceful, I believe we should ask, "Peaceful for whom?" and "Peaceful how?" If we are talking about Abu Rummaneh, Al-Masaneh', Al-Malky and the centre of Damascus being safe for expatriates and international staff to have "happy hour" and such, then the answer is "Yes"; it is safe on that level. However, if we are talking about a Damascus that is free of kidnapping, taking activists into prison, forcing young men into military service and militia putting arms in the hands of people, or if we talk about protection in the big sense of the word in terms of food, shelter, education and hospitals, then I would say, of course, that Damascus is not a safe place for Syrians.