2025 Volume 34 Issue 2 Pages 127-145
Drawing on accumulated experience in implementing the WPS Agenda norms, this paper extracts a perspective for analyzing the humanitarian crises in specific regions where the WPS Agenda has been implemented. Using this perspective, it analyzes the crises faced by the region that would become Democratic Autonomous Administration of North and East Syria (DAANES) before its establishment. Based on analysis of the Social Contract Charter of DAANES (revised version in 2023), it then identifies the gender mainstreaming mechanisms embedded in the governance system of DAANES, which was formed in response to the crisis. From the perspective of the WPS Agenda norms, this is a remarkable achievement and a good example that should be recommended.
This paper also outlines the conditions for the formation of the DAANES governance system, which incorporates gender mainstreaming mechanisms. These conditions, described as a response to four crises―military, political, ideological, and economic―are merely a rough outline.
The establishment of DAANES, described as the contingent creation of a gender-mainstreaming governance system embedded in a coalition of community assemblies facing genocide and sexual violence, may be recast as the inevitable outcome of historical conditions in future. This is a remaining challenge that is essential for realizing the WPS Agenda norms.
