Syrian American diaspora organizations play a central role in localization: The transnational identity, and personal links with local communities, opens additional pathways to strengthen local resilience during an ongoing and protracted humanitarian crisis. By understanding the contributions of these organizations, the goal of this report is to contribute to the conversations around the changing humanitarian system by helping to identify potential spaces for engagement between diaspora and institutional aid actors.
While The American Relief Coalition for Syria (ARCS) is grateful that UN cross-border resolution 2642 will allow UN agencies to continue to supply essential aid through the Bab Al-Hawa border point, ARCS has conducted, in partnership with a group of specialist international lawyers, a legal research on the legality of the continuation of cross-border aid in Syria without a UNSC mandate. This research shows that it is not clear that a resolution was in fact necessary, and that whilst it may have made the mandate clearer, it is far from the only claim to legality for non-consensual cross-border humanitarian assistance in Syria.
