Democratic Confederalist Approaches to Addressing Patriarchal Violence Within the Justice System

Abstract

In the midst of an ongoing civil war, the people of North and East Syria have been building a society based on the ideas of direct-democratic and decentralized self-administration. Differently put, they have embraced the principles and ideas of democratic confederalism, which is the political ideology developed by Partiya Karkerên Kurdistanê (PPK, Kurdistan Workers’ Party) founder Abdullah Öcalan. The purpose of this essay is to give an overview of the governance system of NES for the purpose of demonstrating the democratic confederalist approach to addressing patriarchal violence. In addition, the ambition is to assess the traditional notion of law and punishment as a solution for dealing with patriarchal violence, or, as Kropotkin would describe it, “a remedy for evil.” In addition to the more traditional and hierarchical court systems of contemporary societies, there are reconciliation committees in North and East Syria which seek to eliminate patriarchal violence through means of rehabilitation rather than punishment. In conclusion, NES serves as a fairly successful example of how patriarchal violence can be addressed within a justice system that is based on principles of restorative and transformative justice.