Syria (Arabic: سُورِيَا or سُورِيَة, Sūriyā), formally the Syrian Arab Republic (Arabic: ٱلْجُمْهُورِيَّةُ ٱلْعَرَبِيَّةُ ٱلسُّورِيَةُ, romanized: al-Jumhūrīyah al-ʻArabīyah as-Sūrīyah), is a Western Asian nation situated in the Eastern Mediterranean and the Levant. It is a unitary republic with 14 governorates (subdivisions) that is bounded to the west by the Mediterranean Sea, to the north by Turkey, to the east and southeast by Iraq, to the south by Jordan, and to the southwest by Israel and Lebanon. Cyprus is located across the Mediterranean Sea to the west. Syria, a land of rich plains, steep mountains, and deserts, is home to a varied ethnic and religious population, including Syrian Arabs, Kurds, Turkmens, Assyrians, Armenians, Circassians, and Greeks. Muslims, Christians, Alawites, Druze, and Yazidis are among the religious groups. Damascus is Syria's capital and biggest city. Arabs are the most numerous ethnic group, while Muslims are the most numerous religious group.
Syria is the only country that supports the Arab nationalist philosophy known as Ba'athism on a political level. Syria is a member of the Non-Aligned Movement, an international organization other than the United Nations. It was expelled from the Arab League and the Organization of Islamic Cooperation in November 2011, and it self-expelled from the Union for the Mediterranean.
After centuries of Ottoman control, the current Syrian state was founded in the mid-20th century. Following a short stint as a French mandate (1923-1946), the newly formed state was the biggest Arab state to emerge from the previously Ottoman-ruled Syrian territories. It obtained de jure independence as a parliamentary republic on October 24, 1945, when Syria became a founding member of the United Nations, thereby ending the old French Mandate (although French troops did not leave the country until April 1946).
Historically, the word "Syria" referred to a larger territory, roughly synonymous with the Levant and known in Arabic as al-Sham. The contemporary state includes the ruins of numerous historical kingdoms and empires, notably the 3rd millennium BC Eblan civilisation. Aleppo and Damascus, the capital city, are among the world's oldest continually inhabited cities. Damascus was the headquarters of the Umayyad Caliphate and a regional capital of Egypt's Mamluk Sultanate during the Islamic period.
From 1949 until 1971, the post-independence era was turbulent, with many military coups and coup attempts unsettling the nation. Syria formed a short union with Egypt called the United Arab Republic in 1958, which was ended by the Syrian coup d'état in 1961. The republic was renamed the Arab Republic of Syria in late 1961, after a constitutional referendum held on December 1, that year, and was more unstable until the 1963 Ba'athist coup d'état, after which the Ba'ath Party has retained control. From 1963 until 2011, Syria was under Emergency Law, which essentially suspended most constitutional guarantees for residents.
Bashar al-Assad has been president since 2000, succeeding his father Hafez al-Assad, who served from 1971 to 2000. Syria and the governing Ba'ath Party have been denounced and criticized for a variety of human rights violations, including numerous killings of residents and political prisoners and widespread censorship. Syria has been mired in a multi-sided civil war since March 2011, with a number of nations in the area and beyond engaging militarily or otherwise. As a consequence, a variety of self-proclaimed political formations, including the Syrian opposition, Rojava, Tahrir al-Sham, and the Islamic State group, have developed on Syrian land. Syria was placed lowest on the Global Peace Index from 2016 to 2018, making it the world's most violent nation owing to the conflict. The violence has killed over 570,000 people, resulted in 7.6 million internally displaced persons (according to a July 2015 UNHCR estimate), and over 5 million refugees (according to a July 2017 UNHCR registration), making population estimates problematic in recent years.
Employees are entitled to four weeks of paid yearly vacation each year. Employees under the age of 20 are given five weeks.
Zurich recognizes twelve public holidays. Although, holidays vary depending on the canton. Many holidays are recognized in one or a few cantons of Switzerland but are not observed nationally.
Employees are usually entitled to three weeks of paid sick leave during their first year of employment with a company, and more the longer they stay with the company. The specific amount of sick leave and salary that an employee gets during this period varies by canton and may be established by a contract or collective agreement.
Maternity leave is granted to female workers for 14 weeks. In the canton of Geneva, the leave lasts 16 weeks, while other cantons may implement regulations allowing for greater time. Except in Geneva, a woman who has exhausted her 14 weeks of maternity leave is entitled to two more weeks of unpaid leave before returning to work.
After the birth of a child, fathers are entitled to 14 days of paternity leave. Compensation is set at 196 francs per day and is based on 80% of typical earned income previous to the child's birth.
