Support Human Rights Activists in Syria

Through your support to this project, SJAC continues to facilitate activists who are documenting human rights abuses committed in Syria.

This quarter, SJAC focused on improving the accessibility of our documentation training for Syrians. With the launch of a new website, activists can more easily navigate and utilize our documentation courses. In the coming months, SJAC is hoping to expand our training modules to include a variety of videos that will inform activists on how they can use documentation to file criminal complaints in European countries which support universal jurisdiction prosecutions. In a recent event held for Syrians living in the Netherlands, viewers learned the process for sharing documentation with local Dutch courts, how to file an official criminal complaint against Syrian perpetrators, and what their legal rights might look like as a witness or plaintiff. These types of events are essential in demonstrating that documentation can empower justice and accountability.

Last quarter, SJAC provided documentation training for the Syrian Missing Persons and Forensic Team (SMFT), based in Raqqa, Syria. The SMFT recently began conducting “contextual investigations” into the fates of those disappeared by ISIS in Northeast Syria, collecting documentation and evidence from families of missing persons and locals who witnessed atrocities committed by ISIS. This is an important first step prior to the opening of mass graves. Several members of SJAC’s own documentation team met with the SMFT and led a week-long, in-person training on how to connect with families and witnesses and collect high quality interviews that can be used in missing persons investigations. This training was supplemented with training by one of SJAC’s psychosocial partners focused on how documenters can reduce the trauma of these difficult interviews for themselves and their interviewees. Next month, SJAC will provide a follow-up session, led by trainers from the Argentine Forensic Anthropology Team.

Thank you again for your support of this project as we continue to expand the training resources available for Syrian activists.