By Michael Ader | Communications Officer
Thank you for your donations as SJAC continues to support documentation activists in Syria.
This quarter SJAC began trialing a new type of documentation training. Initial sessions were given to SJAC’s Documentation and Missing Persons field teams with the goal of providing a greater understanding of which legal frameworks apply to violations. This understanding would allow documenters to ask more informed questions when collecting documentation.
The initial training course focuses on the responsibilities of an occupying power, and how the presence of an occupation, specifically in Turkish occupied areas of Syria, change how documentation needs to be collected. While previous trainings by SJAC focused on developing the basic skills of how to document, SJAC has yet to train activists to understand what legal frameworks apply to which violations. For example, certain crimes which may amount to human rights violations are treated differently if they were committed during an internal armed conflict, in which case the prosecution of perpetrators would fall under domestic jurisdiction, or if they were committed under an occupation, in which case they count as crimes committed during an international armed conflict and may fall under international legal frameworks such as International Humanitarian Law. In these cases, different questions need to be asked to account for variations between domestic and international law.
While specific distinctions should be made by legal experts, it is important for documentation activists to understand basic legal concepts and tailor their documentation to answer the questions needed by whichever legal framework a crime applies to. In areas under occupation this can be particularly complex, which is why SJAC is trialing this new training to ensure it can provide a simple, yet comprehensive legal understanding for trainees.
SJAC will continue to develop the course over the next quarter and hopes to either launch it as a live ad hoc training to documentation groups, which would allow for robust Q&A sessions, and/or release a legal principles training video which will convey basic principles and encourage trainees to contact SJAC for more information.
Thank you again for your support of this project as we continue to expand the training resources available for Syrian activists.
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