A number of human rights activists announced the establishment of the Association of War Victims in Syria to collect evidence and document war crimes and violations committed against Syrian civilians by individuals or state parties and prosecute these crimes in the future.
The Association comprises a committee of lawyers and human rights specialists who will interview the victims themselves or their families. The interviews will be conducted in four cities with the highest concentration of Syrian refugees. The Association signed a contract with Stoke & White LLP, a London-based law firm to support its activities.
The Association will help victims file lawsuits over cases of death of relatives, torture, rape, humiliation and ill-treatment, detention, kidnapping of relatives, exposure to injury or disability, loss of property, siege and starvation, and exposure to bombing with barrel bombs, chemical weapons, cluster bombs and other internationally prohibited weapons.
The Association’s constitutive declaration said that countless war crimes and violations have been committed in Syria since March 2011. The high percentage of civilian victims of human rights violations makes it imperative to look into these crimes and name the perpetrators to bring them to justice and ensure accountability, the Association added. (Source: Syrian Coalition’s Media Office)