Training Syrian lawyers in the secure collection of evidence: a look back at a trip in December 2024

In December 2024, I travelled to Syria for Danaïdes on a vital mission: to train lawyers in the collection and secure transmission of evidence of war crimes.

This trip is part of a wider project to ensure that the documents and testimonies gathered can be exploited by competent national jurisdictions, international investigative mechanisms, and a transitional justice process.

Why SJS is crucial.

Secure Justice Syria (SJS) : https://www.helloasso.com/associations/danaides/collectes/secure-justice-syria

After years of war, Syria is entering a new phase in its history. Yet justice for the crimes committed remains an immense challenge. Many civil society actors are striving to document human rights violations, but without proper training, this evidence risks being unusable.

Our objective is clear: to enable Syrian lawyers to collect evidence while respecting the chain of custody and guaranteeing the safety of victims, sources and witnesses. In the absence of a stable judicial framework in Syria, these elements must be preserved to the highest standards, so that they can be used before national or international courts.

Difficult terrain.

On-site conditions make the job particularly complex. Surveillance and threats are omnipresent, and communication infrastructures are limited.

With Danaïdes, we therefore implemented strict protocols, including the use of a secure, self-hosted server in Europe, guaranteeing the integrity and confidentiality of the documents collected.

Over several days, we worked with a group of lawyers, providing them with the tools and knowledge they needed to carry out this work under difficult conditions. They are now able to identify, classify and transmit evidence securely, while reducing the risks to themselves and their sources.

The danger of journalists plundering evidence and Syrians destroying evidence.

A major challenge for international justice lies in the irresponsibility of certain Western journalists who have literally plundered evidence of war crimes. By glossing over the issue of traceability, they are compromising the admissibility of these documents in court, and jeopardizing judicial proceedings rendering justice to Syrian victims. Worse still, by exploiting this evidence without taking into account the risks incurred by their sources, they expose their fixers and local contacts to serious reprisals from the Syrian authorities. This lack of ethics and rigor jeopardizes not only justice, but also the safety of Syrians who have taken the risk of testifying.

I also noticed that some of the evidence was burnt to fuel fires to warm groups of people. A second example I noticed was that a vehicle belonging to the former regime's army was burnt to erase the evidence and documents it contained. Hundreds of documents vanished into thin air. The lawyers stopped at the side of the road to collect as many of the documents as possible, so that they could be photographed in accordance with the established protocol for securing evidence.

Syrian lawyers in exile, committed in spite of everything.

The lawyers we trained no longer have homes. They were destroyed by the regime. Since 2011, they had been living in exile abroad, trying to rebuild their own lives while volunteering for the Secure Justice Syria project. Despite the instability of their own situation, they devote their energy and skills to documenting the crimes committed in Syria, in the hope that one day justice will be done. Their commitment is admirable, and a reminder that justice will not be achieved without them.

The next steps.

This first phase of training is an essential step, but it must be followed by long-term support. In 2025, we hope to expand the program to train more lawyers and improve the infrastructure for collecting and transmitting evidence. For this, we need funding and support.

If justice for Syria is close to your heart, you can contribute to our project by helping us fund these training courses, conduct collections and strengthen our tools for securing evidence. Every euro counts in ensuring that these crimes do not go unpunished.

We have a responsibility to give them the means to act.