With the aim of advancing the rights of victims of human rights violations and forced displacement in Afghanistan and globally, on September 12-13, 2023, the International Coalition of Sites of Conscience (ICSC) held the workshop “In Their Own Voice: Inclusive and Victim-Centered Documentation and Memorialization of Forced Displacement”, which is a part of “Afghanistan: Advancing Rights Adopting an Inclusive and Victim-Centered Documentation and Memorialization Approach,” a 10-month partnership between ICSC and its member organization, Afghanistan Human Rights and Democracy Organization (AHRDO).
TDA represented by its Executive Director, Mutsem Syoufi, participated in the workshop as a member of ICSC, and showcased its experience working with victims of human rights violations and forced displacement in Syria.
The two-day workshop was facilitated by ICSC’s staff and pool of experts and built on ICSC’s Global Initiative for Justice, Truth and Reconciliation (GIJTR) documentation and memorialization work, and on its one-of-a-kind Correcting the Record methodology. It also focused on inclusive and victim-centered documentation and memorialization approaches that empower victims of human rights violations and forced displacement to shape their own narratives and pursue truth, justice, and accountability.
The first-day discussions went over key aspects of victim-centered documentation and memorialization to ensure that victims’ multidimensional needs are met. It presented basic principles in developing oral archives and in organizing human rights documentation archives.
The workshop also focused on sensitive and non-re-traumatizing approaches to documentation and memorialization. Grounded in local experiences, the workshop provided particip
On the second day, three organizations from the UK, Syria, Bangladesh, and Indonesia, showcased their experience working with victims of human rights violations and forced displacement in different contexts in order to share best practices and challenges in adopting victim-centered, gender-responsive, and participatory documentation and memorialization.
| TDA has implemented several projects that support the documentation of different human rights violations throughout the Syrian revolution, such as the National Documentation Project, It also supported survivors of detention and other human rights violations and the families of the missing, ensuring joint communication and advocacy between them and international accountability mechanisms.
TDA has also contributed to advocating for the issues of migration and transitional justice and worked as part of the Bridges of Truth group, which consists of eight Syrian organizations, to push for full and meaningful justice for countless victims of conflict and oppression at the hands of the Syrian regime.
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