Violations Documentation Center in Syria
مركز توثيق الانتهاكات في سوريا | |
Abbreviation | VDC |
---|---|
Predecessor | Syrian Center for Media and Freedom of Expression[1] |
Formation | April 2011 |
Founder | Razan Zaitouneh |
Type | Media activist organization |
Legal status | Active |
Purpose | Documentation of human rights in Syria |
Headquarters | Douma |
Location | |
Official language | Arabic, English, French |
Husam al-Katlaby[1][2] | |
Affiliations | Local Coordination Committees of Syria |
Website | http://vdc-sy.net |
The Violations Documentation Center in Syria (VDC,
The VDC was founded by Razan Zaitouneh, a Syrian lawyer and human rights activist, and Mazen Darwish, a Syrian lawyer and free speech advocate, in June 2011. It was originally a part of the Syrian Center for Media and Freedom of Expression (SCM), but became its own entity after the SCM was raided and disbanded.[5][7]
VDC is a non-profit, non-governmental organisation.[8] Its VDC's main headquarters are located in the city of Douma. It is registered in Switzerland.[9] the VDC has a team of about 30–35 investigators and a ground network covering every governorate of Syria, consisting of more than 30 internationally trained field reporters.[8] The VDC reports its findings to the United Nations Security Council.[5] The VDC updates its statistics on a yearly, monthly, and weekly basis.
Attacks on the VDC
On 9 December 2013, VDC's office in Douma was raided by masked gunmen, who abducted four VDC members:[10] Razan Zaitouneh, Samira al-Khalil, Nazem Hamadi, and Wael Hamada,[11] who came to be known as "the Douma Four".[12] The Army of Islam was suspected of being responsible for the attack.[13] The VDC was attacked again on 22 July 2016[citation needed] and 13 August 2017 by Jaysh al-Islam.[citation needed] Since the abduction, VDC has been led by a group of administrators inside and outside of Syria (initially in Turkey and then Switzerland) and two database managers.[8] As of August 2018[update], Associated Press found no strong evidence regarding Zaitouneh's fate, but suspected that she had been killed around 2017 or later.[14]
Methodology
The VDC applies international standards for documentation of human rights violations.[8] It has a three-stage methodology as to how they document data: (1) initial information on one or more victims is gathered, mainly from hospitals, morgues, relatives of the victims, and media sources; (2) the initial report is confirmed; (3) data on the victims is added to complete the record.[8]
According to
Funding
The VDC only accepts funding from independent, unbiased, or neutral entities.[8]
References
- ^ a b "The Violations Documentation Center in Syria VDC". Syrian Centre for Media and Freedom of Expression. 25 February 2017.
- ^ Cristina Roca Long Read: How the Syrian War Changed How War Crimes Are Documented, Syria Deeply 1 June 2017
- ^ a b "BBC News - Syria: The story of the conflict". BBC News. 30 August 2012. Retrieved 16 September 2012.
- ^ Sly, Liz (24 August 2012). "Gruesome killings mark escalation of violence in Syrian capital". The Washington Post. Retrieved 16 September 2012.
- ^ a b c "About us - VDC". VDC. Retrieved 2017-11-30.
- ^ "Report of the independent international commission of inquiry on the Syrian Arab Republic" (PDF). United Nations Human Rights Council. 22 February 2012. p. 11. Retrieved 16 September 2012.
- ^ Syrian Women Raise the Slogan “Human Rights First”, Ennab Baladi, 9/12/2017
- ^ a b c d e f Debarati Guha-Sapir, Benjamin Schlüter, Jose Manuel Rodriguez-Llanes, Louis Lillywhite, Madelyn Hsiao-Rei Hicks, Patterns of civilian and child deaths due to war-related violence in Syria: a comparative analysis from the Violation Documentation Center dataset, 2011–16, The Lancet Global Health, Volume 6, Issue 1, January 2018, Pages e103-e110
- ^ "The Violations Documentation Center in Syria". www.asfaridoundation.org. 29 November 2017.
- ^ "New Attack on the VDC office in Duma - VDC". VDC. 2017-08-13. Retrieved 2017-11-29.
- Global Voices Online. 13 December 2013.
- ^ Human Rights Watch Syria: No Word on 4 Abducted Activists - A Year on, No Information on Douma 4, 9 December 2014
- ^ Pizzi, Michael (2014-02-04). "The Syrian Opposition Is Disappearing From Facebook". The Atlantic. Retrieved 8 February 2014.
- ^ Mroue, Bassem (2018-08-13). "Clues But No Answers in One of Syrian War's Biggest Mysteries". Bloomberg News/AP. Archived from the original on 2019-05-01. Retrieved 2019-05-01.
- ^ Hani Mowafi, Jennifer Leaning Documenting deaths in the Syrian war The Lancet Global Health, Volume 6, Issue 1, January 2018, Pages e14-e15
External links
- Center for Documentation of Violations in Syria - Official website