Violations Documentation Center in Syria

Violations Documentation Center in Syria
مركز توثيق الانتهاكات في سوريا
AbbreviationVDC
PredecessorSyrian Center for Media and Freedom of Expression[1]
FormationApril 2011
FounderRazan Zaitouneh
TypeMedia activist organization
Legal statusActive
PurposeDocumentation of human rights in Syria
HeadquartersDouma
Location
Official language
Arabic, English, French
Husam al-Katlaby[1][2]
AffiliationsLocal Coordination Committees of Syria
Websitehttp://vdc-sy.net

The Violations Documentation Center in Syria (VDC, Arabic: مركز توثيق الانتهاكات في سوريا) is a network of Syrian opposition activists whose aim is to document human rights violations perpetrated since the beginning of the Syrian Civil War, including victims of the violence, detainees, and missing people. The organization works with the activists from the Local Coordination Committees of Syria,[3] and documents identified victims of the violence[4] from the rebels and the civilians.[3] The stated purpose of the organization is to provide an independent documentation of human rights violations within Syria, a resource that may help any future justice-related procedures.[5] The center's main sources of information include medical records, families of the victims and information received from the Imam of the mosque that performed the burial.[6]

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.

  1. ^ a b "The Violations Documentation Center in Syria VDC". Syrian Centre for Media and Freedom of Expression. 25 February 2017.
  2. ^ Cristina Roca Long Read: How the Syrian War Changed How War Crimes Are Documented, Syria Deeply 1 June 2017
  3. ^ a b "BBC News - Syria: The story of the conflict". BBC News. 30 August 2012. Retrieved 16 September 2012.
  4. ^ Sly, Liz (24 August 2012). "Gruesome killings mark escalation of violence in Syrian capital". The Washington Post. Retrieved 16 September 2012.
  5. ^ a b c "About us - VDC". VDC. Retrieved 2017-11-30.
  6. ^ "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.
  7. ^ Syrian Women Raise the Slogan “Human Rights First”, Ennab Baladi, 9/12/2017
  8. ^ a b 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
  9. ^ "The Violations Documentation Center in Syria". www.asfaridoundation.org. 29 November 2017.