Reports | 25 05 2020
Through periodic workshops targeting all segments of society, the organization "Lawyers for Justice and Humanity" has been hard at work since over a year now, to educate citizens about their rights.
Suhail al-Taha, Director of the organization which has been founded by a number of activists in Idlib, tells Rosna: "The project was established as a civil society organization in the beginning. Subsequently, we offered training to numerous jurists as well as some police officers, to raise their awareness of human rights, international humanitarian law, and the prevention of torture." He adds that the organization has also conducted courses for women in order to introduce them to women's rights.
The organization's work is, however, no longer confined to awareness of international law, prevention of torture, and women's and children's rights; it has also commenced to document crimes in Syria, through specialized and objective reports, according to its Director.
Taha explains: "Our scope now includes the liberated areas of rural Aleppo and Hama. We are moving to expand and increase the number of organiztion's employees. Our next focus will be on documenting human rights crimes and abuses in Syria."
The views of the Idlib street was varied, divded between those who support the organization's work, and those who see it as being useless. Ahmad Taj, for example, says "The organization's work is excellent. We need to raise awareness of these subjects, of which we are almost completely ignorant."
Student Hassan Alloush on the other hand, sees it as "a good organization, with laudable principles. But what's the benefit of them? Awareness is of no benefit to us against the actual human rights violations to which we are exposed."
"Lawyers for Justice and Humanity" is the first such organization of its kind in Syria. It was launched in Idlib and expanded its activities to cover the province of Hama. Its organizers hope for it to become the nucleus of a civil society, hitherto absent in Syrian for many years.