The Syria Justice and Accountability Centre (SJAC) has identified the challenges and needs in documenting Sexual and Gender-based Violence (SGBV) and has outlined steps for ethically addressing SGBV within its own work in Syria and in the neighbouring countries. This Policy outlines SJAC’s commitments to focusing on gender and SGBV in its policies, methodology, and documentation practices. It proceeds in three sections:
The first section describes SJAC’s internal and external policies to fulfill its mission and corresponding obligations to incorporate a gender perspective into all aspects of its work.
The second section, SGBV Situational Analysis, analyses the situation in which SGBV occurs in the Syrian conflict. Although both men and women experience SGBV, the contexts in which the violations occur may differ. The section also discusses the religious and cultural backdrop, including the stigma surrounding SGBV, which deters women in particular from reporting violations to documentation organisations or other service providers. Finally, this section addresses the types of support services available to survivors as well as the challenges to SGBV documentation.
Finally, the third section, SGBV Operations Manual, presents operational procedures SJAC has developed based on best practices, for how to overcome the challenges described in the preceding section.
