Syrians for Truth and Justice (STJ) started as an idea in a co-founder’s mind while attending the U.S. Middle-East Partnership Initiative‘s (MEPI) Leaders for Democracy Fellowship program (LDF) in 2015. The idea became a reality and flourished into an independent, non-profit, impartial, non-governmental human rights organization.
STJ’s beginnings were more than humble; initially, it only reported stories of Syrians who experienced arbitrary arrest, enforced disappearance, or torture. Planted in fertile soil, the seed of this project grew into an established human rights organization licensed in the Middle East and the European Union. STJ today undertakes to detect and uncover violations of all types committed in all Syrian parts by the various parties to the conflict.
Convinced that Syria’s diversity is a wealth, our researchers and volunteers serve with unfailing dedication to monitor, expose, and document human rights violations that continue unabated in Syria since 2011, regardless of the affiliation of the victims or perpetrators.
Adopting an inclusive and unbiased documentation process, STJ aims to promote the principle of inclusion and ensure the organization is a forum where all Syrians have a space and an opportunity to express and exchange thoughts on the basis of equal citizenship. Our main goal has always been to ensure that everyone enjoys their full rights without any discrimination as to sex, color, caste, religion, ethnicity, geographical region, or other considerations.
Since its legal establishment in 2016, STJ managed to reach thousands of victims, document thousands of violations, and register them in a private database. We also published hundreds of reports on the human rights situation in Syria since then.
STJ believes that systematic documentation and gathering credible evidence allow us to reach new horizons in justice and accountability spaces. By this, we can contribute to strategic litigation and fighting against impunity autonomously or in cooperation with appropriate bodies and organizations.
Driven by a will to empower local communities and activists and promote their roles, STJ implements capacity-building projects in various topics, including documenting human rights violations, collecting evidence, cyber security, social oversight over local authorities, advocacy at the national and international levels, providing legal support for Syrians inside Syria, and contributing to the constitutional dialogue at the local level.
Our Vision
A Syria in which justice and the rule of law prevail and people equally enjoy all of their human rights.
Our Mission
STJ is devoted to documenting human rights violations committed anywhere against Syrians and to disseminating a human rights culture with the aim of expanding access to justice, and accountability systems and thus change.
Our Values
Independence, truth, and justice, through which we seek to defend the rights and freedoms of vulnerable communities and pursue their redress.