By Abdel Karim Jaafar (Raqqa, Syria) – Thirteen-year-old Mahmoud was excited to return to his eighth grade classes in September in the north eastern Syrian city of Raqqa, after more than six months of closure. “I was so happy to go back to my desk. I missed my classmates and I missed studying,” he said. Mahmoud resumed classes at the […]

The city of Manbij, a city of 72,000 people northeast of Aleppo, is relatively stable compared to other Syrian cities. This stability has turned it into a destination for some of Syria’s internally displaced people, who arrive in search of security, jobs, markets, and education. This is Manbij today through the photographs of Zaid Mohammad. The photos were taken on […]

By Raheel Ibrahim* (Jaramana, Syria) - The anger is clear on the face of Motaz, 34, who works as a waiter in a restaurant as he talks about the opposition rockets and mortar shells that regularly fall on the town of Jaramana in the suburbs of Damascus. “Everyone should know that our patience has begun to run out and that […]

By Ghaith Ahmad (Deir al-Zor, Syria) - The Judicial Sharia Committee in Deir al-Zor was established by Islamist oriented factions of the armed opposition that took control of large parts of the city and its suburbs in the summer of 2012. Officials in the city say journalists are not permitted to name the area where the Sharia Committee’s headquarters is […]

Social media have had a significant role in disseminating information and ideas in the Arab countries that witnessed uprisings against the ruling regimes. These forums, however, have played a limited role in promoting the concept of transitional justice. This short animated feature discusses what social media activists could do to support transitional justice. It also offers advice to activists to […]

After the current conflict in Syria ends, the future government will have to reform security and judicial institutions. This short animated movie presents recommendations made by Syrian activists on how to restructure security apparatuses and courts to conform with human rights standards.

Transitional justice is a process applied in societies that are in a transitional phase, such as dealing with changes following a civil war or the fall of a political regime. What are the most prominent experiences in achieving transitional justice in the Arab world? And what are the challenges that might face Syria in achieving transitional justice after the end […]

This short animated movie presents the events that happened in Syria in 2011, and led to a popular uprising against the regime, and how this uprising developed into an armed conflict between opposition and government forces.

Abdel Karim Jaafar (Raqqa, Syria) - Tensions are running high in the city of Raqqa, where the Islamic State of Iraq and Sham, know by the acronym ISIS, is seeking to expand its influence at the expense of the other armed opposition groups on the ground, including the Free Syrian Army.

By Hazzaa al-Adnan (Kfar Nabl, Syria) - “He who steals from a thief is as legitimate as he who inherits from his father,” said Abu Rashid, a 55- year-old farmer, after he cleared around 2000 square metres of Kfar Nabl mountain’s state-owned forestland and surrounded the area with stones. Over 50 of the residents of Kfar Nabl in the province […]