Strategic Lawyering Skills Training – Beirut

Strategic Lawyering Skills Training – Beirut

From 7-10 May 2024, Legal Action Worldwide’s (LAW) Syria Programme, in coordination with its partner, the Syrian Center for Legal Studies and Research, hosted a four-day capacity building training for 21 Syrian lawyers in Beirut, Lebanon. The training engaged practitioners from inside Syria that represent civilians targeted with politically motivated prosecutions. It also sought to upskill lawyers working on documenting human rights abuses and collecting evidence of international crimes. The training is part of LAW’s comprehensive approach to the Syria conflict that includes the empowerment of activists and advocates and involving them in international justice and accountability efforts.

LAW’s training centered on key skills involved in the investigative process of large-scale atrocity crimes, with a focus on engaging survivors of such crimes and interviewing them for the purpose of taking testimonial statements. The training is guided by an emphasis on survivor-centered and trauma-informed approach, tailored to the Syrian context. The training incorporated a module introducing the skills needed to investigate sex and gender-based crimes, baring in mind that such crimes are rampant in Syria. The training concluded with practical exercises that allowed participants to put the lessons of the training into practice.

One participant, a Syrian woman attorney who has experience in international criminal investigations, reflected “The training was very useful. The content was new to participants, who learned many things in relation to international criminal law and international investigations. My only wish is that the training was longer so the cohort could benefit more from the trainers’ experience”.

LAW’s Syria programme has trained over 110 legal practitioners and human rights advocates engaged in documentation and investigation in Lebanon, Iraq, Jordan, and Turkey. As enhancing the skills of local lawyers and investigators is quintessential to the Syria Programme’s long-term sustainability goals, continuing to deliver such trainings remains a core element of LAW’s Syria work.