Women In Transitional Justice: Narratives, Empowerment and Solidarity in Syria (WITNESS)
Swiss partners
- Swisspeace: Julie Bernath (main applicant), Sahar Ammar
MENA partners
- American University of Beirut: Fouad M. Fouad (main applicant), Chantal Youssef
Other research partners
- Women Now For Development: Bayan Almaleh
Presentation of the project
The WITNESS project aims to document how lived experiences of enforced disappearances in post Assad Syria inform women’s current formulation of normative claims regarding TJ and expectations toward state and non-state actors. It makes strategic use of participatory research to ensure that local voices are included in knowledge production on TJ. It leverages participatory research to foster dialogue, capacity building and knowledge transfer, empowering research participants (i.e. female relatives of the disappeared) to engage in policy discussions on TJ with national and international stakeholders, based on their lived experiences.
WITNESS builds on SUPPSAL, an integrated, transdisciplinary research and social-impact initiative that addresses a critical gap in knowledge and practice regarding the mental health and psychosocial consequences of intersecting experiences of enforced disappearance and protracted forced displacement among forcibly displaced Syrian women. SUPPSAL combines academic research, applied research, and the design and implementation of MHPSS interventions to inform culturally and gender-responsive services that remain largely unavailable or inaccessible to affected women across host environments.
The project is implemented in a collaboration between swisspeace, the American University of Beirut (AUB), and the feminist civil society organisation “Women Now for Development”, bringing together expertise in political science, peace and conflict studies, global health, and feminist research. SUPPSAL is built on participatory research, positioning affected women not merely as research subjects but as active contributors to knowledge production, analysis, and intervention design across multiple contexts.