Syria Justice Innovation Network
The Syria Justice Innovation Process (SJIP) consists of a diverse group of Syrians committed to identifying and addressing the everyday legal problems facing Syrians. SJIP does this through partnerships, knowledge platforms, and financing models to promote the use and scale of justice innovations across Syria. The group has worked in partnership with committed justice practitioners since 2018 and has focused on six legal areas for justice innovation: Women’s protection; Access to personal documentation; Housing, land and property rights; Child protection; Access to public services such as healthcare and education; and Safety and security for all Syrians.
As the Syrian crisis enters its 10th year, the gravity and scale of humanitarian needs remain immense. The needs of the Syrian people vary from safety and access to healthcare and education to the protection of their fundamental rights and ongoing everyday justice needs.
Since 2018, the Syria Justice Innovation Process (SJIP) has gathered knowledge on daily legal problems facing the people of Syria. In this time, and with the support and expertise of committed justice practitioners, SJIP has produced practical and innovative tools to help address Syrians’ most pressing legal problems. This effort involves promoting partnerships, coordinating knowledge platforms, and financing models to empower actors who can use these justice innovations in Syria.
“We assessed and discussed the everyday legal problems faced by Syrians, and chose six areas to focus on. These are our Justice Innovation Goals, and together with their respective targets they guide our innovation efforts and design of solutions.”
SJIP is led by a Stakeholder Team of Syrians representing different perspectives, backgrounds, areas of expertise, ages and gender. Based on research covering two years, the team assessed everyday legal problems of Syrians and developed a set of six Justice Innovation Goals. Each SJIP goal was then addressed in a series of unique Justice Innovation Labs. The goals focus on:
- Women’s protection
- Access to personal documentation
- Housing, land and property rights
- Child protection
- Access to public services such as healthcare and education
- Safety and security for all Syrians
Facilitated by HiiL, Justice Innovation Labs take a systemic, collaborative, and experimental approach to justice. The process includes combining evidence-based and stakeholder-driven approaches. Two innovation labs and thirteen small scale initiatives have contributed to reducing violence against women and facilitating access to personal documentations for Syrians. One of several interesting innovations includes Yasmina Bot, a chatbot service in Arabic that provides information and resources for Syrian survivors of sexual and gender-based violence.
SJIP will continue to support and develop scalable, user-friendly solutions that can help tackle the most pressing legal problems facing Syrians.
For more information and updates, please visit the SJIP website.
Project led by Roger El Khoury, Rana Chebly, and James Kahwagi.
Project supported by the European Union.
