Justice and Accountability Program
As first responders, White Helmets volunteers are witnesses to attacks on civilians. We are neutral, impartial and independent. We believe that justice and accountability for atrocities in Syria is crucial for the future of the country and the Syrian people.
We document every attack that we respond to, regardless of the identity of the perpetrators or the victims. Our documentation began with GoPro cameras on the helmets of our volunteers with the aim of improving our training. Then we realised that by sharing our videos online and with international media agencies, we could show the world the atrocities taking place in Syria, raise public awareness and ensure accountability.
As first responders, White Helmets volunteers are witnesses to attacks on civilians. We are neutral, impartial and independent.
We believe that justice and accountability for atrocities in Syria is crucial for the future of the country and the Syrian people.
We document every attack that we respond to, regardless of the identity of the perpetrators or the victims. Our documentation began with GoPro cameras on the helmets of our volunteers with the aim of improving our training. Then we realised that by sharing our videos online and with international media agencies, we could show the world the atrocities taking place in Syria, raise public awareness and ensure accountability.
We have documented thousands of attacks on schools, hospitals, markets, and places of worship across Syria. We’ve collected evidence on chemical attacks, seen the impact of cluster munitions and barrel bombs, and recorded airstrikes on civilian homes, all while rushing to save lives. In the vast majority of cases, these attacks have been perpetrated by the Syrian regime and Russia.
Our work saving lives and documenting atrocities have made us high-profile targets. Our humanitarian centres have been bombed more than 350 times and more than 230 White Helmets volunteers have been killed by indiscriminate attacks since 2013. More than half of these were killed in double-tap strikes, where warplanes return to the site of an attack to bomb first responders. We are also under attack from a systematic disinformation campaign that seeks to undermine the credibility of the evidence we have gathered.
This threat to our lives has not deterred us from documentation. In recent years, we have learned about the power of first-hand documentation for the prosecution of war crimes and crimes against humanity in domestic and international courts.
Our Justice and Accountability Program brings together all of the White Helmets data collected through our humanitarian operations carried out across Syria from 2013 to today, with the aim of supporting legal proceedings, preserving the truth, and bearing witness.
We collect, organise and archive our data and coordinate with international investigative bodies like the Organisation for the Prohibition for Chemical Weapons, the International, Impartial and Independent Mechanism, and the Commission of Inquiry, as well as other non-governmental organisations and researchers working towards justice.
Volunteer Of The White Helmets
We support international civil society, human rights organisations and diplomatic efforts to protect the truth of what has happened in Syria, combat disinformation and denial, advocate for justice and accountability and stand up for global norms protecting human rights and the rights of civilians everywhere.
We have paid a high price for our work to document the atrocities in Syria. As a victim-led group, we support all victims of atrocities in Syria and abroad.
We believe that justice is necessary for the future of peace in Syria and to protect future generations from the threat of atrocity crimes.
Volunteer Of The White Helmets