The INOVAS network comprises individual members as well as organisations who are fighting for justice and accountability around the world.
List is under development.
Conflict Victims Committee (Nepal)
The Conflict Victims Committee (CVC) is a group of victims from Nepal’s decade-long civil war, primarily from the Tharu community in the conflict-affected Bardiya District. It was formally established in early 2007, with members seeking truth, justice, reparations, and accountability for disappearances, killings, and torture suffered during the conflict, all within a framework of human rights and community support.
In 2019, a group of seven women activists, four of them being direct victims of human rights violations, formed the Women’s Association for Victims’ Empowerment (WAVE). WAVE-Gambia is a women’s rights, women-led organisation. We began by supporting victims in The Gambia’s transitional justice process and we have since expanded our mission to advocate for rights of victims, and trauma support, especially in remote areas. The organisation focuses on empowering women and vulnerable groups, promoting human and women’s rights, women and girls with disabilities, sexual violence survivors, and empowerment initiatives, fostering their inclusive and enduring engagement in public life and transitional justice processes. It is committed to activism, embracing an intersectional approach to combat gender inequality and foster accountability.
Synergy Association for Victims is a non-governmental, non-profit association, aimed at seeking justice for the conflict victims in Syria, through empowering them to represent themselves, claim their rights, actively participate in accountability efforts, and achieve justice. Synergy was founded on March 11, 2021, by a group of Syrian victims, and it adopts the community-based approach to organize the victims and survivors, enhance their capabilities, and engage them in shaping plans and policies, as well as implementing activities.
Caesar Families Association (Syria)
We are a group of families that have lost loved ones under torture, our loved ones became the victims of forced disappearance in the Syrian regime’s prisons. We identified our relatives in the Ceasar photos which were leaked from the Syrian regime detention centres. We’ve been working together since February 2018 in Berlin to establish the Caesars Families Association (CFA). CFA aims to unify our voices, demanding truth, justice, and restitution for the victims of torture and forced disappearance in Syria.
Founded in 2007, the main objective of the organisation is to defend the rights of victims by calling on the Colombian state to restore their rights of truth, justice, reconciliation and guarantees of non-repetition. Renacer was the first organisation to be established in the department of Cauca, just after the so-called paramilitary demobilisation in Colombia. It has around 450 victims spread across five councils and an indigenous council.
Asociación Movimiento Nacional de Víctimas del Conflicto Armado Interno de Guatemala (Q’anil Tinamit) (Guatemala)
Formed in 2004, the Asociación Movimiento Nacional de Víctimas del Conflicto Armado Interno de Guatemala (Q’anil Tinamit) has fought for the rights of victims and survivors of the Guatemalan conflict by advocating with authorities to provide right to truth, memorialisation and a proper system of reparations.
Association for Justice and Rehabilitation (Tunisia)
Founded in 2011 in the immediate aftermath of Tunisia’s uprising, the Association for Justice and Rehabilitation documents human rights violations and establishes transitional justice platforms in Tunisia, with a view to preserving the collective memory of Tunisian victims and survivors following decades of dictatorship.
Committee of the Families of the Kidnapped and Missing in Lebanon (Lebanon)
Founded in 1982 at the height of the Lebanese Civil War, the Committee of the Families of the Kidnapped and Missing in Lebanon has fought for decades for the ‘right to know’ of tens of thousands of Lebanese families who experienced enforced disappearances during the conflict.
Founded in 2010, the Initiative for Vulnerable Persons and Women in Action for Integrated Development (IPVFAD) aims to protect victims of gender-based and sexual violence in the Democratic Republic of Congo and to prevent further crimes of sexual violence. The organisation conducts a range of activities including awareness-raising in local communities, documentation of rights violations, advocacy work and providing support to victims and survivors of sexual violence.
Khulumani Support Group (South Africa)
Founded in 1995 ahead of the formation of the South Africa’s Truth and Reconciliation Commission, the Khulumani Support Group is a network of more than 100,000 victims and survivors of apartheid-era political violence and gross human rights violations. The organisation focuses on advocacy for redress, partnerships for dialogue for reconciliation, and the economic empowerment of survivors and their descendants; its programmes involve the implementation of trauma-informed models of community empowerment.
Network of Families of the Disappeared in Nepal (NEFAD) (Nepal)
Founded in 2009, NEFAD brings together families of victims of enforced disappearance in Nepal to advocate for truth, justice, memory and reparation. NEFAD provides support, advocacy and relief for the families of victims of enforced disappearances, while giving national representation to grassroots members, activists and family associations across the country and ensuring that local voices are heard at the highest levels of the justice process. At the heart of NEFAD’s mission is the search for truth, and the network seeks to empower, unite and amplify families’ concerns at the national level through their main activities: advocacy (mobilization and policy lobbying), capacity-building (leadership skills of family advocates and advancing grassroots movements) and local programs (localising justice initiatives and memorialization).
Proyecto VOS-Voices of Survivors (USA/Argentina)
Founded in the 2000s, Proyecto VOS-Voices of Survivors empowers victims and survivors of state-sponsored violence by bringing them to lecture at US universities. The organisation aims to put victims and survivors at the forefront of conversations, presentations and debates about the abuses they suffered.
Relais Prison-Société Association (Morocco)
Founded in 2005, the Relais Prison-Société Association combats recidivism through rehabilitation and assistance, and works to reintegrate prisoners into society after leaving prison. The organisation’s activities have included providing training to former prisoners and providing services to current detainees including vulnerable groups such as women and children.
Taafi (Syria)
Founded in 2017, Ta’afi supports and protects survivors of detention and victims of torture upon their release and settlement at a secure location, so that they may continue to peacefully support human rights changes in Syria and to advocate and pursue justice and accountability. Ta’afi also has a solidarity network of over a hundred Syrian survivors of detention across the world.
Banner Photo Credit: Impunity Watch