
Joumana Seif
Expertise
Human RightsICC and International Justice Mechanisms
Peace Negotiations and Mediation
Sexual Violence in Conflict
Details
Media
Syrian state torture on trial Qantara Jun 2, 2023
Saudis Welcome Assad in Diplomatic Win for Syria’s Leader Bloomberg May 19, 2023
Can Europe bring Syrian regime officials to justice? New Arab Apr 12, 2023
How I energize myself to do the work I do Speech Heinrich Böll Stiftung Mar 16, 2023
Joumana Seif: My dream is ‘to help build a democratic Syria’ DW Deutsche Welle Jan 2, 2022
The Syria Trials/The Regime Today 75 Podcasts Nov 4, 2022
After the groundbreaking Koblenz verdict, what justice do Syrians envision? Syria Direct Feb 17, 2022
The fight to prosecute Syrian war criminals New Statesman World Review Podcast Jan 24, 2022
The Trial of Anwar Raslan Al Jazeera Jan 20, 2022
Syrian torture survivors finally came face to face with their tormentor CNN Jan 15, 2022
Syrian ex-colonel faces verdict in German torture trial AFP in France24 Jan 13, 2022
Witnesses Of Alleged War Crimes In Syria Testify Despite Feeling They’re In Danger NPR Sept 16, 2021
A Political Solution in Syria is a long way off International Politics and Society June 15, 2021
Lawyering for Change: Q&A with Joumana Seif on Syria The Tahrir Institute for Middle East Policy Apr 29, 2021
For Syrians, the road to justice begins in Europe France24 March 09, 2021
Syrian Ex-Officer Is Convicted in First Trial of Assad Regime Torture Wall Street Journal Feb 24, 2021
Words against Silence Syrian Center for Legal Studies and Research March 2020
Assad’s henchmen: The painstaking hunt for Syrian war criminals in Europe The New Arab July 30, 2020
Can Syrian sexual violence survivors get justice in Germany? Deutsche Welle DW.com June 2020
Joumana Seif (@SeifJoumana) is a Syrian women’s and human rights activist and lawyer. She is a Research Fellow with the International Crimes and Accountability program at the European Center for Constitutional and Human Rights in Berlin (@ECCHRBerlin). She co-authored, with Wejdan Nassif, Words against Silence, a report on the imprisonment of activists in Syria.
She is a co-founder of the Syrian Women’s Network and the Syrian Women’s Political Movement— Syria’s first women-led political movement. Joumana is also the Chairperson of The Day After , an organization founded in 2012 to support a democratic transition in Syria.
In June 2022 she spoke at the UN Security Council Arria-formula meeting on Syrian women’s voices on detainees and the disappeared in Syria.
She is the 2023 recipient of the Anne Klein Women’s Award, an honour by the Heinrich Böll Foundation recognizing global activists against sexualized violence in armed conflict.
Joumana comes from a politically active family. Her father, a dissident Member of Parliament, went to prison multiple times for his criticism of the Assad regime, and the family’s textile factory was taxed into bankruptcy. In 2012, Joumana fled to Berlin, Germany, where she works to bring women’s voices into peace negotiations and to end the devastating war in Syria. Since 2017, she has worked with the International Crimes and Accountability program of the European Center for Constitutional and Human Rights, focusing on sexual and gender-based violence committed in Syrian detention facilities.