The January issue of Transitions features an interview with Howard Varney, director of ICTJ’s Truth-Seeking Program, who discusses the downside of ‘truth-for-amnesty’ provisions in the design of truth commissions, based on the South African experience, as well as lessons learned from truth commissions in Peru, Liberia and Timor-Leste. The January issue also includes a profile of ICTJ’s Transitional Justice Fellowship Program. “World Report,” the newsletter’s regular roundup of transitional justice news stories from around the world, includes links to stories on detainee abuse in Guantánamo Bay and to ICTJ’s U.S. Accountability Project.
The International Center for Transitional Justice welcomes the decision this week by Kenya's coalition government to establish a Special Tribunal for crimes related to the violence following December 2007 elections. "The agreement is a significant step toward ending the culture of impunity in Kenya," said Suliman Baldo, director of ICTJ's Africa Program.
The conviction of three senior Rwandan army officers at the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR) for their role in organizing and carrying out the 1994 Rwandan genocide that killed over 800,000 people is a significant development in achieving accountability for those crimes, ICTJ said.
Colonel Théoneste Bagosora, Director of Cabinet in the Rwandan Ministry of Defence; Major Aloys Ntabakuze, commander of the Para Commando Battalion; and Colonel Anatole Nsengiyumva, commander of the Operational Sector of Gisenyi, were convicted of genocide, crimes against humanity and war crimes on Dec. 18. All three were sentenced to life imprisonment...
The ruling by South Africa's High Court striking down a prosecution policy that allowed new, de facto amnesties for apartheid-era crimes is a significant victory against impunity for human rights violations. The High Court declared policies adopted by South Africa's National Prosecution Authority in 2005 to be unconstitutional, endorsing arguments made in the legal challenge by relatives of victims of apartheid-era crimes, as well as ICTJ and two other civil society organizations...
Suliman Baldo, director of ICTJ's Africa program, participated in a recent panel on PBS's Charlie Rose Show on the crisis in Eastern Congo. Baldo spoke on the regional and economic dimensions to the crisis, which he said was rooted in "the second chapter of the Rwandan genocide."
It is now widely acknowledged that since September 11, 2001, in its pursuit of a "war on terror," the U.S. administration has authorized and carried out policies involving the systematic abuse of human rights. To ensure that abuses end and are prevented in the future, an expectation and culture of accountability must be firmly established. The experience of ICTJ, based on its work in over thirty countries, is that understanding and dealing with the past are necessary steps toward reinstituting accountability and the respect for rights...
ICTJ is launching a series of concise, up-to-date fact sheets on transitional justice issues around the world. The latest of these publications addresses the case of Thomas Lubanga at the International Criminal Court. Lubanga was arrested in 2006 for conscripting children as soldiers in the Democratic Republic of Congo, but his trial has yet to begin due to complex procedural issues...
