Thirteen years after the fall of Soeharto, victims in Indonesia continue to suffer from the negative effects of gross human rights violations and from ongoing discrimination. Although efforts by the president and the National Human Rights Commission (Komnas HAM) to create a reparations policy have lost momentum, victims' demands have not diminished. This report by ICTJ, IKOHI and KKPK makes recommendations to the government to take both immediate and longer-term actions to meet victims' demands for reparation.
During peace negotiations, there is often a belief that providing amnesties for certain crimes will help promote national reconciliation. Nepal's Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC) Bill currently contains provisions on both amnesty and reconciliation. However, the Bill itself is not explicit in linking the ability to recommend amnesty to its reconciliation provisions. This briefing note seeks to explore the concepts of amnesty and reconciliation, and highlight a few implications of the Bill's provisions for victims.
This report is the fourth in a series monitoring the implementation of a collective reparations program in Peru since 2007, by ICTJ and the Association for Human Rights in Peru (APRODEH). The publication examines the effects of this reparations program through interviews with the beneficiaries and provides a platform for the voices of communities of the Andes and the Amazon to explore to what extent the program has been effective. Spanish only.
“Through a New Lens: A Child-Sensitive Approach to Transitional Justice” analyzes experiences of four countries—Liberia, Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), Colombia and Nepal—and identifies some key lessons on children’s participation in transitional justice measures.
This paper documents the opinions of victims of human rights violations in Kenya about the country’s unfolding transitional justice process. The first section gives background into the human rights violations; the second section presents victims ideas about reparative justice. The report recommends implementing an urgent reparations program to address the needs of the most vulnerable victims, as well as establishing a process to lead to a more comprehensive reparations program in the future.
In April, the World Bank released its 2011 World Development Report (WDR) entitled Conflict, Security, and Development. It is the first WDR that links transitional justice to security and development and places human rights violations at the heart of its analysis of conflict. ICTJ has produced a fact sheet outlining the core findings of the report as they pertain to transitional justice.
This policy brief reviews the work of the United Nations Human Rights Council as it relates to transitional justice, five years after the Council's establishment. Overall findings indicate that the Council and its mechanisms, notably the system of Special Procedures, have approached justice for mass atrocities in a piecemeal and—sometimes—politicized manner. More effective use of a transitional justice framework could strengthen the Council's ability to fulfill its mandate to address human rights violations and prevent future abuse.
A joint report released by the International Center for Transitional Justice (ICTJ) and KontraS (the Commission for the Disappeared and Victims of Violence) examines the variety of state-sponsored initiatives to address mass violations of human rights in Indonesia since the fall of Soeharto’s New Order regime. The research concludes that senior government officials consistently and repeatedly failed to achieve truth, accountability, institutional reform and reparations for the most serious crimes.
Since 1990, 65 former heads of state or government have been legitimately prosecuted for serious human rights or financial crimes. Many of these leaders were brought to trial in reasonably free and fair judicial processes, and some served time in prison as a result. This book explores the reasons for the meteoric rise in trials of senior leaders and the motivations, public dramas, and intrigues that accompanied efforts to bring them to justice.
Following field research in late 2009 and a 2010 workshop in Kinshasa, ICTJ produced a report in French on the challenges of enforcing court-ordered reparations. This briefing paper outlines and summarizes the challenges and recommendations discussed in the report. It also proposes additional steps that the government, international community, victims and civil society organizations can take to address the failure of the DRC to fulfill outstanding orders for reparations, as well as broader measures that can be implemented, including non-judicial reparations measures. (French)