Resource Library

Refugees and internally displaced persons (IDPs) have often been directly affected by the crimes truth commissions seek to expose, and have a major stake in the success of transitional justice processes, which can shape the stability of post-conflict communities as well as the prospec...

Displacement was a major tactic used by armed groups during the brutal conflict in Liberia from 1989 to 2003. It is estimated that during this time, half the country’s population experienced displacement as a result of warfare. The large numbers of people forced from their homes mean...

This paper considers the efforts of Timor-Leste’s Commission for Reception, Truth and Reconciliation to address the forced displacement that occurred during the period of Indonesian occupation and in the post-Popular Consultation violence of 1999. It examines linkages between the wor...

An internal armed conflict involving the government, leftist guerrillas, and a variety of paramilitary groups and criminal bands has endured in Colombia for the last 60 years, generating massive levels of displacement. A comprehensive truth commission that investigates major human ri...

ICTJ provides an overview of various United States Commissions of Inquiry. This publication includes briefs on the Senate and House Committee Investigations of the Palmer Raids in 1920, the Senator Frank Church Committee in 1975, a commission into wartime relocation and internment of ...

This chapter examines the largely overlooked relationship between female ex-combatants, DDR, and transitional justice, with a particular focus on truth commissions. The potential of truth commissions to recognize women’s multiple and contradictory roles during armed conflict and to pu...

Generally, disarmament, demobilization, and reintegration (DDR) programs and truth commissions have operated independently of one another. This has resulted in missed opportunities for strengthening DDR and truth commissions. DDR’s reintegration aims may be furthered by increased trut...

Truth commissions can provide a stage for a potentially powerful encounter with the past (and present) at the level of public discourse. While their capacity to effect transformation in societies marked by patterns of identity-related marginalization and exclusion is limited (and the ...