Resource Library

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 ...

In situations of large scale violence and repression, reparations are best conceptualized as rights-based political projects aimed at giving victims due recognition and at enhancing civic trust both among citizens and between citizens and state institutions. This paper explores, in th...

While Rwanda has gone further than any other post-conflict state in prosecuting lower-level perpetrators for mass atrocity, transitional justice mechanisms were deliberately kept separate from the DDR program. On one hand, DDR largely succeeded despite a firm policy against amnesty. O...

While Rwanda has gone further than any other post-conflict state in prosecuting lower-level perpetrators for mass atrocity, transitional justice mechanisms were deliberately kept separate from the DDR program. On one hand, DDR largely succeeded despite a firm policy against amnesty. O...

In Sierra Leone, the disarmament, demobilization and reintegration (DDR) process and transitional justice initiatives occurred in temporal proximity. Disarmament and demobilization were largely successful in Sierra Leone. Some research suggests, however, that accountability measures ...

In Sierra Leone, the disarmament, demobilization and reintegration (DDR) process and transitional justice initiatives occurred in temporal proximity. Disarmament and demobilization were largely successful in Sierra Leone. Some research suggests, however, that accountability measures ...

Essential among South Africa's transition programs was a process to disarm, demobilize, and reintegrate ex-combatants and to create a new defense force integrating the armed forces of opposing parties into a united military structure. Yet, DDR remained largely independent from other t...

Essential among South Africa's transition programs was a process to disarm, demobilize, and reintegrate ex-combatants and to create a new defense force integrating the armed forces of opposing parties into a united military structure. Yet, DDR remained largely independent from other t...

This paper’s principal aim is to provide a cogent analytical framework on the range of possible or ideal relationships between DDR programs and amnesties. It assesses whether and how amnesties can serve to maximize the effectiveness of a DDR program, while doing the least harm possibl...

Disarmament, demobilization, and reintegration (DDR) programs and prosecutions of international crimes have become prominent features in the landscape of postconflict states. Some tension between them is inherent. Nonetheless, there is compatibility in the larger, long-term goals of D...

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...

The general aim of this paper is to construct an argument about the advisability of drawing links between disarmament, demobilization, and reintegration (DDR) and reparations programs, but not just because this is better from the standpoint of justice. It can be argued that the securi...

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...

Little has been written about the relationship between transitional justice measures and DDR programs with respect to child ex-combatants. We argue that the primary avenue through which transitional justice measures may positively affect the reintegration of former child combatants is...

This publication, written for the UNDP, provides operational guidelines on the implementation of vetting programs in post-conflict societies.

Local justice is sometimes presented as an alternative to or substitute for other measures of transitional justice, often due to political, cultural, or practical considerations. This chapter argues that local justice addresses the (comparatively neglected) reintegration aspect of DDR...

The focus of this paper is on initiatives of DDR, SSR, and transitional justice as they relate in peacebuilding contexts. This paper considers the connection between the three types of initiatives: first, by exploring the relationship between DDR and transitional justice; second, by e...

Despite their shared settings, transitional justice and development rarely connect with one another. Increasing the awareness of the potential contributions that each process can make to the other, the opportunities for mutual support, cooperation, and learning, and the trade-offs tha...

In the summer of 2009, ICTJ’s Research Unit completed a major research project on the relationship between transitional justice and development, two fields that until now have proceeded in isolation from one another. In May 2009, In May, Pablo de Greiff and Roger Duthie sat down with...

After periods of extended political conflict and of repression or state terrorism, there is an active political struggle about the meaning of what occurred. This paper illustrates some processes through which silenced or hidden ethnic, cultural or gender dimensions come to light durin...

International and hybrid jurisdictions have been created in response to the commission of heinous international crimes: genocide, crimes against humanity and war crimes, including mass rape. This article shows that, by their legal definitions, genocide and crimes against humanity are ...

Trials re-enact periods of violence and state repression in order to submit them to authoritative judgment. The legal judgment is, however, only one aspect of such trials, which have broader educational and transformative goals. The question posed in this paper is whether or not trial...

This paper explores how enforcement of international criminal law currently addresses socioeconomic and environmental crimes. It specifically examines current efforts to promote accountability for: (1) environmental war crimes and (2) property crimes and expropriation. The paper then ...

This paper makes explicit some of the connections between transitional justice and development, two sprawling fields characterized by fuzzy conceptual borders and by both internal and external dissent. Taking seriously the idea of connecting, however, also means preserving the integri...

Development theory and practice to date has not engaged extensively with transitional justice. This paper explores tentative pathways to conceive of how development and transitional justice practices connect-from a development practitioner's point of view.