1408 results

This report provides parameters for the creation of a reparations program in Peru. The program must be included in the process of raising a new national awareness in Peru regarding past abuses and building a legal-political framework more responsive to human rights. To ensure sustaina...

In this op-ed, ICTJ Vice President Paul Seils analyzes the criminal justice agreement announced by the Government of Colombia and the FARC and discusses what aspects of the deal need clarification to ensure that it is capable of delivering the kind of truth and justice that victims of Colombia's armed conflict deserve.

A new report on attacks on schools in Syria harnesses documentation to call attention to atrocities and advance storytelling, truth seeking, acknowledgment. It is the product of Save Syrian Schools, a collaborative project led by 10 Syrian civil society organizations and the ICTJ that demands an end to the killing of Syrian children and justice for the bombing of schools.

This report examines attacks on schools in Syria from multiple angles: from the legal implications of such attacks to the everyday impact on students, teachers, families, and society at large. It is the product of Save Syrian Schools, a collaborative project led by 10 Syrian civil soc...

Difficult Peace, Limited Justice: Ten Years of Peacemaking in the DRC reviews the efforts to address justice during ten years of varied peace negotiations in the Democratic Republic of Congo. A close look the dynamics of peace talks and the resulting accords -- including those of Sun ...

This report arises out of a perceived opening or window of opportunity for transitional justice intervention around the specific gross human rights violation of enforced disappearances and abductions in Nepal. This issue connects powerfully to several dominant concerns within the tran...

This report offers analysis of the current situation regarding the judicial handling of cases related to the post-election violence in Cote d’Ivoire. It looks at existing legal and political challenges within the domestic proceedings and suggests possible solutions.

DDR programs are seldom analyzed to consider justice-related aims; and transitional justice mechanisms rarely articulate strategies for coordinating with DDR. Disarming the Past: Transitional Justice and Ex-combatantsexamines how these two types of initiatives have connected—or failed...

This report examines the contribution of transitional justice to prevention in the Philippines, as well as the limits of this contribution due to the failure to comprehensively address and learn from the past and undertake structural changes. While reparations, truth telling, and inst...

Where does transitional justice stand in Sri Lanka? Kelli Muddell, Director of ICTJ's Gender Justice Program, explores the country's contested historical narratives.

Kenyan media house Africa Uncensored has teamed up with the International Center for Transitional Justice (ICTJ) on a documentary that explores the Bulla Karatasi massacre that took place in the northern region of Garissa, Kenya, and its impact on communities in the North. The documentary will advance ICTJ’s efforts to partner with civil society on community-state dialogue initiatives, engage stakeholders around political and constitutional reforms stemming from the TJRC’s recommendations, and achieve redress for the legacy of state violence in Garissa and other communities in Northern Kenya.

A new short documentary film “Remember Me” tells a powerful story of two young women whose fathers were disappeared during the conflict in Bosnia and Herzegovina.

The Documentation Affinity Group (DAG) was established in 2005 by ICTJ and five partner organizations as a peer-to-peer network with a primary focus on human rights documentation. Documenting Truth collects the best practices derived from the work of the DAG organizations in Cambodia,...

Three years after the so-called the “Arab Spring,” the post-revolution era has so far been marked by a mix of hope and hardships. At the 8th Al Jazeera Forum, ICTJ President David Tolbert explains what went wrong.

In this op-ed, ICTJ President David Tolbert argues that President Alassane Ouattara should use his second term as president to address widespread atrocities committed in Cote d'Ivoire's recent past.

It may seem trivial for me to write about why those who continue to mark July 17 as "International Justice Day" should finally stop calling it that. Many human rights groups (including ICTJ), United Nations agencies, and governments have been publicly using that phrase since 2010. It is for victims of massive and systematic human rights violations, including abuses that amount to international crimes under the Rome Statute, that it is important to end the misconception that the phrase encourages.

This publication is intended to facilitate the process of drafting a mandate for a truth commission charged with the nonjudicial investigation of serious human rights violations. It covers the different aspects of a legal mandate that are necessary to enable an effective truth-seeking...

A new amnesty law passed by the government in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) will grant amnesty to hundreds of members of armed groups engaged in hostilities, including members of the infamous M23 rebels, but stops short of pardoning serious crimes.

Providing justice to victims of human rights abuses in fragile contexts such as the Central African Republic (CAR) is challenging for reasons related not only to the state’s stability, capacity, and political will, but also socioeconomic inequality in the country. This research report...

A young girl stands in the doorway to her house

This paper summarizes the basic facts about the Dujail trial, the first trial before the Iraqi High Tribunal (IHT) against Saddam Hussein and seven others. It also summarizes facts about the IHT in general. It considers both what the Iraqis wanted out of the trial, what such prosecuti...

In the Netherlands, a court sentenced an arms dealer to 19 years in prison for his role in war crimes in Liberia. What does his case tell us about pursuing justice for economic crimes in Liberia and beyond?

In less than two months since the inauguration of Rodrigo Duterte as president of the Philippines some 1,900 people have been killed at the hands of the police and death squads for suspected drug dealing or drug addiction. These unlawful murders echo the pattern of widespread and systematic extrajudicial killings that the country suffered under dictator Ferdinand Marcos.

As attested by the arrest on January 3, 2013 in the United Kingdom of Kumar Lama, a Nepali Army Colonel suspected of torture, the government of Nepal’s failure to pursue truth and accountability for conflict-era violations can have serious consequences. Rather than resisting UK efforts to implement its obligations under international law, the Nepali government should develop a full transitional justice programme and redouble its efforts to provide truth, justice and reparations inside the country.

This journal article examines challenges to the legitimacy of the Special Tribunal for Lebanon (STL). These challenges include selective impunity, the highly selective nature of the jurisdiction of the STL, and the fears that the STL itself will act as an instrument for foreign powers...

This report, part of a joint research project by ICTJ and UNICEF on the intersections of education, transitional justice, and peacebuilding, explores how a transitional justice framework can help to identify educational deficits relating to the logic of past conflict and/or repression...