Special focus: global view of transitional justice efforts, U.S. accountability, reparative justice, transitional justice in established democracies

Lisa Magarrell is currently Director of ICTJ's Program Office, overseeing all regional and thematic programming, in tandem with the Vice President for Program, Hanny Megally. She is from the United States and is based in the New York office. Most recently, she was director of ICTJ's U.S. Programs, with a focus on accountability for human rights abuses in U.S. counterterrorism operations and on community-based truth-seeking initiatives to address systemic racism in several U.S. states. She has also served as Director of the Reparative Justice unit.

Since joining ICTJ in 2001 she has worked on reparations issues in relation to a number of countries, including Ghana, Guatemala, Liberia, Peru, Sierra Leone, Timor-Leste, and in connection with the Trust Fund for Victims of the International Criminal Court. She led ICTJ's technical assistance on truth-seeking, justice and reparations in Peru for several years and served as advisor to the Greensboro (North Carolina) Truth and Reconciliation Commission and its founding grassroots project.

Ms. Magarrell also served as a technical resource as Canada moved toward a Truth and Reconciliation Commission to address the legacy of forced residential schooling of aboriginal children. She has written widely on transitional justice issues. Her human rights work prior to joining ICTJ includes legal representation of asylum seekers and migrant farm-workers in the United States, extensive human rights documentation and advocacy work with the Non-governmental Human Rights Commission of El Salvador (CDHES-NG) and verification of human rights and other peace agreements in Guatemala as a UN political affairs officer.

She has law degrees from the United States (1979) and El Salvador (1994), and an LL.M. from Columbia University (2001) with a focus on human rights and international law.