Features

March 1, 2006

Happy Fifth Anniversary, ICTJ!

Five years ago, the International Center for Transitional Justice (ICTJ) was established to give form to an emerging horizon of international human rights work, specifically focused on helping to resolve the problems societies in transition confront when burdened with a legacy of human rights violations and mass atrocity.

In 2001, the ICTJ was a newcomer to the field of human rights. Since then, the Center has become a focal point for work and discussions around accountability, international standards for justice, and conflict resolution. What started as a small, New York-based operation with a core staff of three has since transformed into a wide-ranging and diverse international organization with a staff of 43 spread among offices in Brussels, Geneva, Cape Town, Kinshasa, Monrovia, and New York, and numerous consultants placed around the world.

This change reflects a desire to both decentralize and internationalize, in the hope that deepening our global presence will help strengthen our capacity to meet the increasing demand for our work and reach an ever greater range of actors. In Africa and the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region, for example, our expanded presence on the ground is enabling us to better anticipate transitions; develop stronger regional ties; and engage in the kind of local capacity building that is desperately needed. Building on our recent success collaborating with intergovernmental agencies like the United Nations, our new offices in Europe and Africa will allow us to deepen our engagements with organizations like the African Union, the European Union, the newly created Human Rights Council, and the International Criminal Court-all of which can play a critical role in developing and raising standards for truth, justice, and accountability.

The ICTJ's geographic expansion is mirrored by an ongoing elaboration of the fundamental concepts underpinning the field of transitional justice itself. Given its proximity to issues of accountability and impunity, the Center is uniquely poised to contribute to an emerging body of knowledge that is inseparable from the transitional justice field and includes reparations; security sector reform; demobilization, disarmament, and reintegration (DDR); and peacebuilding. We have maintained our deep involvement with truth-seeking and prosecutions efforts-working closely with all ten global truth commissions in the past five years and with various tribunals around the world-while also developing focused expertise in these newer thematic areas. Later this month, our extensive reparations handbook will be published by Oxford University Press-the first of its kind and the result of four years of research. Similarly, our pioneering work with vetting has drawn us into a global engagement with security sector reform, where it is increasingly acknowledged that transitional justice approaches can contribute significantly to securing peaceful resolutions to violent conflicts, while addressing some of the institutionalized roots of human rights violations.

As we expand our thematic and geographic reach, we are also exploring new modes of soliciting input from and representing victims, seeking to ensure that our approach to transitional justice remains primarily informed by the needs of the people it exists to serve. The ICTJ is committed to engaging in more empirical survey work to solicit various perspectives on justice, impunity, and the broader needs of victim communities, particularly in conflict zones. Building on the recent success of our groundbreaking work in Iraq, Uganda, Afghanistan, and Colombia-where we have relied on surveys of victims' needs to inform and shape our programmatic work and international policy-we are redoubling our commitment to such projects. The Center is also conscious of the need for thorough reflection and analysis of its transitional justice efforts, hoping to make better use of lessons learned for future engagements. To that end, we are deepening our analyses of the effects of conflict, human rights violations, and transition on women and children to understand how best to address the consequences of past abuse.

Finally, we are proud to note that the Center's profile has become increasingly more visible on the global stage, as justice institutions, nongovernmental organizations, policymakers, donors, and the media have become keenly aware of our unique contributions to some of the most compelling and challenging issues of our time. The ICTJ's steady persistence in reaching out to a growing number of people through trainings, fellowships, capacity building, engagement with international and local press, and translations of many of our materials, have all secured a place for transitional justice in the broader international dialogue on accountability and the rights of victims.

On the heels of our fifth anniversary on March 1st, 2006, the launch of our new website is a manifestation of how far we have come as an institution. A vastly improved resource base, this new site will not only multiply access to ICTJ resources, but will also contribute substantially to what remains our fundamental reason for existing: to share resources; enhance capacity; and lend a voice to victims around the world in their struggle for truth and justice.

Juan E. Méndez
President, ICTJ