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The International Center for Transitional Justice (ICTJ) assists countries pursuing accountability for past mass atrocity or human rights abuse. More
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Transitions
TJ News and Analysis from around the World
Under the Lens
Transitional Justice Pioneer
A year ago, Driss Benzekri, a prominent Moroccan human rights advocate and head of the first truth commission to be established in the Middle East and North Africa region, passed away leaving behind a rich legacy of achievements and advances in the human rights and transitional justice field.
Benzekri, who was 57 at the time of his death, played a unique role in the country's political, legal, and social transition, having won the trust and confidence of scores of victims of the repression era known as the "Years of Lead," as well as of King Mohammed VI and his advisers.
In 1974, as part of a broad crackdown on opposition groups, Benzekri was arrested for his left-wing student activities and spent the next 17 years in jail. After 18 months spent in Derb Moulay Cherif, a notorious torture center in Casablanca, he was transferred to Kenitra Central Prison. In 1991-13 years before the end of his sentence-the late King Hassan II freed Benzekri.
After his release, Benzekri devoted his efforts to the promotion of human rights and the rule of law in Morocco. In the 1990s, he worked for the independent Moroccan Organization for Human Rights and the Moroccan Section of Amnesty International. In 1999, he co-founded the Moroccan Forum for Truth and Justice, a victims' advocacy organization that he led until 2002. King Mohamed VI then appointed Benzekri as Secretary-General of the national Advisory Council on Human Rights (CCDH), a position through which he advocated for the creation of a truth commission to address the legacy of past human rights abuses.
In late 2003, Mohammed VI asked Benzekri to form a 17-member Equity and Reconciliation Commission (IER), naming him as its head.
As the first truth commission to be established in region, the IER sought to establish the truth about disappearances and arbitrary detentions that occurred between 1956 and 1999; outline the need for reparations to victims; and issue recommendations for reforms to prevent the repetition of such abuses. Although the IER lacked judicial powers of investigation, public authorities were under an obligation to cooperate because of its royal support. Under Benzekri's direction, the IER examined more than 22,000 victims' applications and held victim-centered, public hearings televised throughout Morocco-a first for the region.
The Commission concluded its official mandate in November 2005, presenting its final report to the king shortly thereafter. The king approved its public release and asked the CCDH to carry out its recommendations.
At the end of the IER's formal work, Benzekri expressed the "hope to see [its] conclusions and results contribute meaningfully to both the history of [the] country and to paving the way for building a state of justice."
In its final report the IER determines the responsibilities of state actors and some other parties for abuses including disappearances, arbitrary detention, torture, excessive use of lethal force and sexual violence. It outlines extensive individual and communal reparations plans and recommends the Prime Minister issue a public apology for past abuses. The report also recommends concrete steps the Moroccan government and civil society can take to ensure the abuses are not repeated, such as reforms that strengthen the rule of law and increase judicial oversight of the functions of the security services.
 Benzekri became President of the CCDH and turned his attention to ensuring the implementation of the Commission's recommendations, including those geared toward victims as well as reforming official institutions and building the rule of law.
Despite the significant progress made in carrying out the IER's recommendations, important work remains to be done. "We believe that the Moroccans will find enough inspiration in Benzekri's legacy to complete the process initiated by the IER" says Hanny Megally, director of ICTJ's Middle East and North Africa Program. "By remembering Driss Benzekri, ICTJ would like to honor the memory of a transitional justice pioneer whose legacy has transcended Morocco's borders."
The ICTJ was honored to work closely with the IER and Driss Benzekri as well as the other actors of the Moroccan transitional justice process, providing ongoing technical assistance and comparative information. The Center is now involved in efforts to assess the work of the IER and advance its recommendations.
Photo:Agdz, Morocco April 2007. A former detention center. Photo by Louis Bickford.
Burma: Moving Toward Transition?
One week before the SPDC-Burma's ruling military junta-planned to hold a referendum on a new constitution, Cyclone Nargis hit the Irrawaddy delta region and the country's main city, Rangoon. According to UN estimates, up to 2.5 million people are in urgent need of food, water, shelter and medicine. The International Committee for the Red Cross estimates that as many as 128,000 have died.
Despite the humanitarian emergency, the SPDC held the referendum as scheduled in the areas of the country not directly affected by the cyclone. The junta, always wary of the presence of foreigners, meanwhile remained reluctant to allow international aid workers into the country.
The SPDC had given citizens a month to consider the several-hundred-page document but imposed restrictions on public debate of the draft. Local activists and international human rights groups reported widespread use of intimidation and bribery to ensure a "yes" outcome on May 10. Only a few days after the vote, the regime announced a 99% turnout in the areas that voted and reported that 92.4% voted in favor of the constitution.
In addition to these procedural flaws, the constitution's content is problematic in terms of protection of human rights and democratic norms. The constitution fails to protect fundamental freedoms, provides extensive powers to the military, especially in times of emergency, and grants full immunity to SPDC officials for past and future human rights violations.
The immunity clause, Chapter XIV "Transitory Provisions," Article No. 445 of the draft, states, "No legal action shall be taken against those (either individuals or groups who are members of SLORC and SPDC) who officially carried out their duties according to their responsibilities." (The SPDC was formerly called the State Law and Order Restoration Council, or SLORC).
The situation in Burma remains extremely unpredictable, but it may create new opportunities for transition and justice. The ICTJ is closely watching how the new need for international assistance conflicts with the SPDC's fear of foreign intervention, and how the new constitution, especially the immunity clause, calls into question the SPDC's claims of a transition to democracy.
DRC: Countering Impunity for Sexual Violence in Times of War (and Peace)
The U.S. Senate subcommittee on Human Rights and the Law recently asked ICTJ for its views on rape as a weapon of war, and on accountability for sexual violence. ICTJ's statement, developed by the Gender Program and the Kinshasa and Cape Town offices, outlined strategies for expanding the legal basis for prosecuting sexual and gender-based violence against women, girls, men and boys.
A century ago, war affected ten percent of the civilian population; in some cases, it now affects 90 percent, of which women and children constitute the majority. Rape has been integral to war strategies, but the role of armies and non-state actors as perpetrators of gender based violence is often simply accepted as a consequence of war. This is particularly stark in the Democratic Republic of Congo, where sexual violence has currently reached epidemic proportions.
A key feature of the fighting in the DRC has been endemic sexual violence (including sexual slavery, abduction, forced pregnancy and the intentional transmission of HIV/AIDS) and the systemic use of rape as a weapon of war by all armed forces and armed groups. While official statistics are lacking, UNICEF identified nearly 13,000 survivors of sexual violence in eastern DRC between June 2006 and May 2007, a third of them were children, including girl soldiers.
Impunity for sexual violence preceded the recent conflicts in the DRC and continues unabated.
ICTJ, in its recommendations to the subcommittee, urged the U.S. government to support the prosecution of senior officers for rape and sexual violence. Prosecutions of senior officers would be a first step toward addressing impunity for these crimes. ICTJ also emphasized the importance of reforming the military, police, and the judiciary as part of a comprehensive strategy to break the cycle of gender-based violence.
Identities in Transition
In Iraq, the Balkans, Guatemala and elsewhere, ethnicity and religion create troubling complications for transitional justice efforts. This month in The Hague, experts testifying at the trial of Serbian nationalist Vojislav Šešelj described the systematic destruction of mosques, churches, libraries, and other cultural sites during the war in Bosnia.
But once these sites are gone, and communal bitterness and patterns of segregation have set in, what can be done to help foster trust?
This is one of many questions the Research Unit of the ICTJ is tackling in its 18-month project: Identities in Transition: Challenges for Transitional Justice in Divided Societies. In postconflict societies, histories of exclusion, racism, and nationalist violence often create divisions so deep that finding a way to agree on the atrocities of the past seems near-impossible. When many communities make claims to victimhood, they also challenge each other with competing claims as to whose grievances are most painful and matter most.
Confrontations may take on a strongly symbolic character: Memorials, for example, honoring the dead of one community may be perceived as threatening to people of another. More worrying is when these grievances serve as a cover or an excuse for the new abuses-usually at the urging of nationalist politicians.
With the help of researchers from South Africa, Peru, Spain, India, Senegal, Guatemala, Canada, the United States, and Argentina, the Identities in Transition Project is looking for ways to give identity its due. We want to ensure that transitional justice measures are sensitive to the ways in which targeting people on the basis of their ethnic or religious identity may cause distinctive harms-as in the case of destroying cultural heritage dear to them.
We also want to clarify the political challenges that arise in societies where communities are not ready to cooperate, or even agree on a definition of who the victims are.
If transitional justice can find ways to act as a means of political learning across communities, and if it can serve to breakdown harmful myths and stereotypes, then this will be a step toward meeting the challenges for transitional justice in divided societies.
Liberia: Establishing Human Rights
Representatives of the ICTJ Liberia Program, the Open Society Initiative for West Africa (OSIWA), and other partners are planning a two-day seminar in Monrovia in late May on the creation of the Liberia Independent National Human Rights Commission (INHRC).
The seminar will push for the timely establishment of the INHRC and explore the link between the INHRC and the Liberian Truth and Reconciliation Commission. Participants will address the legal, structural, and resource challenges for the INHCR.
The seminar will include about 30 participants from the government, the TRC, civil society, and the international human rights community. Dr. Kwadwo Appiagyei-Atua of the Center for Democratic Development in Ghana and Commissioner Edward Sam of the Sierra Leone Human Rights Commission will attend to share experiences on the establishment of human rights commissions in their respective countries.
The INHRC and the TRC were mandated as part of the Comprehensive Peace Agreement signed in Accra, Ghana in 2003. The TRC Act requires the INHRC--which has not yet been established--to ensure implementation of the TRC's recommendations. The TRC is responsible for investigating gross human rights violations and violations of international humanitarian law in Liberia that occured between 1979 and 2003. Its mandate ends in September, but the TRC may request an extension.
The ICTJ, OSIWA, and partners will continue to consult regionally to expand the work of the conference.
Transitional Justice in The News
Colombia extradited 14 paramilitary warlords to the United States on charges related to drug trafficking. Those extradited were among the leaders of Colombia's illegal right-wing militias blamed for modern Colombia's worst atrocities. Victims of the militias say they fear they may now never learn the fate of loved ones. According to the National Commission for Reparation and Reconciliation, 130,000 people have lodged formal complaints of "atrocious crimes" against the paramilitaries-including murder, rape, forced disappearances and kidnapping.
For the first time, a Truth and Reconciliation Commission will hold formal public hearings in the United States. The Liberian TRC and its U.S. partner, the Advocates for Human Rights, will hold the hearings in St. Paul, Minnesota June 9-14. All TRC commissioners will expected to travel from Liberia to Minnesota to preside over the hearings, the only proceedings to be held outside of Liberia. An estimated 30,000 Liberians live in Minnesota; tens of thousands live elsewhere in the U.S. The Liberian TRC was created by legislation in 2005, after the signing of a peace agreement in 2003.
Despite the damage of Cyclone Nargis, the State Peace and Development Council (SPDC), the ruling junta in Burma, held a referendum on a new constitution on May 10. Burmese in all but 47 townships severely affected by the cyclone voted on the heavily-criticized constitution. The regime announced that in areas of voting, the constitution won the overwhelming support of 92.4% of the population with a 99% turnout. Burma has been without a constitution since 1988. The constitution proposed by the SPDC fails to protect basic human rights, provides extensive powers to the military, especially in times of emergency, and grants full immunity to SPDC officials.
"Pray the Devil Back to Hell," a documentary about the role women played in ending civil war in Liberia, won the award for Best Documentary Feature at the seventh annual Tribeca Film Festival in New York. Directed by the American filmmaker Gini Reticker, the film highlights the efforts of thousands of women to turn the tide of violence in Liberia through sit-ins and other peaceful protests.
The joint Commission for Truth and Friendship plans to submit its final report on human rights violations committed during the 1999 independence vote in East Timor to the Indonesian and Timor-Leste presidents on May 26, but is awaiting confirmation of this date from the two presidents. The CTF, whose officials are from Indonesia and Timor-Leste, began its work in 2005 and had previously been scheduled to file its report on March 31. One of the CTF Commissioners indicated that the report will accommodate the recommendations made by the ICTJ in its January 2008 report, which criticized the CTF's terms of reference and public hearings.
The United States Supreme Court, without voting on the case or issuing a ruling, has let stand the decision by a lower U.S. court to allow a lawsuit brought by South African apartheid victims to proceed against 23 foreign corporations for alleged complicity in human rights violations during the apartheid era. The suit was brought by the Khulumani Support Group, a South African nonprofit organization of apartheid victims and survivors. The Supreme Court lacked the necessary quorum of six justices to issue an opinion; four justices were disqualified as a result of their investments in some of the named companies.
A Bosnian Croat military commander convicted of murder and other serious crimes against Bosnian Muslims in the former Yugoslavia was transferred to a jail in Italy to serve out the remainder of his 18-year sentence. Vinko Martinović, also known as Stela, served as commander of a unit of the Convicts' Battalion, a military unit within the Croatian Defence Council. The International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY) in March 2003 convicted Martinović of murder, willful killing, persecutions, inhumane acts, inhumane treatment, unlawful labor, willfully causing great suffering or serious injury to body or health, and unlawful transfer of a civilian and plunder.
The Canadian government named the two final members of the Indian Residential Schools Truth and Reconciliation Commission. Jane Brewin Morley and Claudette Dumont-Smith will sit on the commission, which will hear testimony from survivors of Canada's residential school system. In April, the government named Justice Harry LaForme as chairman of the three-member panel. The TRC is scheduled to begin a five year program of hearings and reports in June.
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