ICTJ has played an instrumental role in the development of core principles relating to the practice of transitional justice. We were closely involved in the development of the UN Secretary General’s 2004 report to the UN Security Council on the Rule of Law and Transitional Justice. This report for the first time linked the concepts of rule of law, justice, and transitional justice in a UN system-wide definition. It also represents the UN leadership’s first, seminal document on the issue.

In 2005, we were the principal consultants drafting the first of the UN Office of High Commissioner for Human Rights Rule-of-Law Tools in Post-Conflict Justice series, including on criminal prosecutions, truth commissions, vetting, and reparations. We have produced a number of groundbreaking publications and guidelines on specific areas of transitional justice. In 2008 ICTJ published The Handbook on Reparations, the most comprehensive study of reparation programs currently available, which provides answers to frequent questions on the design and implementation of large-scale reparation programs worldwide. Before it, ICTJ published a report titled Reparations in Theory and Practice, which was followed in 2009 by the Rabat Report, which helped develop key concepts and distinctions regarding the definition and the challenges of implementing collective reparations in the global South and its links to development programs. In 2007, ICTJ assembled a collection of essays systematically exploring vetting practices in a variety of countries and contexts and published them in a book titled Justice as Prevention: Vetting Public Employees in Transitional Societies. Most recently, we published The Handbook on Complementarity: An Introduction to the Role of National Courts and the ICC in Prosecuting International Crimes, which explores the relationship between the ICC and national judicial systems.