The COVID-19 pandemic has served a reminder of democracy’s fragility and the ever-present dangers of authoritarianism, with some leaders taking advantage of emergency health measures to crack down on civil society or political opposition and restrict civil liberties. In Tunisia, where the wounds of the Ben Ali dictatorship are still fresh, the importance of this reminder has not been lost. In 2020, ICTJ’s office in Tunis held the “Create to Connect” art contest to reflect on historical memory in the time of a global health crisis.

After many months of planning and numerous postponements due to the global COVID-19 public health crisis, ICTJ's office in Colombia joined forces with the Movement of Latin American Expressions of Hip Hop and the online cultural outlet Revista Cartel Urbano to host the hybrid virtual and live International Hip Hop Encounter in Bogotá, Colombia on November 25 through November 28.

Después de muchos meses de planeación y retrasos a causa de la crisis global del COVID-19, el ICTJ en Colombia unió fuerzas con Revista Cartel Urbano y el Movimiento de Expresiones Latinoamericanas de Hip Hop para ser anfitriones del Tercer Encuentro Internacional de Hip Hop: verdad, memoria y resistencia, un evento híbrido que se dio del 25 al 28 de noviembre de 2020.

On February 26, the International Center for Transitional Justice and NYU Law’s Center for Human Rights and Global Justice welcomed former President of Colombia and Nobel Peace Prize Laureate Juan Manuel Santos for a conversation on the role of transitional justice in peace negotiations, along with Liv Tørres, the director of the Pathfinders for Peaceful, Just and Inclusive Societies.

As we bid farewell to 2019 and commence a new decade, we take this opportunity to reflect on the past year and look ahead to a defiant future. It is a time to recognize the achievements and challenges of 2019 and consider the lessons we learned through our experience and research to help us work better in the future.