As 2015 comes to a close and ICTJ begins its fifteenth year, I am pleased to share with you this gallery presenting some of our most important work and impacts from the last year, as well as a few of my personal reflections. I am proud of what we have accomplished in 2015, as we worked on a number of important fronts to advance the fight against impunity and bring justice to victims around the world.
In Tunisia, despite a difficult political landscape, the launching of the Truth and Dignity Commission last year has given new hope to victims after decades of repression. Our work to support Tunisia’s truth-seeking efforts has been widely acknowledged in the country and beyond.
In northern Uganda, the long-term, complex heritage of conflict reveals itself in plight of children born to women and girl victims of sexual violence. Based on interviews with dozens of the children and their mothers, ICTJ has argued cogently for long-overdue redress, seeking to prevent lives of marginalization, poverty, and continued abuse.
In Colombia, ICTJ partnered with the Kofi Annan Foundation to launch our joint report on the links between truth commissions and peace processes, thus addressing a question central to the peace talks between the Colombian authorities and the FARC guerillas as they negotiate an end to their 50-year conflict. ICTJ also examined issues relating to criminal justice processes in Colombia, in particular the purpose of criminal penalties and how they should be handled in the context of a peace agreement. The parties have announced an agreement for a truth commission as well as a groundbreaking arrangement that allows for “peace tribunals” to impose alternative sentences on those who confess their crimes. While much remains to be done, these agreements have been welcomed by many, including the prosecutor of the International Criminal Court.
While most enforced disappearances involve men, these violations have a disparate impact on their loved ones and families, who are disproportionately female. This phenomenon was examined in an important ICTJ global study, with a focus on Lebanon and Nepal, which is helping to change the way practitioners engage women in these contexts.
The role that education and transitional justice can play in peacebuilding initiatives is often overlooked in the aftermath of armed conflict and repression. But the way in which societies learn about and remember the past – how and why mass atrocity occurred – can enlarge or reduce the risk of recurring violence and repression. Through an innovative multiyear project, ICTJ partnered with UNICEF to seek out strategies for preventing the recurrence of human rights abuses through education and the participation of children and youth.
Those of us working in the transitional justice and human rights fields also recognize that 2015 was a year that challenged us, with the continuing carnage in Syria and the Middle East as well as atrocities in South Sudan, the Central African Republic, and a host of other countries. The very limited response by the international community in terms of supporting accountability, acknowledgment, and reform for these massive abuses is very troubling indeed.
This year, ICTJ helped to raise the alarm bell with a series of interventions, including an online debate posing the question: “Is the International Community Abandoning the Fight against Impunity?” The debate brought together the views of several prominent personalities in the transitional justice and human rights fields and drew widespread attention to focal points of where more work is needed and where we have cause for hope.
With the advent of the New Year, ICTJ proudly moves ahead into its fifteenth year. This is an exciting time at ICTJ. I think our founders will look with a sense of accomplishment at what ICTJ has achieved thus far. Even more importantly, I believe that victims will find solace and hope in our work. At ICTJ we are on course to redouble our efforts to help societies address legacies of abuse and prevent them from happening again.
With my best wishes for a healthy and prosperous 2016,
David Tolbert, President
International Center for Transitional Justice