Zimbabwe’s National Transitional Justice Working Group (NTJWG) has said the country is deeply divided and angry, a reality that makes truth-telling a critical factor if genuine healing and reconciliation is to be achieved.

Participants in a recent Masvingo stakeholders’ consultative and monitoring meeting on the work of the National Peace and Reconciliation Commission expressed dissatisfaction with its work. They complained that all the commissioners were concentrated in Harare, and that little or no outreach had happened aside from the work of civil society organizations.

In 2015, Sri Lanka co-sponsored United Nations Human Rights Council (UNHRC) Resolution 30/1 and committed to a range of measures on human rights, accountability, and reconciliation. Sri Lanka’s progress in fulfilling its commitments was discussed on March 20, at the 40th session of the UNHRC.

A case brought by indigenous Ovaherero and Nama and descendants of the estimated 100,000 people who were systematically killed by colonizing Germans between 1904 and 1908 in what is now Namibia was thrown out by U.S. District Judge Laura Taylor Swain for lack of jurisdiction. Attorney Ken McCallion appealed immediately, confident that the Second Circuit will give his clients a reversal.

The issue of reparations has become a hotly politicized topic in the run up to the 2020 presidential election. Reparations as redress for the horrors inflicted upon black people in the United States, both during and after slavery, isn’t a new conversation, but it has gained renewed interest among a segment of black voters, especially those active on social media.

Legislators in El Salvador are considering granting amnesty to those accused of crimes committed during the country’s brutal civil war in the 1980s. The legislation would drop all ordinary criminal charges arising from the war, and it would shield anyone convicted of war crimes from imprisonment.

During one of the discussions opening the civil society dialogue portion of this year’s “Supporting the Future of Syria and the Region” conference, award-winning Syrian human rights lawyer Anwar al-Bunni warned against making deals with criminals wanted by international courts for crimes against humanity.

Only one former British paratrooper is to be charged in connection with the killings of civil rights demonstrators on Bloody Sunday, one of the darkest days of sectarian violence between Northern Ireland and the UK known as the Troubles. The decision drew dismay and calls for accountability from the families who lost loved ones more than 40 years ago. Northern Ireland’s Public Prosecution Service announced the decision after relatives of the 13 people who died on Bloody Sunday marched together through the streets of Derry, where the victims fell, as a symbol of their demand for justice.

In a report to the UN Human Rights Council, the Commission on Human Rights in South Sudan has called on the African Union to quickly establish a court for South Sudan to prosecute perpetrators of heinous crimes and bring justice to victims of sexual violence, torture, and other human rights violations. The Commission has compiled a list of 23 individuals it says are responsible for serious crimes under international law, which will be handed over to the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights for future prosecutions.

The United States will revoke or deny visas to International Criminal Court (ICC) personnel seeking to investigate alleged war crimes and other abuses committed by U.S. forces in Afghanistan, or elsewhere, and may do the same with those who seek action against Israel. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, acting on a threat delivered in September by U.S. National Security Advisor John Bolton, framed the action as necessary to prevent the international body from infringing on U.S. sovereignty by prosecuting American forces or allies for torture or other war crimes.

The High Court of Australia has handed down the biggest "native title" ruling affecting Aboriginal ownership of the land in decades by deciding in favor of the Ngaliwurru and Nungali Aboriginal groups from a remote part of the Northern Territory. "Native title" refers to the rights of Australia's indigenous people to their traditional land and water recognized by Australian common law. The Native Title Act allows aboriginal groups to file native title claims over large parts of the country.