ICTJ Forum: Analysis of World Events From a Transitional Justice Perspective

09/17/2012

A soldier walks past a graffiti reading 'Sixth Front FARC - EP for the New Colombia' in the rural area of Caloto, Cauca department, Colombia, on June 3, 2012. LUIS ROBAYO/AFP/GettyImages


In the first ICTJ Forum, transitional justice experts discuss the upcoming peace negotiations between the Colombian government and leftist FARC rebels, the UN Security Council debate on accountability for crimes against children, the proposed ordinance on a Truth and Reconciliation Commission in Nepal, and the first report to the UN Human Rights Council by the recently appointed Special Rapporteur on transitional justice.

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In an effort to illuminate the relevance of transitional justice to some of the most important global news and developments, we introduce the ICTJ Forum, a new feature to headline our World Report, a monthly digest of transitional justice news. In this podcast, our experts discuss and analyze notable events and news from around the world.

To launch the series, ICTJ’s communications director Refik Hodzic sat down with Paul Seils, ICTJ’s vice-president; Marcie Mersky, director of the ICTJ Program Office; and Virginie Ladisch, head of ICTJ’s Children and Youth Program.

Seils, Mersky, Ladisch and Hodzic explore challenges facing the negotiators in Colombia as they seek to end the longest running conflict in the western hemisphere and how the issues of accountability will shape the process.

As ICTJ prepares to take part in the UN Security Council session on children in armed conflict on September 19, our experts look into the measures available to the Security Council to addresses the growing list of state and non-state perpetrators of crimes against children, including forced recruitment of child soldiers. In addition, they discuss the problematic clauses of the bill on a truth commission proposed by a group of ministers in Nepal’s transitional government, which attracted a great deal of criticism from civil society.

Finally, the Forum notes the significance of the first annual report of the newly created Special Rapporteur on issues of truth, justice, reparations, and guarantees of nonrecurrence before the UN Human Rights Council. The report is a major opportunity to clarify the functioning of transitional justice as a set of measures.

Our hope for this new feature is that it complements the World Report and increases the understanding of how transitional justice is linked to important events and processes making news around the world. We invite you to send your feedback to us at communications@ictj.org, and sign up for ICTJ's newsletter here.