Resource Library

Sexual violence against men and boys in times of conflict or repression is alarmingly common— and takes a markedly consistent form across contexts in terms of how it affects victims and societies as a human rights violation that is taboo to talk about. It has been committed in all cul...

In transitional contexts, reporting does not simply present the facts, but instead shapes the parameters for interpreting divisive political issues. Coverage in such polarized contexts can mitigate or obscure the substance of transitional justice efforts to establish what happened, wh...

Côte d’Ivoire is obligated to provide reparations to victims of both the political violence that shook the country following the 2010 presidential elections and the different episodes of political violence and armed conflict since 1990. Fulfilling this obligation will show that the st...

This report offers analysis of the current situation regarding the judicial handling of cases related to the post-election violence in Cote d’Ivoire. It looks at existing legal and political challenges within the domestic proceedings and suggests possible solutions.

In this briefing paper ICTJ addresses one of the crucial points of the peace negotiations between the Government of Colombia and the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia-People’s Army (FARC-EP): the possibility of providing recourse to the broadest amnesty possible and pardons as pa...

As the refugee crisis deepens, does action on transitional justice issues have to wait for peace? A new paper explores what sort of consultation and documentation work can be done now, while conflict is ongoing, to shape outcomes moving forward.

This manual was created as part of the Framework Cooperation Agreement between the International Center for Transitional Justice and the Attorney General’s Office, with the aim of providing technical assistance to the National Unit for Analysis and Context (UNAC) and supporting the de...

Official public apologies are an important element of a transitional justice policy. As a form of symbolic reparation, an apology is a formal, solemn and, in most cases, public acknowledgement that human rights violations were committed in the past, that they caused serious and often ...

This study provides expert financial and operational analysis and information to help facilitate the establishment of an Independent National Commission for the Missing and Forcibly Disappeared in Lebanon, as envisaged in a draft consolidated bill now before the Lebanese Parliament. ...

This briefing paper calls on the soon-to-be-established NLD-led Burmese government to seriously consider taking steps to deal with Myanmar’s troubled past as a way to help end the cycle of violence and human rights violations in the conflict-torn country.

This educational tool for educators and mentors is designed to help teach young people in Kenya about difficult periods in Kenyan history and foster discussion on issues of justice, democracy, leadership, and their role as Kenyan citizens.

This report, part of a joint research project by ICTJ and UNICEF on the intersections of education, transitional justice, and peacebuilding, explores how a transitional justice framework can help to identify educational deficits relating to the logic of past conflict and/or repression...

Women and girls in Northern Uganda were victims of various forms of sexual violence, crimes whose consequences endure today. Many of the survivors bore children as a result of their violations, and the children born of wartime rape have been largely overlooked by the state. Meanwhile,...

This paper examines the unique, enduring consequences of conflict-related sexual violence in northern Uganda, focusing specifically on the impact of the lack of accountability for sexual crimes leading to motherhood on girls and women, and on the children they bore as a result of viol...

This report examines Colombia’s Victims and Land Restitution Law (2011), which provides comprehensive reparations to conflict victims and restitution to victims of forced displacement who rely on land for their livelihoods – and assesses the challenges of implementing the law under cu...

This briefing paper details and analyzes the progress made so far in Tunisia to implement its historic Transitional Justice Law, with a particular focus on the Truth and Dignity Commission, created one year ago.

This briefing paper summarizes the findings of an ICTJ report (by the same name) on the judicial response to international crimes in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. It makes substantive recommendations to justice stakeholders in the DRC on how to advance prosecutions of internat...

This report analyzes the response of Congolese judicial authorities to international crimes committed in the territory of the Democratic Republic of the Congo from 2009 to 2014, with a particular focus on the war-torn East (North Kivu, South Kivu, and Ituri). It finds that the number ...

The government of Uganda has been slow to address and remedy serious human rights abuses committed against civilians throughout the country, despite its commitment under the Juba peace talks. This paper analyzes some of the underlying factors that seem to impede the implementation of ...

This paper weighs the possible modes and competing policy objectives of punishing FARC members for serious crimes in the context of Colombia’s ongoing peace negotiations. It argues that punishment has to occur in a way that does not damage one of the underlying objectives of the peace...

This briefing paper is the summary of “The Disappeared and the Invisible: Revealing the Enduring Impact of Enforced Disappearances on Women,” a comprehensive study by ICTJ that identifies the impacts and government responses to enforced disappearances as they relate to women in 31 cou...

This report examines the impact on women of enforced disappearances committed during Lebanon’s civil war, focusing in particular on the effects on wives of the missing or disappeared—and their children. The research is based on interviews conducted by ICTJ with 23 wives of missing or ...

This report canvasses 31 countries to see how the crime of enforced disappearance affects women as both the disappeared and the female relatives of the disappeared. It finds that across cultures, women face serious barriers to seeking relief due to discriminatory laws and practices. I...

This paper describes proceedings in Uganda’s national courts against Thomas Kwoyelo, a former mid-level commander of the Lord’s Resistance Army, for war crimes and crimes against humanity. It analyzes the opportunities and challenges for the prosecution of serious crimes in Uganda and...

This briefing paper analyzes and reflects on the development of the ICC prosecutor’s strategy and application of procedural rules, since operations began at the International Criminal Court more than a decade ago. The mixed results of the court’s first cases, which arise from the situ...