108 results

This policy brief presents recommendations for transitional vetting based on insights from research on vetting practice. It is meant to complement existing guidelines on vetting put forth by the United Nations and other international organizations. It defines vetting and the risks it ...

Between April 15 and May 3, 2019, ICTJ held a number of consultations with Kenyan youth from several informal settlements in Nairobi and Mombasa to reflect on their understanding of security sector reforms and their connection to the ongoing national dialogue process, particularly as ...

Efforts underway to address the 2008 Kenyan post-election crisis and the conditions that caused it have provided the country with a unique opportunity to address its long history of human rights violations.

This paper explores political exclusion in Kenya and its consequences on the social fabric of the nation. It draws from past governmental reports and analysis to formulate new recommendations that can inform current discourse. It first provides an overview of ethnicity in Kenya. It th...

Sparing almost no corner of the world from its wrath, the COVID-19 pandemic has now spread to every country. In an effort to slow the contagion, governments in most countries have been taking drastic measures requiring all residents other than essential workers to confine themselves in their homes, and shutting down vast sectors of their economies. The impact has been crushing. COVID-19 has profoundly affected every country where ICTJ currently works: Armenia, Colombia, Cote d’Ivoire, Ethiopia, Gambia, Kenya, Lebanon, Libya, Sudan, Syria, Tunisia, and Uganda. We recently caught up with ICTJ’s heads of country programs to learn more about the impact the pandemic is having on transitional justice and society more broadly.

The Africa Union's resolution to collectively support a strategy to withdraw from the ICC looks more like a machination of those who have instrumentalized an argument against the court to protect themselves from the long arm of justice, write ICTJ's top experts on Africa.

ICTJ's expert conference on the relationship between truth-seeking and indigenous rights is in session. View the live stream here.

ICTJ hosted a conference on “Strengthening Indigenous Rights through Truth Commissions” July 19-21, 2011. Regional and international experts convened to discuss how truth commissions can incorporate and address indigenous peoples’ rights. Videos of each session and summaries of the conference proceedings are available.

Evelyn Amony tells the harrowing story of her years in captivity with the LRA, and experience of grinding poverty and stigma after returning home with two children, in her new memoir, I Am Evelyn Amony: Reclaiming my Life from the Lord's Resistance Army . The autobiography, which tells the difficult truths of women and girls in wartime as only a firsthand witness can, will be launched today in New York, at the Japan Society.

This briefing paper reviews the Kenyan government’s response to sexual and gender-based violence committed against women, men, and children during the 2007/2008 post-election crisis. It draws on interviews with over 40 survivors about their experience and analyzes the laws and transit...

In Africa's Great Lakes region, countries face common challenges like bad governance, inequitable distribution of natural resources, and ethnic divisions. As nations like Burundi, Central African Republic and South Sudan work towards peacebuilding and accountability, they should learn from what has worked and what has not in neighboring countries, writes Sarah Kihika Kasande, ICTJ's Head of Office in Uganda.

Given the political challenges emerging from authoritarian states and conflicts in Africa, what is the best way to pursue accountability for violations of international human rights and humanitarian law on the continent? ICTJ experts Chris Gitari and Howard Varney sit down to discuss regional initiatives, complementarity, and other strategies for pursuing accountability.

The Commission of Inquiry into Post-Election Violence (CIPEV) was the outcome of the Kenya National Dialogue and Reconciliation Accord of February 28, 2008, negotiated by Kofi Annan and the Panel of Eminent African Personalities, and its sister agreement of March 4, 2008, known as Age...

The role of police in society is to protect residents and enforce the rule of law. As a public institution, and particularly one whose function includes the state-sanctioned use of force, the effectiveness of the police depends on its integrity and legitimacy. When the police abuses its power, by brutalizing civilians and or engaging in corruption, it loses its credibility and the public’s trust. In Kenya, enforcement of measures to halt the spread of COVID-19 have been accompanied by acts of police brutality, of the kind that Kenyans have been through multiple times before.

On February 14, Kenyans once again confronted their painful relationship with law enforcement and revisited the deep mistrust born of historical abuses. In an unprecedented ruling, a court found five senior police officers potentially culpable in gruesome murder during the police response to the 2017 post-election protests. On the same day, a senior police officer was convicted of murder and jailed for life.

SEILS: ICTJ are delighted to host today a real giant in the world of political and legal struggle. Albie Sachs has not only played a huge and influential role in the development of the South African constitution but after being nominated by Nelson Mandela for 15 years in the new constitutional court...

To mark International Women’s Day, we invite you to read about four countries at the top of our gender justice priorities in the coming year, each with its own history, context, and complex sets of challenges.

This study explores a transitional justice approach to the dilemma of foreign fighters in violent conflict. Such an approach can help center human rights in comprehensive responses to foreign fighters, and shift the current focus from security and punishment to justice and long-term p...

Image of Children looking through holes in a tent at al-Hol displacement camp in Hasaka governorate, Syria, on April 2, 2019.

On March 2 and 3, 2020, transitional justice and anti-corruption policymakers, experts, and activists from the Gambia, Kenya, South Africa, Armenia, and Tunisia met in Tunis for a two-day conference to share solutions to a common problem: How can countries emerging from dictatorship, ...

The National Accord, negotiated in February 2008 by the Panel of Eminent African Personalities led by Kofi Annan, ended the months of violence that followed Kenya’s 2007 presidential election. The transitional justice mechanisms established by the accord have created an opportunity to...

A range of transitional justice measures should be considered in addressing the Kenyan crisis, including holding key perpetrators to account in a court of law, providing reparations for victims of the recent violence, and vetting security forces in order to remove those involved in ab...

As we search for ways to halt the violence and foster lasting peace in societies grappling with a legacy of massive human rights abuse, there is arguably no more important day to reflect upon the importance of the struggle for truth and justice than today, March 24. Thus, we take a moment to mark the International Day for the Right to the Truth concerning Gross Human Rights Violations and for the Dignity of Victims.

The struggle against impunity remains as important –and precarious –as ever as we celebrate International Justice Day on July 17. ICTJ marks the occasion with a look at complementarity, a concept critical to understanding the role that the ICC and national courts play in this struggle.

In many countries of the African Great Lakes region, state-led approaches to transitional justice have been created by wide-ranging agreements or policies that have been later forgotten or only partially implemented. Even when implemented, they are often subject to years of delay and/...