72 results

2021 Year in Review

In 2021, there were significant developments, some hopeful and some devastating, in the struggle for truth, accountability, and redress in countries around the world. ICTJ experts covered these events in commentaries and feature stories published on our website and in our newsletters. While 2022 is already underway and we at ICTJ are hard at work, we would like to pause a moment to take stock and reflect on the year that was.

01/25/22
In Focus

5 Reasons We Use Multimedia

ICTJ is launching a new multimedia page featuring projects that highlight the human perspective of issues in transitional justice and seek to engage a wide variety of audiences in a discussion on accountability for massive human rights abuses. Here's why we think multimedia can play a key role in deepening public understanding of transitional justice, and convey the guiding principles of ICTJ.

08/06/13
In Focus

Achieving Justice One Beat at a Time: An ICTJ-Led Hip Hop Initiative Takes Center Stage

This year marks the 50th anniversary of the hip hop movement. To honor its contributions to the struggle for justice, truth, and equality, the Skoll Foundation hosted a panel discussion and concert event featuring hip hop artists, including cofounder of the legendary rap group Run-DMC Darryl McDaniels and Colombian rapper and producer Ali aka Mind, as part of its 20th World Forum held in April in Oxford, United Kingdom. ICTJ, which received the Skoll Award for Social Innovation in 2009 and has partnered with the Skoll Foundation since, invited Ali aka Mind as a representative of Rexistencia Hip Hop, an artistic mentorship and creation lab led by ICTJ’s office in Colombia and the Latin American media outlet and foundation Cartel Urbano.

05/18/23
Rappers perform on a stage
In Focus

Amidst Chaos and Despair: Lebanese Youth Explore Transitional Justice

As part of its ongoing support of the Committee of the Families of the Kidnapped and Disappeared in Lebanon, ICTJ organized a three-day virtual workshop on transitional justice for university students on July 12-14, 2021. The students all served as volunteers on a project to establish an archive of the committee’s work and activism over the past four decades and participated in a previous workshop in February 2020 that introduced them to transitional justice concepts.

09/20/21

by

Firas BouZeineddine

In Focus

Canada Faces Past Through Intergenerational Exchange

ICTJ welcomes the 6th National Event of Canada's Truth and Reconciliation Commission, part of the TRC’s journey towards completion of its mandate: to learn the truth about what happened in the residential schools, and to inform all Canadians about this history.

09/16/13
In Focus

Canada Needs Reckoning with Continued Impact of Residential Schools

“Residential schools affected everything about how we live. They targeted and destroyed our strong family unit, the basic foundation of our communities. They destroyed the glue that holds us together—love, respect and sharing.” These words, spoken by Charlie Furlong, a community leader of the Gwich'in people of Canada’s Northwest Territories, sum up the chilling legacy of the country’s policy of forced assimilation of indigenous cultures implemented through a system of Indian Residential Schools (IRS) from the 1870s to 1998.

07/13/11
In Focus

Canada TRC Enters a New Stage: Preparing the Final Report

From March 27 to 30, some 20,000 Canadians gathered in Edmonton, Alberta, for the final national event of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada (TRC). Established in 2008, the TRC is now entering a new stage: the writing of its final report based on the more than 6,500 statements it has gathered.

04/10/14
In Focus

Canada’s Youth Face Legacy of Indian Residential Schools at ‘Education Day’ Event

Elementary and high school teachers and students in the Montréal area gathered today for “Education Day,” an event convened by the Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada (TRC) to kick off the TRC’s historic Québec National Event, scheduled from April 24 to 27, 2013.

04/24/13
In Focus

A Catalyst for Change: Engaging Youth in Transitional Justice

Although youth are key political and social stakeholders who have much to contribute to—and gain from—transitional justice processes, they often remain marginalized from such processes or are given only a limited and predetermined space in which to engage. In recent years, the peacebu...

by

Virginie Ladisch

Briefing Paper

Catalyzing Transformative Change: The Power of Art and Culture to Inspire Action

For many years now, the International Center for Transitional Justice and other organizations have supported young activists and artists as they harness the power of art, culture, and new media to advance truth, justice, reform, and redress, not only where they live, but across borders and in collaboration with others. This innovative and inspiring work offers lessons about how to increase civic engagement and help societies know the truth about their country’s past and actively shape the national narrative.

07/05/22

by

Nour El Bejjani Noureddine

Wide Awake - Jacques Vartabedian - Push
In Focus

Civil Society-Led Truth-Seeking Initiatives: Expanding Opportunities for Acknowledgment and Redress

At a time when truth-seeking and reparations initiatives are taking hold across the United States, this report offers reflections from various civil society-led truth-seeking processes. Drawing on case studies from the United States, Colombia, Scotland, and West Papua, the report iden...

People gather around a plaque marking the Greenboro Massacre outside during an inaugural ceremony
Report

Colombia's Landmark Ruling Orders Reparations for Former Child Soldiers

December 16, 2011 saw the world’s first ruling mandating reparations be paid for the unlawful recruitment of minors into armed forces. More than 300 former youth paramilitaries in Colombia will receive reparations including monetary compensation and medical and psychological care.

01/17/12
In Focus

Engaging Children and Youth in Transitional Justice

On International Children’s Day, ICTJ reaffirms the importance of an active role of children and youth in transitional justice processes, such as truth-seeking, criminal accountability, and reparations programs. In the aftermath of societal upheaval, the voices of children and youth are often absent from peace negotiations and subsequent transitional processes. Though children and youth must be able to receive adequate care and necessary rehabilitation, they must not be regarded only as victims of massive human rights abuses: they are rights-bearing members of a society trying to confront the past, and active participants in the process of social change aiming for a new future. It is in the best interest of children and youth, as well as the societies in which they live, to participate in transitional justice processes, devised to reestablish rule of law and civic trust in the societies to which they belong.

11/19/12
In Focus

Grappling with a Violent Past, Lebanese Youth Help Preserve Truth and Memory

In Lebanon, in the absence of an overarching curriculum, young people are growing up with scant knowledge of the country’s history. Young people want to understand the war so that they can address its legacy of violence and divisions and face the continuing violence and ever-present danger of...

09/12/22
In Focus

Helping Victims Overcome Human Rights Violations Through Education

Understanding education as a form of both reconstruction and reparations is essential for societies in their efforts to address victims’ rights and help victims and their families overcome the consequences of a painful past.

07/27/16
In Focus

ICTJ at 15: A Word from President David Tolbert

Join President David Tolbert as we celebrate ICTJ at 15 years, during which there have been many pivotal moments, both for our organization and the struggle for justice globally.

12/15/16
In Focus

ICTJ Announces a 4-Year, 40 Million SEK Contribution Agreement with Sida

NEW YORK – The Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency (Sida) has awarded the International Center for Transitional Justice (ICTJ) a grant of 40 million Swedish kronor to implement its Strategic Plan 2018-2022. During this period, ICTJ will respond to the growing demand for its services...

12/04/18
Press Releases

ICTJ Announces Online Course on Prevention and Transitional Justice

New York, January 21, 2022—ICTJ will host an online course, entitled “Prevention and Guarantees of Non-Recurrence: The Role of Transitional Justice,” from March 14 through 18, 2022. Prevention has emerged as a top priority on international policy agendas for sustainable peace and development and global governance, and understanding the preventive capacity of transitional justice is more imperative than ever.

01/21/22
Press Releases

ICTJ Announces the Winners of the ‘Overseas’ Writing Contest

ICTJ is pleased to announce the winners of its “Overseas” writing contest. In it, young people originally from or currently residing in Lebanon, Libya, or Tunisia who have left their home countries for political or socioeconomic reasons were asked to share their personal experiences of migration in the form of a short, written testimony.

01/25/24
A drawing featuting a young trekking through a rugged landscape, his back facing toward the viewer. On his back, he carries a small castle.
Press Releases

ICTJ Art Contest Invites Artists to Reflect on Dissent in Lebanon and Tunisia

New York, January 18, 2022— The International Center for Transitional Justice (ICTJ) is pleased to announce the “Wide Awake Art Contest,” an open call to Lebanese and Tunisian artists as well as artists living in Lebanon or Tunisia to explore the theme “the Sound of Dissent.” The contest will showcase works by those who are documenting and memorializing their communities’ stories in times of instability, resistance, and change.

01/18/22
Press Releases

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

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.

09/17/12
Podcasts

ICTJ Head of Office for Colombia, María Camila Moreno, Honored for Untiring Efforts for Peace

On December 12, ICTJ’s head of office for Colombia María Camila Moreno received the Alfonso López Michelsen Award for her dedicated work to advance peace and uphold international human rights and humanitarian law.

12/18/19
In Focus

ICTJ Honors the Winners of the Wide Awake Art Contest in Lebanon and Tunisia

Tunis, March 22, 2022­—The International Center for Transitional Justice (ICTJ) will hold a series of cultural activities from March 21 through March 26, 2022, as part of its Wide Awake Art Contest. The contest, launched in January, invited Lebanese and Tunisian artists, as well as expat artists...

03/24/22
Press Releases

ICTJ Program Report: Children and Youth

Children and youth are especially vulnerable to the effects of conflict and gross human rights violations. In this edition of the ICTJ Program Report, ICTJ's Children and Youth Program Director Virginie Ladisch talks with us about the importance of integrating child and youth sensitivity into transitional justice mechanisms.

08/09/13
In Focus

ICTJ Program Report: Colombia

The latest ICTJ Program Report explores transitional justice issues in Colombia and charts our work in the country with the longest running armed conflict in the world. In this interview, head of ICTJ's Colombia office Maria Camila Moreno answers questions on the ongoing transitional justice mechanisms in the country, and describes ICTJ's work with the government and civil society groups on issues of criminal justice, reparations and memory. She provides a look ahead to the new peace negotiations between the Colombian government and the FARC, and identifies key transitional justice issues at stake for the talks.

10/02/12
In Focus

ICTJ Program Report: Interview with Paul Seils

The ICTJ Program Report is a new online feature that presents ICTJ’s work and impact around the globe. Through monthly in-depth interviews with our experts, the ICTJ Program Report will offer a view of ICTJ’s work on reparations, criminal justice, truth and memory and other transitional justice developments in countries where we work. To launch the series, we speak with Paul Seils, ICTJ's vice president and the head of our Program Office.

08/01/12
In Focus

ICTJ Strategic Plan 2018-2022

These are especially challenging times for those of us who work to assist societies in dealing with a legacy of atrocities and massive human rights violations. Violent armed conflicts have increased in number, duration, and ferocity around the globe. Immense displacement and waves of ...

Report

ICTJ to Take Part in Eighth Al Jazeera Forum: “Change in the Arab World: Where To?”

ICTJ President David Tolbert will be a featured speaker at this year’s Al Jazeera Forum in Doha, Qatar. Al Jazeera Forum is the flagship event of Al Jazeera Media Network, at which Al Jazeera showcases its contribution to the world of media and politics.

05/21/14
In Focus

ICTJ Writing Contest Invites Young Migrants to Share Their Stories

ICTJ is pleased to announce the “Overseas: Writing Contest,” an open call for young migrants originally from or currently residing in Lebanon, Libya, or Tunisia to share their personal experiences of migration in the form of a short, written testimony.

09/18/23
Press Releases

ICTJ Year in Review Podcast with David Tolbert

ICTJ President David Tolbert looks back on transitional justice developments over the span of 2012, talks about the impact of ICTJ's work, and looks ahead to transitional justice developments to come. [Download](/sites/default/files/Tolbert_ICTJ_Podcast_12202012.mp3) | Duration: 30:19mins | File size: 17,760 KB

12/20/12
Podcasts

Indigenous Rights and Transitional Justice: Two Side Events to the UN Permanent Forum

In seeking to establish accountability for past atrocity, many transitional justice mandates have also sought to redress crimes against indigenous populations. To further explore this relationship, ICTJ and our partners in Canada and Colombia are holding two side events to the UN Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues.

05/07/12
In Focus

International Community Commits to Nuanced, Comprehensive Transitional Justice at UN Security Council Open Debate

As UN member states convene virtually this week for the annual General Assembly, they will likely focus on a narrow list of agenda items, topped by issues related to the deadly coronavirus pandemic and a global economic downturn. For this reason, ICTJ would like to recall the vital importance of justice for global peace, security, health, and development by sharing findings from an analysis of the open debate on transitional justice that the UN Security Council held on February 13, 2020, as part of its peacebuilding and sustaining peace agenda.

09/21/20
In Focus

International Justice Day Reminds Us: Without Accountability, There Is No Dignity

As we mark July 17, designated International Justice Day by the states parties of the International Criminal Court (ICC) just over two years ago, we should not limit our focus to the work of the court or criminal justice as such. Pursuing justice in the aftermath of atrocity presents an opportunity to do three crucial things: reaffirm a society’s shared values about basic ideas of right and wrong; restore confidence in the institutions of the state charged with protecting fundamental rights and freedoms; and recognize the human dignity of the victims of atrocities that have taken place.

07/17/12
In Focus

Justice for the Disappeared is at the Heart of Transitional Justice

As the world marks August 30, the International Day of the Disappeared, we are reminded that forced disappearances and transitional justice share a common history. Indeed, processes working in concert that came to form the field of transitional justice were born from the search for truth and justice about the disappeared.

08/28/12
In Focus

Justice Mosaics: How Context Shapes Transitional Justice in Fractured Societies

What hope is there for justice for victims of atrocities in profoundly fractured societies, where systems of government have broken down and social and political divisions run deep? What is the role of transitional justice in forging peace in countries like Colombia, after decades of ...

by

Roger Duthie and Paul Seils

Book

Justice Mosaics: How Context Shapes Transitional Justice in Fractured Societies - Report

This report presents the main findings of a multiyear research project conducted by the International Center for Transitional Justice on the challenges and opportunities of responding to serious and massive human rights violations in different contexts. The project commissioned 21 stu...

by

Roger Duthie

Report

A Landmark UNSC Discussion on Transitional Justice

The United Nations Security Council has considered transitional justice on several occasions in the past and included many of its components in country-specific resolutions, and also stressed the links between transitional justice and the other items on its thematic agenda including women, peace and security, and children and armed conflict, and it has made explicit reference to transitional justice as a key part of efforts to sustain peace. Yet, on February 13, the Security Council held its first open debate focusing solely on transitional justice.

03/04/20

by

Fernando Travesí

World Report

At Last, Truth and Reconciliation for Maine's Indian Adoption Project Legacies

On June 29, the government of Maine joined chiefs from the state's five tribes to sign an agreement creating the Wabanaki-State Child Welfare Truth and Reconciliation Commission. Eduardo Gonzalez, director of ICTJ's Truth and Memory Program, attended the signing ceremony, and spoke about its importance—both local and global—in an interview with the Maine Public Broadcasting Network. Listen to the interview MPBN 04:54min

07/03/12
In Focus

“Learning Peace”: Groundbreaking New Book from ICTJ and UNICEF Stirs Debate on Education, Justice and Peacebuilding

A groundbreaking new book from the International Center for Transitional Justice (ICTJ) and UNICEF examines the complicated relationship between education, justice and peacebuilding in societies grappling with a legacy of violent conflict. It offers lessons on how education can be harnessed in a divided society to overcome the past and create the conditions for peace, often under very difficult circumstances.

11/29/16
Press Releases

Lebanon: Education in a Context of State-Imposed Amnesia

While Lebanon is post-peace agreement, it is not necessarily "post-conflict." The country struggles to address the legacy of decades of violence, and the lack of a comprehensive approach to dealing with the past means the country's youth are growing up with scant knowledge of their history. But they want to know more: one project is helping them ask those around them about the past, and giving those who lived it a chance to tell their stories.

09/28/16
In Focus

LEBANON: ICTJ Announces Winners of ‘The War As I See It’ Youth Photo Contest

A black-and-white photo of an open book pierced by a single bullet hole was chosen as the grand-prize winner of the International Center for Transitional Justice’s Youth Photo Contest, “THE WAR AS I SEE IT” in Lebanon. The photo, titled “Dominique,” was taken by Sibylle George, a 22-year-old architecture student at American University of Beirut.

02/10/16
Press Releases

In Lebanon, Students Grapple with the Truth About Their Country's Painful Past

ICTJ held a two-day workshop on transitional justice for a group of university students in Beirut on February 14 and 15 as part of its ongoing support to the Committee of the Families of the Kidnapped and Disappeared in Lebanon. The students are currently serving as volunteers on a project to create an archive of the committee’s decades-long struggle and activism.

03/24/20

by

Firas BouZeineddine

In Focus

Listening to Young Voices: A Guide to Interviewing Children and Young People in Truth Seeking and Documentation Efforts

As human rights advocates and state representatives increasingly acknowledge the necessity of involving children in truth-seeking processes, there is a growing need for practical tools that facilitate children’s participation while prioritizing their protection. This statement-taking ...

by

Valerie Waters

Report

A Look Back on the Expert's Choice of 2019

As subscribers, you enjoy timely commentary on what’s happening in transitional justice around the world written by one of our experts exclusively for our monthly World Report newsletter. In this month’s edition, we bid farewell to 2019 by looking back on the experts’ choices of the past year.

01/08/20
World Report

Measuring Results and Monitoring Progress of Transitional Justice Processes

Because transitional justice processes are complex, politically contested, and not necessarily linear, they present unique theoretical and practical challenges for measuring their results. This report seeks to improve monitoring and evaluation practices and support evidence-based proc...

by

Mateo Porciuncula

Children, women, and men look at a wall covered in faces of people.
Report

New Book from ICTJ Examines How Transitional Justice Must Adapt to Difficult Circumstances in Today’s World

A new book by ICTJ titled Justice Mosaics: How Context Shapes Transitional Justice in Fractured Societies examines the challenges of responding to massive human rights violations in different and difficult circumstances in today's world.

05/16/17
Press Releases

New Report Explores Challenges of Measuring Results of Transitional Justice Processes

New York, January 25, 2021—"You cannot deliver 500 kilograms of transitional justice,” explains a high-level UN official in a new ICTJ report released today that explores the theoretical and practical challenges of measuring the results of transitional justice processes. These processes are complex and politically contested and are thus notoriously difficult to evaluate. The report offers key insights related to and tools for evaluating and monitoring transitional justice processes and assessing their impact.

01/25/21
Press Releases

Our Legacy Our Hope

The Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC) of Canada held its fourth national event in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan June 21. After attending a prior hearing, students from the We'koqma'q Mi'kmaw School in Nova Scotia created “Our Legacy Our Hope,” a documentary bearing witness to the intergenerational effects of Residential Schools and the ongoing work of the commission to address these legacies.

06/20/12
In Focus

Photos by Youth on the Scars of the Lebanon War Spark Debate at Exhibit Opening

Earlier this month, the International Center for Transitional Justice (ICTJ) and its partners opened a two-week photo exhibit at the American University of Beirut’s Jafet Library, featuring vivid and often deeply personal photographs submitted for its “The War As I See It” youth photo contest. Students, professors, experts, and journalists packed into the library space lined with the 26 photographs in oversized frames.

02/26/16
In Focus

Ready for Change: Lebanon’s Youth Rise Up

For over a month now, Lebanese people have been in the streets peacefully calling for an end to corruption, economic disenfranchisement, and government mismanagement, calling instead for accountability and reform of the systems that have allowed these things to occur. The protests are historic for several reasons: their scope and magnitude, as well as the way they have unified a country that has for so long had division baked into nearly every aspect of life, down to its system of governance.

12/03/19
World Report