Resource Library

What happens when a state refuses to acknowledge the suffering of victims of mass atrocities? Or when the public celebrates perpetrators as heroes? Earlier this month, a panel discussion hosted by The International Center for Transitional Justice and New York University’s Center for Global Affairs grappled with the impact of denial on justice.

Bosnian Serb leader Radovan Karadzic was recently sentenced by the ICTY to 40 years for genocide and crimes against humanity, crimes which have decisively shaped the society in Bosnia and Herzegovina. In this essay, ICTJ’s Refik Hodzic explores what would it take for this poisonous legacy to be dismantled and makes a case for acknowledgement and reparations as matters of moral imperative, but also of political necessity.

In this op-ed, ICTJ President David Tolbert argues that President Alassane Ouattara should use his second term as president to address widespread atrocities committed in Cote d'Ivoire's recent past.

Bosnia and Herzegovina is marking the twentieth anniversary of the Srebrenica genocide. In this Op-Ed, ICTJ's Refik Hodzic asks, can we constructively talk about reconciliation in a country still gripped by war?

Ahead of Pope Francis' visit to Bosnia Herzegovina, ICTJ's Communications Director, Refik Hodzic, asks the leader of the Catholic Church to actively contribute to "a genuine reckoning needed for a genuine peace" in a society still stuck in the past, even 20 years after the war.

ICTJ convenes a high-level conference in Abidjan to discuss the progress in investigating and prosecuting serious crimes committed in Cote d’Ivoire during the 2010 post-election violence.

In this op-ed, ICTJ's Refik Hodzic says that five years of a trial, thousands of documents and evidence exhibits, hundreds of witnesses, and hours testimony have not moved Radovan Karadzic closer to acknowledgement of the suffering he inflicted on countless lives.

On International Criminal Justice Day, 2014, ICTJ joins the global celebrations marking the groundbreaking establishment of the Rome Statute in 1998, which created the International Criminal Court (ICC). To mark the day, we review five contexts where national systems proved it was possible to bring perpetrators to justice where it matters the most.

In this op-ed, ICTJ President David Tolbert argues that in order to meet the EU’s high standards on the rule of law and human rights, Serbia must address the legacy of its recent past in which Slobodan Milosevic’s regime and the institutions under its control were involved in some of the most notorious crimes committed in Europe since World War II.