Resource Library

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.

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.

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.

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.

To mark 15 years of ICTJ, we asked staff past and present for memories that stand out to them - moments that throw the stakes of our work into sharp relief and resonate with them years later. Virginie Ladisch and Clara Ramirez-Barat recall how one Canadian student, in exploring the legacy of the country's Residential Schools, arrived at the concept of "never again."

This year, to mark the International Day of the Disappeared, we bring the story of Ziad and Ghassan Halwani, two brothers in Lebanon whose father was kidnapped and disappeared when they were young. Their story is a powerful testament to the long-term impact of disappearances on the life course of those who are still growing up.

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.

As the Canadian Truth and Reconciliation Commission provides its final report this week, ICTJ presents a video in culmination of our work with youth in support of the TRC over the course of its mandate. "The Truth in the Classroom" demonstrates the commitment of children and youth across Canada to engage with issues related to Indian Residential Schools and to promote education about their legacy.

Indigenous rights are increasingly being addressed through different transitional justice measures, and ICTJ is actively involved in the discourse on how truth commissions and other transitional justice mechanisms can help the struggle for the rights of indigenous people.