42 results

The Force of the Police: An Analysis of Police Violence Based on Experience in the United States and the Imperative to Restore Legitimacy

George Floyd’s death reignited existing anger over American society’s deep and festering racial wounds. His death triggered significant social uprisings that have challenged the methods of policing that have emerged over the course of several decades. With a growing awareness of polic...

by

Roberto Cornelli

Three police officers kneel with several protesters at a demonstration.
Report

The Ghosts of Racial Violence in Maryland

By Sean Yoes Terror on the Eastern Shore December 4, 1931, is a night that lives on in the minds of Black residents in Salisbury, Maryland, a small town along the state’s Eastern Shore. That cold winter night, a mob of more than 2,000 racist residents hung 18-year-old Matthew “Buddie” Williams from...

06/14/22
A clear glass jar with the name "King Johnson" with large white text, with "Brooklyn, Maryland, December 25, 1911," stands on the grass as a hand fills it with dirt.
In Focus

Is the United States Ready for a Truth-Telling Process?

Fania Davis thinks the time has come for a truth-telling process about racial injustice in the United States, and she is working to make it a reality. We sat down with her and her colleague, Jodie Geddes, to discuss their vision for a national process, what they hope it would achieve, and what they have learned from their conversations with local leaders so far.

08/09/17
In Focus

"This Is Us": White Supremacy in the United States

In the wake of Charlottesville, some took to Twitter to distance the United States from the white supremacist march using #ThisIsNotUs. But this is us, writes Virginie Ladisch, and white Americans have an obligation to educate themselves about the history and persistence of white supremacy in their country.

08/22/17

by

Virginie Ladisch

In Focus

Too Much Friendship, Too Little Truth: Monitoring Report on the Commission of Truth and Friendship in Indonesia and Timor-Leste

Indonesia and Timor-Leste created the Commission for Truth and Friendship (CTF) bilaterally in 2005. The commission has not yet delivered substantive transitional-justice benefits, and its public hearings have seriously compromised the goals of truth and resconciliation. This report i...

by

ICTJ; Megan Hirst

Report

Transitional Justice and the Struggle for Indigenous Rights

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.

02/08/13
In Focus

Truth, Reconciliation, and Redress for Racial Injustice in the United States: Insights from Experiences of Commissions Around the World

The United States has never collectively confronted its history of colonialism, slavery, and racism in an effort to reform the systems that perpetuate harms to Black communities and other marginalized groups, or to redress these wrongs. Events in recent years, however, have amplified ...

Two sets of hands plant a white flower in the ground.
Report

An Unfinished Truth: An Analysis of the Commission of Truth and Friendship's Final Report on the 1999 Atrocities in East Timor

In July 2008 the Timorese-Indonesian Commission of Truth and Friendship (CTF) submitted its final report on atrocities committed in East Timor in 1999. Previously the CTF had been criticized by human rights groups, especially in relation to its power to recommend amnesties and its con...

by

ICTJ, Megan Hirst

Report

United States Must Ensure Accountability for “War on Terror” Abuses

In this new opinion piece, ICTJ President David Tolbert says the United States has publicly lauded the rule of law as it applies to other countries and offered significant financial and political support to torture victims of foreign regimes; yet it has failed to acknowledge or address its obligation to victims of its own detention policies. To regain its credibility in the eyes of the world, the US government must take steps to acknowledge and address past violations and provide redress to victims of US-sanctioned abuses.

04/29/13
In Focus

Victims’ Hope for Justice Postponed in the Central African Republic

After seven years of waiting for the UN-backed Special Criminal Court (SCC) in the Central African Republic to begin operations, victims of the country’s civil war had hoped to finally see the first tangible step toward justice on April 25 when the first trial opened in the capital Bangui. The trial was initially set to begin on April 19, 2022, but was abruptly postponed when the defense attorneys failed to show up in an apparent boycott over their wages. When the defense lawyers returned to court on April 25, they immediately requested an adjournment, which was granted, and the trial was postponed again until May 16. It is very likely that this incessant postponement will further deflate already diminished confidence among victims in the SCC’s ability to deliver justice.

05/02/22
World Report