169 results

2020 Year in Review

2020 was a year of unforeseen hardships throughout the world. We may wish to write off last year as a loss and move forward. However, looking back on it as we do in this 2020 Year in Review, in which we highlight our most read content, we can find and take heart in important victories and apply lessons learned in 2021 and beyond.

02/19/21
In Focus

2023 Year in Review

Throughout 2023, ICTJ’s experts have offered their unique perspective on breaking news around the globe as part of the World Report. Their insightful commentaries have brought into focus the impact these events have on victims of human right violations as well as larger struggles for peace and justice. In this edition, we look back on the past year through the Expert’s Choice column.

01/05/24
A collage of feature images from the 2023 Expert's Choice commentaries.
World Report

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 a Delicate Balance: Victim Participation in International and Domestic Criminal Proceedings

The role of victim participation in international criminal proceedings, whether in international, hybrid, or national courts, has long been a matter of public deliberation among criminal justice practitioners and human rights activists. In the aftermath of mass atrocities and repression, the...

08/11/22

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Elena Naughton

A man and woman embrace, touching foreheads.
In Focus

African Union Must Act to Address Impunity for International Crimes

In a major effort to promote accountability for serious crimes in Africa, ICTJ joined hundreds of human rights groups and transitional justice partners to ask the African Union to prioritize justice. Addressed to the new African Union (AU) Chairperson Dr. Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma, the letter warns that strained relationships between the AU and the International Criminal Court (ICC) may put justice at risk.

01/18/13
In Focus

After 10 Years, CAVR Report Still Resonates in Timor-Leste and Around the World

ICTJ spoke with Patrick Walsh, an Australian human rights advocate who helped establish and advise East Timor's Commission for Reception, Truth, and Reconciliation (CAVR).

02/23/16
In Focus

After Guilty Verdicts in Khmer Rouge Tribunal, Broader Struggle for Accountability Continues in Cambodia

On August 7, the Extraordinary Chambers in the Courts of Cambodia (ECCC) found two senior leaders of the Khmer Rouge, Nuon Chea and Khieu Samphan, guilty of crimes against humanity. For many victims who have been waiting for 35 years, the judgment still felt like bittersweet justice.

08/21/14
In Focus

We All Fiddle, and Afghanistan Burns

It only takes a quick skim of the daily news to see how the world has yet again failed Afghan civilians. Afghanistan has not had many good years in the past four decades of war, but the past 15 months have been decidedly fraught. The current chaos and spiking violence are proof that, despite what the US government has proclaimed, the “forever war” rages on. Peace and meaningful, victim-centered justice remain elusive.

08/02/21
A group of women stand together, four of them wearing full face coverings, or abayas, one with her face uncovered
World Report

Allegations of Crimes Against Humanity in Sri Lanka Demand Full Investigation

The allegations of war crimes and crimes against humanity committed in the final phases of the conflict in Sri Lanka, made in the Report of the Secretary-General’s Panel of Experts on Accountability in Sri Lanka released on April 25, must be thoroughly investigated. This is the first comprehensive UN report examining the events in the Vanni region between January and May of 2009 and it alleges that “tens of thousands of civilians” were killed. The Government of Sri Lanka, but also the relevant international bodies, cannot claim credibility if these findings are ignored.

04/29/11
In Focus

Amid Ethnic Cleansing in Myanmar, Where Does Transitional Justice Stand?

During the past month, over 400,000 members of Myanmar’s Rohingya Muslim community have been driven from their homes as part of an ethnic cleansing campaign led by the military. What lies at the root of the current violence, how is it connected to political transition, and does transitional justice have a role to play? ICTJ's Anna Myriam Roccatello answers those questions and more.

09/25/17
In Focus

Asia: Experts Meet to Discuss Challenges and Opportunities for Prosecuting Serious Crimes

JAKARTA, Nov. 15, 2011—Experts and stakeholders from Cambodia, the Philippines, Bangladesh, Indonesia, Burma, Timor-Leste, Thailand, and Nepal, along with international experts are gathering in Jakarta’s Hotel Atlet from November 15–16 to discuss the need for progress on prosecuting serious crimes in Asia.

11/15/11
Press Releases

Barcelona Course Examines a Responsive Approach to Justice and Peacebuilding

This summer, our Intensive Course on Transitional Justice and Peace Processes brought experts from around the world together in Barcelona to examine how transitional mechanisms can be integrated into peace negotiations. Read about the course and watch interviews with our experts.

07/26/16
In Focus

Beyond the Truth and Reconciliation Commission: Transitional Justice Options in Liberia

The Liberia Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC) released its final report in December 2009 after more than three years of operations. The report offers valuable insights into Liberia’s turbulent history, including the gross human rights violations committed during the country’s ...

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ICTJ; Paul James-Allen, Aaron Weah, and Lizzie Goodfriend

Report

To Build Peace, Seek Truth About the Past

Dating back to the 1980s, when peace settlements were made across Latin America, truth commissions have become an important component of peace negotiations. In this opinion piece, ICTJ President David Tolbert calls for societies to give truth commissions a chance of fulfilling their potential by learning from their failures and success.

11/20/13
In Focus

Challenging the Conventional: Can Truth Commissions Strengthen Peace Processes?

This joint report by ICTJ and the Kofi Annan Foundation explores common assumptions about why truth commissions are created in the wake of armed conflict and what factors make them more likely to succeed – or fail. It arises from a high-level symposium hosted by the two organizations ...

Report

Charles Taylor Verdict and West Africa: Not Even Half the Story

The conviction of former Liberian president Charles Taylor for crimes against humanity and war crimes committed in neighboring Sierra Leone finds both West African countries and the region grappling with his terrible legacy. And while the people, and especially Taylor’s victims, in Sierra Leone welcome it as an important step in the country’s effort to overcome the consequences of the brutal civil war, Liberians are still a long way from seeing accountability for the suffering they endured.

04/26/12
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

Comment by ICTJ on the Bill Establishing a Truth and Reconciliation Commission in Indonesia1

The People’s Representative Assembly of Indonesia passed on September 7, 2004, a bill creating a “Truth and Reconciliation Commission”, which is charged with clarifying abuses committed before 2000 and determining whether to award individualized amnesties for perpetrators and reparati...

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ICTJ; Eduardo González

Comments on Draft Internal Rules for the Extraordinary Chambers in the Courts of Cambodia

ICTJ provides constructive comments on the draft Internal Rules for the Extraordinary Chambers in the Courts of Cambodia (ECCC). While the draft Internal Rules provide greater procedural clarity for the ECCC proceedings, ICTJ lists several concerns in five areas that must be focused o...

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ICTJ

Briefing Paper

Committing to Justice for Serious Human Rights Violations: Lessons from Hybrid Tribunals

This report aims to help practitioners in the transitional justice field to understand the experience of establishing and operating hybrid courts and to address some common assumptions about these entities. To do so, it looks at hybrid or mixed courts in practice, drawing on experienc...

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Elena Naughton

Report

Continuing Abuses Threaten Myanmar’s Transition to Democracy and Peace, Says ICTJ Report

Continuing political repression, cronyism, and ongoing conflicts are disrupting attempts to put Myanmar on a linear path to democracy, peace, and development, says a new report from the ICTJ. According to the report, titled “Navigating Paths to Justice in Myanmar’s Transition,” dealing with current and historical abuses is essential to achieving genuine progress on peacebuilding and economic development in the country.

07/21/14
Press Releases

Controlling the Narrative: An Afghan Human Rights Expert Describes the Taliban’s Stranglehold on the Media

Since the Taliban seized control of Afghanistan in August 2021, the regime has put in place a series of policies severely restricting independent media and giving it all but total control over news outlets and their content. Kobra Moradi is a lawyer and researcher working with Afghanistan Human Rights and Democracy Organization and author of the recent report, Afghan Media Under the Taliban: Restrictions and Violations. ICTJ sat down with the author to learn more about what impact these restrictions have had on journalists and the free press, and the important role media can still play in such a repressive regime.

01/18/23

by Hannah Frasure

Taliban armed officers seize a journalist.
In Focus

Disrupting Cycles of Discontent: Transitional Justice and Prevention in the Philippines

This report examines the contribution of transitional justice to prevention in the Philippines, as well as the limits of this contribution due to the failure to comprehensively address and learn from the past and undertake structural changes. While reparations, truth telling, and inst...

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Robert Francis B. Garcia

Report

Divided by Years of Conflict, Sri Lankans Have Yet to See the Promise of Justice Fulfilled

Where does transitional justice stand in Sri Lanka? Kelli Muddell, Director of ICTJ's Gender Justice Program, explores the country's contested historical narratives.

07/24/17

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Kelli Muddell

In Focus

Documenting Truth

The Documentation Affinity Group (DAG) was established in 2005 by ICTJ and five partner organizations as a peer-to-peer network with a primary focus on human rights documentation. Documenting Truth collects the best practices derived from the work of the DAG organizations in Cambodia,...

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ICTJ; Louis Bickford, Patricia Karam, Hassan Mneimneh, and Patrick Pierce

Report