38 results

The Case for Justice

Why pursue transitional justice in the aftermath of massive human rights violations? “The Case for Justice” provides a window into the debate about the relevance of transitional justice in today’s world.

07/16/12
In Focus

ICTJ Program Report: Reparative Justice

Reparations seek to recognize and address the harms suffered by victims of systematic human rights violations. ICTJ’s Reparative Justice program provides knowledge and comparative experience on reparations to victims' groups, civil society and policymakers worldwide. In this edition of the ICTJ Program Report, we look at ICTJ's work on reparations in dynamic transitional contexts such as Nepal, Colombia, Peru, DRC, and Uganda.

05/13/13
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

Barcelona: ICTJ Trains Advocates from 18 Countries on Truth Commissions

Transitional justice practitioners and activists from 18 different countries gathered in Barcelona to attend the 6th Intensive Course on Truth Commissions, organized by the ICTJ and the Barcelona International Peace Resource Center on September 29 - October 3.

10/16/14
In Focus

Forty Years after Cambodian Genocide, A New Documentary Celebrates the Music that Lived On

The new film "Don't Think I've Forgotten: Cambodia’s Lost Rock and Roll" explains the events of 1960s and 70s through the eyes of the musicians and artists who ushered in a new era of sound, only to be silenced too soon. As the world commemorates the 40th anniversary of the genocide in Cambodia, the new documentary presents the untold story of how their music managed to survive.

04/15/15
In Focus

Portraits of Truth: A New Film Explores Memory and Justice Through One Man’s Journey Back to Cambodia

Angkar, screened on June 16 at the New York Human Rights Watch Film Festival, follows Khonsaly, a victim of the Khmer Rouge, on his journey to the village he fled almost 30 years ago. The film, produced by Neary Adeline Hay about her father's experience with torture and repression, is an intergenerational offering to truth and memorialization work that dances between the inheritance of abuse and its painful recollection by a survivor.

06/18/18

by

Elena Naughton

In Focus

Transforming a Legacy of Genocide: Pedagogy and Tourism at the Killing Fields of Choeung Ek

Transforming a Legacy of Genocide presents the findings of a November 2007 survey of visitors to Choeung Ek, a public memorial of one of Cambodia's notorious "killing fields" during the Khmer Rouge regime, where approximately 20,000 people were killed between 1975 and 1979. The survey...

by

ICTJ; Louis Bickford

Report

Practical, Feasible and Meaningful: How the Khmer Rouge Tribunal Can Fulfill its Reparations Mandate

This paper is meant to help the Extraordinary Chambers in the Courts of Cambodia (ECCC), the civil parties before the court and other Khmer Rouge period survivors and their families deal with practical and legal issues in the course of fulfilling the reparations mandate of the ECCC. ...

by

ICTJ; Ruben Carranza

Briefing Paper

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

Imagining the Possibilities for Reparations in Cambodia

The Extraordinary Chambers of the Courts of Cambodia's reparations mandate may seem narrow and restrictive. Yet there are several potential ways in which the Court can make the right to reparations meaningful for civil parties and for many other Cambodians. It has the ability to inf...

by

ICTJ; Ruben Carranza

Briefing Paper

“We Didn’t Think It Would Hit Us:” Understanding the Impact of Attacks on Schools in Syria

This report examines attacks on schools in Syria from multiple angles: from the legal implications of such attacks to the everyday impact on students, teachers, families, and society at large. It is the product of Save Syrian Schools, a collaborative project led by 10 Syrian civil soc...

by

Save Syrian Schools

Report

“We Didn’t Think It Would Hit Us,” New Report on Attacks on Schools in Syria Calls Attention to Atrocities

A new report on attacks on schools in Syria harnesses documentation to call attention to atrocities and advance storytelling, truth seeking, acknowledgment. It is the product of Save Syrian Schools, a collaborative project led by 10 Syrian civil society organizations and the ICTJ that demands an end to the killing of Syrian children and justice for the bombing of schools.

09/07/18

by

Christopher Boland

In Focus

Meet the Syrian Artists Who Cartoon for Change

Diala Brisly and Hani Abbas, two cartoonists and contemporaries, know firsthand the power of images to document conflict, and of cartoons —consumed by children and adults alike —to promote action.

10/12/18
In Focus

Barcelona Course Explores Linkages Between Prevention and Transitional Justice

From October 1 to October 5, 2018, ICTJ hosted its eleventh intensive course on transitional justice in collaboration with the International Peace Center for in Barcelona. Participants included leaders in their respective fields, including human rights law, community justice and legal services, peacebuilding, education, and humanitarian affairs.

10/24/18
In Focus

An Overlooked Aspect of Sexual and Gender-Based Violence

Recent recognition of the work of Nobel Laureate Nadia Murad has drawn global attention to the issue of sexual violence and gender-based violence in conflict. But, as ICTJ Expert Kelli Muddell argues, the nuances of gender norms and how they impact women, men, and vulnerable populations are still often missing from conversations about victims.

10/30/18

by

Kelli Muddell

In Focus

Molding Justice: Women's Voices from the Tunis Gender Conference

ICTJ’s Gender Symposium, held on February 2 to 4, 2019, in Tunis, Tunisia, brought together fearless women leaders working in 8 countries to advance the needs of victims and to bring gender issues to the center of transitional justice processes. What was achieved? What experiences cut across these diverse contexts? Kelli Muddell and Sibley Hawkins reflect on these questions and more in this short podcast.

05/15/19
In Focus

In The Name of Loved Ones: Justice for the Missing and Disappeared

The trend of missing and disappeared persons due to conflict remains more prevalent than ever today. Many governments around the world have remained undeterred in their abuse of power to invade a home or community and remove persons deemed to be a threat. This intractable problem has received global attention largely due to the efforts of family members who often risk their lives in pursuit of the right to know and ‍‍to bury their loved ones.

08/28/19
In Focus

‘What is Right and Just:’ A Call to Action for the Disappeared in Syria

“Vetoes and excuses get in the way of what is right and just.” With those words, Amina Khoulani, Cofounder of Families for Freedom, spelled out the failings of the United Nations Security Council, as she described in lurid detail the harsh realities facing families of the disappeared in Syria. Actors with the power to stop the killing of detainees and to free those still imprisoned are forsaking their responsibilities.

09/10/19

by

Elena Naughton

In Focus

Our Future, Our Justice: Young People Taking Action

This guide is designed to engage young people who are interested in or are working on transitional justice issues in their communities. Intended to serve primarily as a training tool, it provides basic information about transitional justice and related principles and offers tips and s...

Report

New Guide for Syrian Youth Inspires Creative Thinking About Transitional Justice

New York, December 4, 2019—"Get ready to speak up and be heard because your voice matters!”—that is the message a new guidebook released today on transitional justice sends to Syrian youth. Produced by ICTJ and Dawlaty, a Syrian human rights organization based in Beirut, the guidebook introduces the concepts of transitional justice to young audiences in an engaging and interactive way while capturing the challenges of applying them in difficult contexts.

12/03/19
Press Releases

As Pandemic Looms, Action Is Needed to Protect Syria’s Vulnerable Prison Population

For the past few months, ICTJ, along with our partners at the Center on International Cooperation at New York University, has been working on a comprehensive new policy paper on the situation of the many thousands of Syrians detained somewhere in the country’s vast network of prisons. The depravity that goes on inside these detention sites is already so appalling that it would have been hard to imagine when we started the project that the situation for the prisoners could get any worse. And then the COVID-19 pandemic hit, upending all of our preconceptions, and our lives, in ways none of us ever expected.

04/22/20
In Focus

Gone Without a Trace: Syria’s Detained, Abducted, and Forcibly Disappeared

In most cases, to be imprisoned in Syria is to disappear. Tens of thousands of people, if not more, have been unlawfully taken prisoner or held incommunicado in the context of the Syrian conflict. This policy paper examines the dark reality of detentions in Syria, its impact on those ...

by

Hanny Megally and Elena Naughton

Report

Special Report on COVID-19: Keeping Justice in Sight

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.

05/19/20
In Focus

New Report: "Gone Without A Trace" Examines the Dark Reality of Detentions in Syria

New York, May 29, 2020 — Time is of the essence for breaking the deadlock over the release of detainees, abductees, and the forcibly disappeared in Syria, says a policy paper released today by ICTJ and the New York University’s Center on International Cooperation (CIC). Coordinated action by the Syrian regime and other parties to the conflict, as well as the international community, must begin now, particularly as the spread of the coronavirus accelerates in Syria. The consequences of delay and a failure to act — for the detainees and their families — are likely to be calamitous.

05/29/20
Press Releases

Advancing Global Accountability: The Role of Universal Jurisdiction in Prosecuting International Crimes

Invoking the principle of universal jurisdiction opens the door to the possibility of some accountability in circumstances where justice is not possible in countries where the crimes took place. This study considers the challenges facing the exercise of universal jurisdiction and asse...

by

Howard Varney and Katarzyna Zduńczyk

Report