Resource Library

Brazil’s recent decision to examine the abuses of the military dictatorship from several decades ago could change the face of democracy at home, making it more genuine and transparent. At the same time it could have a wider impact, allowing Brazil to take a decisive stand on human rights regionally and internationally.

This opinion piece by Eduardo González, director of the Truth and Memory program at ICTJ, asks: can you build a solid, legitimate democracy on the sands of silence, or does truth provide a more trustful foundation?

Human rights organizations in Brazil have created an online platform Brasil Nunca Mais Digital to preserve evidence and other documents related to more than 7,000 political prisoners tried before Brazil’s Military Supreme Court, during that country’s military dictatorship.

ICTJ spoke with Marlon Weichert, prominent human rights advocate and regional prosecutor with the Federal Public Ministry of Brazil (Ministério Público Federal), on Brazil's pending truth commission bill and calls for accountability measures addressing past violations in Brazil.

Brazil’s new government is showing strong support for the passage of a bill creating a National Truth Commission investigating past human rights violations, writes Eduardo González, director of ICTJ's Truth and Memory Program. ICTJ also spoke with Marlon Weichert, human rights activist and regional prosecutor for Brazil's Federal Public Ministry, on the current debate surrounding truth-seeking and accountability in Brazil.

Although Brazil's dictatorship ended years ago, focus on transitional justice there is peaking now, as debate stirs over how to best address its past. Recent developments - including the Brazilian government's proposal of a truth commission, the opening of national archives, and the Inter-American Court of Human Rights' decision limiting the 1979 amnesty law - are at the core of the discussion. Eduardo Gonzalez, director of ICTJ's Truth and Memory Program, discusses the role accountability for the past can play in Brazil today.

The second Latin American Conference on Transitional Justice closed July 8. In the concluding remarks, ICTJ Truth and Memory Program Director Eduardo Gonzalez stated that while this conference has focused on sharing the comparative experiences throughout Latin America, this has not been an academic exercise but a call to action. Read more on the conference blog

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.

Myanmar may have a new government under Aung San Suu Kyi, but former political prisoners continue to face challenges throughout the country. A new report sheds light on prisoners' challenges and recommends steps the government can take to offer redress.

For decades, successive Myanmar political and military leaders, including Aung San Suu Kyi’s, have flatly denied what millions of their citizens know: that the military has committed and continues to commit human rights violations. A new UN inquiry into those crimes is provides a moment of truth for Suu Kyi's commitment to justice, writes ICTJ's Aileen Thomson.