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ICTJ is pleased to announce the opening of an innovative site-specific theater performance in Beirut to mark the 39th anniversary of the Lebanese Civil War.

Lebanon has ruled that families of missing and disappeared persons would be allowed access to the investigation files and full report of the Commissions of Inquiry on the Missing and Forcibly Disappeared in Lebanon. In a new episode of our ICTJ Forum, we speak with lawyer Nizar Saghieh about what the ruling means for Lebanese families who continues to search for their missing loved ones.

For decades, Lebanese governments have made only partial and ineffective attempts to hold powerful individuals, groups, and foreign states accountable for violations committed on Lebanese soil, including against civilians. The consequences of their failure to act – for victims and Lebanese society – are grave. ICTJ's new report looks at the culture of impunity for serious violations of human rights continues to thrive in Lebanon.

A culture of impunity for serious violations of human rights continues to thrive in Lebanon, says a report released today by ICTJ.

In this edition of the ICTJ Forum, we speak with Lynn Maalouf, one of the primary authors of a new report by ICTJ entitled Lebanon’s Legacy of Political Violence. The report compiles information on hundreds of incidents of serious crimes that took place from 1975 to 2008 in all parts of Lebanon.

Despite the overwhelming number of Lebanon's civilians killed, injured, displaced or otherwise harmed by decades of violence, there remains a near-total lack of official acknowledgment, reparation, truth about serious crimes or accountability for the perpetrators. ICTJ is pleased to release the first in a series of publications that aim to bring the crimes of the past in Lebanon to light.

Despite the overwhelming percentage of Lebanese who were affected by recent wars and political unrest, discussion of Lebanon’s past is largely absent from public spheres. A new documentary follows youth in Lebanon as they set out to find the truth.

The latest ICTJ Program Report explores transitional justice issues in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) and charts our work in this important and dynamic region. Claudio Cordone, ICTJ’s program director covering the MENA region, discusses individual country scenarios, prospects for transitional justice processes and explains ICTJ’s involvement and impact. Cordone speaks about transitional justice principles being at the root of popular uprisings referred to as “Arab Spring” and the challenges facing societies in their efforts to reckon with legacies of dictatorships and recent violence. He describes ICTJ’s efforts to address the impact of violence on women and promote their participation in transitional justice initiatives. The interview provides a thorough overview of ongoing initiatives and future prospects in Tunisia, Libya, Egypt, Syria, Yemen, Lebanon and Israel and Occupied Palestinian Territory.

As the world marks August 30, the International Day of the Disappeared, we are reminded that forced disappearances and transitional justice share a common history. Indeed, processes working in concert that came to form the field of transitional justice were born from the search for truth and justice about the disappeared.

Though not a state party to the Rome Statute, Cote d’Ivoire accepted the jurisdiction of the ICC through an ad hoc declaration in April 2003, and in December of 2010—in the wake of the post-election crisis—reaffirmed that declaration. It has been more than one year since Cote d’Ivoire began a critical transition from a decade-long civil war that divided the country and led to widespread human rights violations, forced displacement, and loss of civilian lives and property.

Ivory Coast has embarked on a process of addressing the legacy of internal strife that culminated in the violence following the 2010 presidential elections. There seems to be genuine political will to pursue transitional justice through criminal investigations and truth-seeking, but serious challenges remain. Suliman Baldo, head of ICTJ's Africa Program, discusses these developments in our latest podcast. [Download](/sites/default/files/Baldo_ICTJ_Podcast_06072012.mp3) | Duration: 19.07mins | File size: 10.9MB

Last month ICTJ, with Saint Joseph University’s Modern Arab World Research Center and UMAM Documentation and Research launched the website “ Badna Naaref” (We Want to Know). This oral history project conducted by students tells the stories of suffering and survival during the war in Lebanon, serving both to commemorate and educate.

Lebanon has yet to seriously address the issue of thousands of people who went missing or were forcibly disappeared during the country’s civil war. ICTJ spoke with Lebanese activists to discuss a recent initiative taken by the families of the missing and civil society organizations to create a draft law on the missing.

A two-day roundtable discussion on a draft law on the missing and forcibly disappeared persons was held February 24–25 in Beirut, Lebanon. Organized by the Committee of the Families of the Kidnapped and Disappeared in Lebanon, Support of Lebanese in Detention and Exile (SOLIDE), Act for the Disappeared, and ICTJ, the roundtable was part of the project “Lebanon’s unaddressed legacy: the missing and the families’ right to know,” funded by the European Union (EU) and the Embassy of Switzerland in Lebanon.