126 results

Three years after Tunisia's revolution, victims in the south of the country are still facing severe economic and social marginalization. In recent workshops with ICTJ, they explain why collective reparations and development are both central parts of their vision of justice.

Marking three years since Tunisia's revolution, ICTJ President David Tolbert argues that transitional justice developments in the country are not only worthy of attention, but serve as useful markers for transitions in the region and beyond.

This briefing paper focuses on establishing a credible approach to accountability and human rights in a post-conflict Syria. Looking ahead to an eventual resolution to the war, it recognizes that Syrian authorities and civil society, as well as the international community, will have t...

This research report offers guidance on the application of a restorative justice framework in contexts of massive human rights violations, including its advantages and challenges. Based on the experiences of Colombia, Sierra Leone, Tunisia, and the Philippines, the study examines how ...

A man and audience member holds his phone to record proceedings of panel on the stage in front of him.

In the span of only one month, Tunisia has witnessed the historic passing of a transitional justice law and adoption of a new constitution. A key actor in the country's transition is the media.

In collaboration with the Brookings-LSE Project on Internal Displacement, ICTJ’s Research Unit examined how transitional justice can be used to address the range of injustices associated with displacement and thereby serve as part of a comprehensive approach to the resolution of displ...

This report summarizes the findings of an ICTJ research project on the contribution of transitional justice to prevention. Drawing from five country case studies, it contends that addressing the past can help to prevent the recurrence not only of human rights violations but also viole...

A young person with back facing the viewer is wearing a T-shirt that reads “Colombia in Peace"

To mark International Women’s Day, we invite you to read about four countries at the top of our gender justice priorities in the coming year, each with its own history, context, and complex sets of challenges.

The protracted displacement of Palestinian refugees presents a complex set of challenges for the international refugee, humanitarian, and transitional justice fields. For the most part, these global movements have treated the Palestinian situation as a case apart: Palestinian refugee...

On March 2 and 3, 2020, transitional justice and anti-corruption policymakers, experts, and activists from the Gambia, Kenya, South Africa, Armenia, and Tunisia met in Tunis for a two-day conference to share solutions to a common problem: How can countries emerging from dictatorship, ...

As Tunisia concludes its final deliberations on the new constitution, transitional justice issues such as reparations for victims, truth about the past and the rights of women have been central to the legislative debates. Over the past month, ICTJ’s leading experts have been engaged with stakeholders on the ground on a variety of issues under deliberation, including truth-seeking, reparations, gender justice, and the role of children and youth.

The National Conference to Launch a Dialogue on Transitional Justice in Tunisia was held on Saturday, April 14 in Tunis, initiating a process which should result in the adoption of a comprehensive law on transitional justice by the country’s National Constituent Assembly. ICTJ president David Tolbert delivered a keynote address.

In this op-ed, ICTJ's President David Tolbert expresses concern about the new "Reconciliation Bill" proposed by the Tunisian government, which would grant amnesty to corrupt business people and Ben Ali-era officials in the guise of "reconciliation." "Massive corruption and violent human rights violations are mutually reinforcing, and unless this linkage is exposed and broken, it can lead to mutually reinforcing impunity," writes Tolbert.

Hailed as one of the only success stories to emerge out of the Arab Spring, Tunisia is now facing a significant challenge to its democratic progress. On July 25, Tunisia’s president, Kais Saied, enacted Article 80 of the Tunisia Constitution giving him emergency powers to protect the country from imminent threats. He then used these powers to suspend parliament, lift parliamentary immunity, and fire the prime minister as well as the ministers of justice and defense.

This briefing paper details and analyzes the progress made so far in Tunisia to implement its historic Transitional Justice Law, with a particular focus on the Truth and Dignity Commission, created one year ago.

As the work of Tunisia's Truth and Dignity Commission winds down, ICTJ's Salwa El Gantri and Kelli Muddell discuss some of the challenges and successes of its work and their vision for transparent, participatory processes to advance Tunisia’s transitional justice mandate in the short and long term.

The need for a comprehensive reparations process was the central theme of the National War Victims’ Conference held in in May, in Kampala, Uganda.

There is now an opportunity to design and implement a reparations program for victims of human rights and humanitarian law violations in Uganda. As with other countries emerging from conflict, the contours of a Ugandan reparations policy have been the subject of extended debate and ge...

Reparations for victims of sexual and gender-based violations (SGBV) raise a series of complicated questions and implementation challenges around how to acknowledge this category of victims and deliver reparations without exposing victims to stigma and rejection. Victims must weigh the risk of...

For decades, veiled women in Tunisia were deprived of their rights and discriminated against because of their religious beliefs. Now, they’re joining together to tell their stories and seek justice from the Tunisian government.

In a fast-changing world, ICTJ regularly reexamines and adapts its methodology to develop innovative solutions to emerging problems, advance its mission, and achieve justice for victims of human rights violations. In that spirit, ICTJ recently launched an exciting new website and newsletter design. After over a year of research, planning, surveying stakeholders, designing, and testing, we unveiled a site that better aligns with what ICTJ and transitional justice are today.

A newly adopted UN Security Council resolution calls on the Syrian government to cooperate in destroying its chemical weapons arsenal, stressing that “those responsible for any use of chemical weapons must be held accountable.” Yet, it does not provide a framework for pursuing accountability, in the short or long term. What role might transitional justice play in a post-conflict Syria? Should Syria rush to prosecute war criminals once the fighting draws to a close? These are some of the pressing questions explored in ICTJ’s newest briefing paper.

On October 7, the world watched in horror as members of the militant group Hamas slaughtered over 1,400 Israelis, most of whom were civilians including children and the elderly, in a premeditated and sophisticated attack. Israel’s response has so far been no less horrific. Incessant waves of indiscriminate airstrikes on Gaza have hit residential buildings, medical facilities, and other critical civilian infrastructure, besieging the entire enclave and leaving more than 5,000 people dead including 2,000 children. Unfortunately, these unspeakable atrocities—the condemnation and rejection for which we have run out of words—are not isolated events happening in a vacuum. They are, in fact, just the latest episodes in a 75-yearlong cycle of violence.

Lebanon’s ongoing “October Revolution” represents the largest decentralized, anti-government protest the country has seen at least since the end of the civil war in 1990. The demonstrations have brought thousands of Lebanese to the streets to condemn widespread corruption among the political class, paralyzing the country for weeks.

In what UN Women describes as the “shadow pandemic,” rates of violence against women have soared since the public health and economic crises brought about by COVID-19. With stay-at-home orders in place in countries around the world, women are more susceptible than ever to domestic violence. In countries affected by conflict or repressive rule, all forms of sexual and gender-based violence are on the rise. The ICTJ Gender Modules offer a timely tool to raise awareness about these issues and help develop gender-sensitive responses to them.

Building on its work in Tunisia since 2012, ICTJ met with representatives of youth-led civil society organizations and social movements and state institutions involved in pursuing accountability for Ben Ali-era corruption. This paper focuses on the strategies and insights that members...