39 results

Finding a Shared Truth and Justice in Kosovo

More than 20 years after the end of the Yugoslav Wars of the 1990s, Kosovo is still contending with unresolved ethnic tensions. Formerly an autonomous region of Serbia within the former Yugoslavia, Kosovo declared independence in 2008. Ethnic tensions were a root cause of the violent conflicts, during which an estimated 140,000 died and numerous atrocities were committed. ICTJ recently sat down with ICTJ's Anna Myriam Roccatello and Kelli Muddell to learn more about ICTJ's work and the present challenges to truth and justice in the country.

08/18/23

by Caroline Nowak

A man points at photographs of people covering the wall of a room.
In Focus

The Force of the Police: An Analysis of Police Violence Based on Experience in the United States and the Imperative to Restore Legitimacy

George Floyd’s death reignited existing anger over American society’s deep and festering racial wounds. His death triggered significant social uprisings that have challenged the methods of policing that have emerged over the course of several decades. With a growing awareness of polic...

by

Roberto Cornelli

Three police officers kneel with several protesters at a demonstration.
Report

Victims, Survivors, and Agents of Change: Reparations for Sexual and Gender-Based Violations

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...

08/01/22

by

Virginie Ladisch

World Report

Gearing Up the Fight Against Impunity: Dedicated Investigative and Prosecutorial Capacities

This study explores specialized units established in 23 countries to investigate and prosecute serious international crimes. Notwithstanding the challenges faced by these units, the study concludes that countries with a specialized institutional approach are considerably more successf...

several judges dressed in black gowns sit on a judicial bench.
Report

2021 Year in Review

In 2021, there were significant developments, some hopeful and some devastating, in the struggle for truth, accountability, and redress in countries around the world. ICTJ experts covered these events in commentaries and feature stories published on our website and in our newsletters. While 2022 is already underway and we at ICTJ are hard at work, we would like to pause a moment to take stock and reflect on the year that was.

01/25/22
In Focus

A Transitional Justice Approach to Foreign Fighters

This study explores a transitional justice approach to the dilemma of foreign fighters in violent conflict. Such an approach can help center human rights in comprehensive responses to foreign fighters, and shift the current focus from security and punishment to justice and long-term p...

Image of Children looking through holes in a tent at al-Hol displacement camp in Hasaka governorate, Syria, on April 2, 2019.
Report

ICTJ to Release New Report on Transitional Justice and Foreign Fighters

New York, December 10, 2021— In contexts such as Afghanistan, Bosnia, Chechnya, Iraq, Somalia, and Syria, hundreds, sometimes thousands, of individuals have crossed national borders to engage in violent conflicts in which serious human rights violations and mass atrocities have been committed...

12/10/21
Image of Children looking through holes in a tent at al-Hol displacement camp in Hasaka governorate, Syria, on April 2, 2019.
Press Releases

Alive in the Demand for Change: Transitional Justice and Prevention in Peru

This study examines the preventive effect of transitional justice in Peru in the aftermath of internal conflict and authoritarianism, focusing on the violence’s root causes and the differentiated impact on victims and affected communities. It contends that while transitional justice h...

by

Julie Guillerot

Report

Transitional Justice and Prevention: Summary Findings from Five Country Case Studies

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...

by

Roger Duthie

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

Protesters and a Shadow National Unity Government Refuse to Surrender in Myanmar

Myanmar’s democratic transition was brought to an abrupt halt on February 1, 2021, with the seizure of power by the country’s armed forces. Public protests against the military coup d'état quickly swelled to some of the largest since 2007, to which the military has responded with deadly force. Given the deteriorating situation, restoring civilian rule appears to be an increasingly immense challenge.

04/29/21

by

Anna Myriam Roccatello

World Report

With Violence Against Women on the Rise Around the World, ICTJ’s Gender Modules Offer a Timely Training Tool

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.

12/21/20
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

'Prince of Peace' and ICTJ Founder Alex Boraine Laid to Rest

Alex Boraine, founder of the ICTJ and soldier in the struggle for human rights around the world, will be laid to rest in Cape Town today. He has been called the “Prince of Peace” for his lifelong commitment to transforming South Africa’s society through truth, reconciliation, justice, following the horrors of apartheid.

12/12/18
Press Releases

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...

by

Elena Naughton

Report

Fanning the Flames of Hope in Nepal

Victims in Nepal have been calling on the government for public consultation to ensure wider discussion, a process that would allow them to share their expectations, help them to comprehend the dense language of the proposed amendments and its many gaps. They needed to understand the dubious phrasing especially on issues of criminal accountability that created suspicion, instead of trust and legitimacy in the process.

10/25/18

by

Kelen Meregali

In Focus

Holding a Mirror to Society: Acknowledgment and the Struggle for Indigenous Peoples Rights

Indigenous peoples are still some of the most marginalized and vulnerable communities around the world. In a conflict, they are often some of the most affected as their resource-rich territories are coveted by powerful and violent groups, their identity and loyalty perceived with mistrust, and their...

08/08/18
In Focus

“Now Is a Time to Lead:” Advancing Transitional Justice Initiatives through Local Governments in Nepal

This report aims to help local governments, victims’ groups, and other stakeholders in Nepal to understand the scope of and potential inherent in local governmental powers and to identify what local governments can do to design and implement initiatives that support victims of conflic...

by

Elena Naughton and Kelen Meregali

Report

Turning Tears into Happiness: The Prospects of Local Reparations Initiatives in Nepal

Nepal’s new local government structure – comprised of districts, municipalities, sub-municipalities, and wards formed within the new federal system under the 2015 Constitution – offers the possibility of some individualized redress for victims at the community-level. This article by Elena Naughton was published in the Kathmandu Post on May 6, 2018.

04/26/18
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

UN Inquiry in Myanmar Is a Moment of Truth for Aung San Suu Kyi’s Commitment to Justice

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.

04/11/17
In Focus

Helping Victims Overcome Human Rights Violations Through Education

Understanding education as a form of both reconstruction and reparations is essential for societies in their efforts to address victims’ rights and help victims and their families overcome the consequences of a painful past.

07/27/16
In Focus

Educational Reform in Divided Societies: Northern Ireland and Bosnia

The first piece in of our "Transitional Justice and Education" series examines the role of school systems in Bosnia and Northern Ireland.

06/28/16
In Focus

Reconciliation in Myanmar Must Include Political Prisoners

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.

06/07/16
In Focus

Panel Discussion Examines the Impact of Denial

What happens when a state refuses to acknowledge the suffering of victims of mass atrocities? Or when the public celebrates perpetrators as heroes? Earlier this month, a panel discussion hosted by The International Center for Transitional Justice and New York University’s Center for Global Affairs grappled with the impact of denial on justice.

04/27/16
In Focus

Post-Karadzic Bosnia and Herzegovina: The End of the Criminal Justice Era

Bosnian Serb leader Radovan Karadzic was recently sentenced by the ICTY to 40 years for genocide and crimes against humanity, crimes which have decisively shaped the society in Bosnia and Herzegovina. In this essay, ICTJ’s Refik Hodzic explores what would it take for this poisonous legacy to be dismantled and makes a case for acknowledgement and reparations as matters of moral imperative, but also of political necessity.

04/11/16
In Focus

New Myanmar Government Must be Inclusive if it is to Succeed

In this op-ed, ICTJ's Aileen Thomson says the concerns of former political prisoners, ethnic minorities and conflict-affected communities must be taken into account if peace and democracy in Myanmar are to endure.

03/30/16
In Focus

ICTJ Paper Looks at Range of Options for Dealing with Myanmar’s Troubled Past

With hopes running high after the National League for Democracy’s landslide victory in November, a new ICTJ paper calls on the soon-to-be-established Burmese government to seriously consider taking steps to deal with Myanmar’s troubled past as a way to help end the cycle of violence and human rights violations in the conflict-torn country.

12/08/15
Press Releases

Opening Up Remedies in Myanmar

This briefing paper calls on the soon-to-be-established NLD-led Burmese government to seriously consider taking steps to deal with Myanmar’s troubled past as a way to help end the cycle of violence and human rights violations in the conflict-torn country.

by

Aileen Thomson

Briefing Paper

After Elections, Full Democracy Awaits Release of Myanmar’s Political Prisoners

In this op-ed, ICTJ's Aileen Thomson and Bo Kyi argue that in the wake of Myanmar's historic elections, the release of all political prisoners held by the government would be an important step towards national reconciliation.

12/02/15
In Focus

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

Navigating Paths to Justice in Myanmar's Transition

This report asserts that dealing with past abuses in Myanmar is essential to achieving genuine progress on peacebuilding and economic development in the country. Conflict and high levels of political repression have racked Myanmar for more than half a century. Both President Thein Sei...

by

Patrick Pierce and Caitlin Reiger

Report

Transitional Justice and Women’s Rights: Four Countries to Watch This Year

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.

03/05/14
In Focus

Justice for the Disappeared is at the Heart of Transitional Justice

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.

08/28/12
In Focus

No One Above the Law: Vetting the Security Sector in Nepal

Nepal’s armed conflict ended six years ago, but commitments made to pursue accountability and establish oversight over security forces have yet to be implemented. ICTJ’s briefing paper “Building Trust and Strengthening the Rule of Law” examines how an ad hoc vetting mechanism for officers in senior command positions could help consolidate democracy in Nepal. Author Alexander Mayer-Rieckh says that as Nepal abandons its commitments to pursue accountability for serious crimes, it undermines the ability of its security forces to maintain the rule of law and protect a new era of peace.

08/24/12
In Focus

Building Trust and Strengthening the Rule of Law

ICTJ’s briefing paper “Building Trust and Strengthening the Rule of Law” examines how an ad hoc vetting mechanism for officers in senior command positions could help consolidate democracy in Nepal. Author Alexander Mayer-Rieckh says that as Nepal abandons its commitments to pursue acc...

by

Alexander Mayer-Rieckh

Briefing Paper

Police Reform in Situations of Forced Displacement: Chad, Eastern Zaire, and Kosovo

In cases other than those of environmental disasters, some mix of persecution and fear of violence based on ethnicity, race, or religion, plus violations of human rights and repression based on political beliefs and opinions often characterizes forced displacement for both internally ...

by

William G. O’Neill

Research Case Study

Linkages between Justice-Sensitive Security Sector Reform and Displacement: Examples of Police and Justice Reform from Liberia and Kosovo

As with most post-conflict challenges, the issues of displaced populations and weak security institutions each have profound effects on the other. A common cause of displacement in post-conflict environments is a lack of physical security, either because formal security institutions ...

by

Madeline England

Research Case Study

Twenty Years On, Bosnia Struggles to Reckon with the Past

Ceremonies throughout Bosnia and Herzegovina today mark 20 years since the beginning of the conflict that saw the worst atrocities in Europe since World War II. In this podcast Refik Hodzic, our communications director and a Bosnian justice activist and journalist, discusses the obstacles Bosnia is facing in achieving a reckoning with its troubled recent past. [Download](/sites/default/files/Hodzic_ICTJ_Podcast_04062012.mp3) | Duration: 10:17mins | File size: 5.88MB

04/06/12
Podcasts

Impact of the Yugoslav and Rwanda Tribunals: Lessons for the International Criminal Court

ICTJ and the Center for Global Affairs of New York University (NYU) co-hosted a panel discussion on the impact of international ad hoc tribunals in the former Yugoslavia and Rwanda, and the possible lessons these courts’ experiences hold for the International Criminal Court (ICC). In a discussion...

12/01/09
In Focus