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A black-and-white photo of an open book pierced by a single bullet hole was chosen as the grand-prize winner of the International Center for Transitional Justice’s Youth Photo Contest, “THE WAR AS I SEE IT” in Lebanon. The photo, titled “Dominique,” was taken by Sibylle George, a 22-year-old architecture student at American University of Beirut.

Twenty-five years after the end of the Lebanese Civil War, the families of the missing and forcibly disappeared in Lebanon are still waiting for answers about the fate of their loved ones. A new report by the International Center for Transitional Justice says the country seems to be ready to address this issue through an independent national commission and lays out the features of a successful future commission.

In commemoration of the 25th anniversary of the end of the Lebanese civil war, ICTJ is holding a youth photo contest to raise awareness about the importance of truth seeking and truth telling about people’s experiences of the war and post-war violence.

In this op-ed, ICTJ Vice President Paul Seils analyzes the criminal justice agreement announced by the Government of Colombia and the FARC and discusses what aspects of the deal need clarification to ensure that it is capable of delivering the kind of truth and justice that victims of Colombia's armed conflict deserve.

The wives of the missing and disappeared in Lebanon continue to suffer serious social, psychological, legal and financial effects on their lives, and the lives of their children, says a new report by ICTJ and the Institute for Women’s Studies in the Arab World at Lebanese American University.

A major new report from ICTJ canvasses 31 countries to see how the crime of enforced disappearance affects women, as both the disappeared and the female relatives of the disappeared. It finds that across cultures, women face serious barriers to seeking relief due to discriminatory laws and practices.

ICTJ welcomes the release of the final report of Brazil’s National Truth Commission after two and a half years of work to unveil the truth about serious human rights violations that took place in the country between 1946 and 1988, especially during the military dictatorship of 1964 to 1985. The final report is a historic contribution to truth and justice in a country where serious crimes have remained unaddressed for decades and calls on the Brazilian judiciary to disregard the Amnesty Law and act in cases of crimes against humanity.

Many in Colombia are also interested in learning from international experiences where criminal accountability measures were applied to pursue justice after massive human rights violations, like in Bosnia and Herzegovina, Cambodia, Sierra Leone and East Timor. With the aim of promoting an exchange of ideas on what lessons could be useful for Colombia, the ICTJ will be holding a conference in Bogotá on November 24th.

Lebanon should take firm steps to provide redress to victims of past conflicts and help prevent future violence, ICTJ and Lebanese rights groups said today at a roundtable discussion in Beirut. Lebanese authorities have mostly failed in their responsibility to end ongoing violations and ensure justice and truth for victims of the 1975-1990 war and successive conflicts.