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On August 4th, former President Alvaro Uribe surprised the country with a tweet announcing that he would be placed under house arrest for suspected witness tampering and obstruction of justice by the Special Instruction Chamber of the Supreme Court of Justice as part of an investigation that has been underway since 2018. According to the court, this decision was made out of a concern for possible obstruction of justice, which appears to be consistent with the ongoing investigation into these same charges. This is undoubtedly an unprecedented situation.

The role of police in society is to protect residents and enforce the rule of law. As a public institution, and particularly one whose function includes the state-sanctioned use of force, the effectiveness of the police depends on its integrity and legitimacy. When the police abuses its power, by brutalizing civilians and or engaging in corruption, it loses its credibility and the public’s trust. In Kenya, enforcement of measures to halt the spread of COVID-19 have been accompanied by acts of police brutality, of the kind that Kenyans have been through multiple times before.

Sparing almost no corner of the world from its wrath, the COVID-19 pandemic has now spread to every country. In an effort to slow the contagion, governments in most countries have been taking drastic measures requiring all residents other than essential workers to confine themselves in their homes, and shutting down vast sectors of their economies. The impact has been crushing. COVID-19 has profoundly affected every country where ICTJ currently works: Armenia, Colombia, Cote d’Ivoire, Ethiopia, Gambia, Kenya, Lebanon, Libya, Sudan, Syria, Tunisia, and Uganda. We recently caught up with ICTJ’s heads of country programs to learn more about the impact the pandemic is having on transitional justice and society more broadly.

Tunis—On March 2-3, 2020, ICTJ is holding a conference in Tunis, Tunisia, on the fight against corruption and the recovery of ill-gotten assets as a critical element of transitional justice processes. The conference will bring together activists, policymakers, and experts from Tunisia and other countries in the global South emerging from conflict or authoritarian rule, including Armenia, The Gambia, Kenya, the Philippines, and South Africa.

New York—On February 26, ICTJ and NYU Law’s Center for Human Rights and Global Justice will welcome former President of Colombia and Nobel Peace Prize Laureate Juan Manuel Santos for a conversation on the role of transitional justice in peace negotiations.

On December 12, ICTJ’s head of office for Colombia María Camila Moreno received the Alfonso López Michelsen Award for her dedicated work to advance peace and uphold international human rights and humanitarian law.

In 1998, Colombian filmmaker Sergio Cabrera released “Time Out,” a fictional comedy in which guerrilla members and soldiers — usually mortal enemies — call a momentary truce to watch the national soccer team play in the qualifiers for the 1994 World Cup. Twenty years later, former combatants of both sides, members of the security forces, and victims of the conflict came together at Llano Grande in the region of Dabeiba to watch Cabrera’s film and play a game of soccer.

Given the political challenges emerging from authoritarian states and conflicts in Africa, what is the best way to pursue accountability for violations of international human rights and humanitarian law on the continent? ICTJ experts Chris Gitari and Howard Varney sit down to discuss regional initiatives, complementarity, and other strategies for pursuing accountability.

The trend of missing and disappeared persons due to conflict remains more prevalent than ever today. Many governments around the world have remained undeterred in their abuse of power to invade a home or community and remove persons deemed to be a threat. This intractable problem has received global attention largely due to the efforts of family members who often risk their lives in pursuit of the right to know and ‍‍to bury their loved ones.

Since the 1950s, the FARC had been present in the southern department of Caquetá in Colombia. The local population suffered from decades of armed confrontations between the FARC and the Colombian Army. This is the story of the collective memory project implemented with the El Pato municipal farmers’ association (AMCOP) in the El Pato-Balsillas farmer reserve zone.

Regardless of how the world remembers Alex Boraine's legacy—or the success and shortcomings of the truth and reconciliation process in South Africa—history will recall that Boraine withstood his own, and his nation’s, transitions to cement his legacy as an architect for truth and reconciliation and a champion for justice for victims.

On April 11, 2019, Jaqy Mutere, cofounder and coleader of Grace Agenda, accepted an award from Physicians for Human Rights recognizing the work of the Survivors of Sexual Violence in Kenya Network and Grace Agenda, a leader in this movement. Jaqy cofounded Grace Agenda after she began working with women who, like her, had experienced sexual violence during the protests that erupted in Kenya after the contested December 2007 elections.

From February 22 to March 1, ICTJ held its annual retreat in Litchfield Hills, Connecticut. Staff members convened at the Wisdom House—an interfaith conference center that seeks to provide an environment conducive to introspection and teambuilding.

On February 14, Kenyans once again confronted their painful relationship with law enforcement and revisited the deep mistrust born of historical abuses. In an unprecedented ruling, a court found five senior police officers potentially culpable in gruesome murder during the police response to the 2017 post-election protests. On the same day, a senior police officer was convicted of murder and jailed for life.

In December 2018, we mourned the loss of ICTJ's founder, Alex Boraine. On December 12, Fernando Travesí sat down for an intimate conversation with Vincent Mai—ICTJ’s first chairman—to learn more about a life that we will continue to commemorate in the months and years to come.

In little less than 10 months, Colombia has witnessed the creation of a completely new jurisdiction, the Special Jurisdiction for Peace (JEP). JEP has already opened two cases and three situations in its Chamber for the Acknowledgment of Truth and Responsibility.

Many countries have endured a violent past or a dictatorship that left behind a trail of human rights violations. During transitions to peaceful societies or democracies, there is a need to address that painful past to ensure that the violations do not recur in future. While some countries have made or are making laudable efforts to deal with the atrocities of the past, others like Kenya are regrettably still at the phase of wishing the painful past away.

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.

Dr. Alex Boraine, founder of the ICTJ, was larger than life. In his long career, he touched the lives of thousands in his beloved South Africa and around the world.

During a forum held in Bogotá, Colombia, on November 1, 2018, ICTJ launched the Spanish-language version of its Handbook on Complementarity: An Introduction to the Role of National Courts and the ICC in Prosecuting International Crimes. The Deputy Prosecutor of the International Criminal Court (ICC), James Kirkpatrick Stewart, gave the keynote address.

Kenyan media house Africa Uncensored has teamed up with the International Center for Transitional Justice (ICTJ) on a documentary that explores the Bulla Karatasi massacre that took place in the northern region of Garissa, Kenya, and its impact on communities in the North. The documentary will advance ICTJ’s efforts to partner with civil society on community-state dialogue initiatives, engage stakeholders around political and constitutional reforms stemming from the TJRC’s recommendations, and achieve redress for the legacy of state violence in Garissa and other communities in Northern Kenya.

Recent recognition of the work of Nobel Laureate Nadia Murad has drawn global attention to the issue of sexual violence and gender-based violence in conflict. But, as ICTJ Expert Kelli Muddell argues, the nuances of gender norms and how they impact women, men, and vulnerable populations are still often missing from conversations about victims.

From October 1 to October 5, 2018, ICTJ hosted its eleventh intensive course on transitional justice in collaboration with the International Peace Center for in Barcelona. Participants included leaders in their respective fields, including human rights law, community justice and legal services, peacebuilding, education, and humanitarian affairs.

In the dynamic political landscape that has emerged following 50 years of conflict, Colombia is taking steps toward truth and accountability. The Commission for the Clarification of Truth, Coexistence, and Non-Repetition (the “Commission”) is scheduled to begin taking statements in November 2018. As part of its mandate, it will hear the stories of victims now living throughout the Diaspora.

To mark the launch of our new publication, "Forms of Justice: A Guide to Designing Reparations Application Forms and Registration Processes for Victims of Human Rights Violations", we sat down with Jairo Rivas about his work in designing reparations forms in Peru and Colombia.