312 results

For more than two decades, some 40 women have been protesting every Wednesday against government inaction on the disappeared in front of Algeria’s official human rights commission. They stand on the sidewalk holding photos of their disappeared relatives — their children, fathers, and husbands — breaking the silence at a dangerous time in Algeria.

Earlier this month, the International Center for Transitional Justice (ICTJ) and its partners opened a two-week photo exhibit at the American University of Beirut’s Jafet Library, featuring vivid and often deeply personal photographs submitted for its “The War As I See It” youth photo contest. Students, professors, experts, and journalists packed into the library space lined with the 26 photographs in oversized frames.

ICTJ and the Human Rights and Atrocity Prevention Clinic at Benjamin N. Cardozo School of Law are pleased to announce a strategic research partnership to examine international law and practice regarding enforced disappearance and the missing.

The month of January has a particular significance in the Middle East and North Africa. It was the month when the Arab uprisings were sparked five years ago. It was also the month when the transitional justice process was inaugurated in Morocco, 12 years ago. What can be learned from Morocco’s experience?

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 this op-ed, ICTJ President David Tolbert argues that President Alassane Ouattara should use his second term as president to address widespread atrocities committed in Cote d'Ivoire's recent past.

ICTJ finds the arrest of Hossam Bahgat, one of Egypt’s leading human rights activists, an ominous sign of the country’s continuous slide into oppression under President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi.

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, Rim El Gantri, head of ICTJ's Tunisian office, discusses the challenges facing Tunisia's transitional justice process and argues that the government's failure to provide accountability for crimes committed under past regimes threatens the country's transition to democracy.

ICTJ deplores the resolution of the African National Congress, at its National General Council meeting on Sunday, to withdraw South Africa from the International Criminal Court and lead an Africa-wide walkout from the court.

ICTJ welcomes the award of the 2015 Nobel Peace Prize to Tunisia's National Dialogue Quartet for helping the country transition to democracy. With the award, the Nobel committee acknowledges the "decisive contribution" made by the group of civil society organizations after Tunisia’s 2011 revolution.

Tunisia continues to take steps to fulfill its commitments under its ground-breaking Transitional Justice Law and realize the goals of the 2011 revolution. But a rocky start to the country’s new truth commission and proposed reconciliation-cum-amnesty legislation could undermine these efforts, according to a new paper by ICTJ.

After toppling Hosni Mubarak’s dictatorship in February 2011, Egyptians were eager for a reckoning with past injustices. But after years of political turmoil, the possibility of a genuine transitional justice process in Egypt is uncertain. We turned to three leading Egyptian activists to examine if there really is a chance for justice and reform in Egypt in the near future.

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.

On International Youth Day, ICTJ reaffirms the importance of engaging youth in efforts to reckon with the past in societies grappling with repressive and violent histories.

ICTJ recently facilitated consultations on reparations policy between victims of the Ivorian crisis and the National Commission for Reconciliation and Compensation for Victims in Abidjan, Côte d’Ivoire.

The actions of the South African government, in allowing Bashir to depart, have dealt a grave blow to the rights of victims of atrocities in Darfur and to the prospects of establishing a credible system of international criminal justice through the ICC.

As Tunisia’s Truth and Dignity Commission (TDC) prepares to hear the testimonies of thousands of citizens, ICTJ is assisting women’s groups in ensuring that their voices are heard in the process.

Thembi Nkadimeng, the sister of disappeared anti-apartheid activist Nokuthula Simelane today filed an application before the Pretoria High Court compelling the National Director of Public Prosecutions and the Minister of Justice to refer the kidnapping, torture, disappearance and murder of Nokuthula Simelane to a formal inquest. This case is aimed at bringing closure to the 32 year old abduction, torture and enforced disappearance of Nokuthula Simelane.

In this analysis piece, director of ICTJ's Reparative Justice program Ruben Carranza talks about the challenges Tunisia is facing in implementing individual and collective reparations measures since the fall of the Ben Ali dictatorship.

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.

President Jacob Zuma risks irreparably damaging the credibility of core elements of South Africa's deal with the victims of apartheid with his current plan to pardon 149 serious offenders and to potentially consider another 926 applications which are before him. Such a move would mark a profound breach of trust with the victims and South African society at large.

ICTJ hosts human rights scholar Michael Ignatieff and UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Zeid Ra'ad Al Hussein for an online debate whether the international community is abandoning the fight against impunity.

A new youth coalition has announced they will act as advocates for the rights of their fellow young Ivorians, and tell a new history of the violence that has so far been silent.