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The African Union, the Kofi Annan Foundation and ICTJ opened a high-level conference examining the role of truth commissions in peace processes. The two-day conference, titled “Truth Commissions and Peace Processes in Africa,” has gathered senior staff from the African Union and member states as well as international and national experts to reflect on lessons learned from truth commissions that have emerged from peace processes in Africa and other continents.

After consulting nearly 2,000 of their peers, youth activists in Cote d'Ivoire present their reparations policy recommendations in a special event on Friday.

The Ivoirian government has a critical opportunity to define and implement a reparations policy that responds to the needs of the most vulnerable victims of the political, military and social crises experienced by Côte d’Ivoire between 1999 and 2012, according to the International Center for Transitional Justice (ICTJ).

In order to create lasting reconciliation between the victims of post-election violence and the Côte d’Ivoire state, the reparations program must respond to the most serious consequences of the violence for victims through measures that address their long-lasting socioeconomic, psychosocial, and education-related effects for victims and their children. To do that, ICTJ's Cristián Correa and Didier Gbery spent more than a year discussing needs with victims groups throughout the country.

A new paper from the International Center for Transitional Justice (ICTJ) offers clear, concrete proposals for a new reparations policy in Côte d’Ivoire for victims of serious human rights violations. The recommendations, informed by extensive work in the affected communities, consider a range of options, including compensation (cash payments), rehabilitation, and symbolic measures.

Prosecution efforts so far have exacerbated, rather than alleviated, ethnic and regional divisions. Credible prosecutions against those most responsible on all sides of the conflict would offer a clear statement to all citizens of Côte d’Ivoire that the justice system is blind to ethnicity and is there to serve and protect all its citizens.

Complementarity is an essential tool in the fight against impunity - by working together, national courts and the ICC can seek justice for the worst crimes. But how is the fight against impunity playing out in Côte d’Ivoire? And how exactly can the Ivorian judiciary and the ICC ensure justice in CDI? A new review of our Handbook on Complementarity examines those questions and assesses how the Handbook can be used in his country.

UN operations are due to end in Côte d’Ivoire next June, but the country must pursue a victim-centered approach to justice even after UNOCI leaves. An ICTJ-organized conference works to prepare government, civil society, and the diplomatic community for the UN departure and chart a way towards justice and a stable peace for all of Côte d’Ivoire.

In Cote d’Ivoire, avenues for education system reform are limited. To help youth find their voice, ICTJ and UNICEF facilitated an innovative truth-telling project led by Ivorian young people themselves. The result: an exploration of the unique experiences of young people during the conflict, told through radio broadcasts, public discussions and reports to government officials.

A groundbreaking new book from the International Center for Transitional Justice (ICTJ) and UNICEF examines the complicated relationship between education, justice and peacebuilding in societies grappling with a legacy of violent conflict. It offers lessons on how education can be harnessed in a divided society to overcome the past and create the conditions for peace, often under very difficult circumstances.