Resource Library

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.

This week, the International Criminal Court heard closing arguments in the trial of Dominic Ongwen, a top commander of the Lord’s Resistance Army in Northern Uganda. Among the 70 counts of war crimes and crimes against humanity he faces are 19 counts of sexual and gender-based crimes, including rape, sexual slavery, and forced marriage—the widest range of such crimes ever to be brought to trial before the court. The case thus marks a milestone in the jurisprudence of these international crimes.

When the government of Uganda signed the Juba Agreement on Accountability and Reconciliation (AAR) with the rebel group the Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA) in 2007, it committed to establishing concrete measures that would promote accountability, reconciliation, and justice for victims of serious human rights violations stemming from two decades of armed conflict. More than ten years later, on June 17, 2019, Uganda’s Cabinet finally approved the long-awaited National Transitional Justice (TJ) Policy.

When Janet Arach was still a schoolgirl, she was abducted by Joseph Kony’s Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA) in northern Uganda. During her eight years in captivity, she was forced to marry an LRA rebel and gave birth to two children. Read more on Janet's journey to become an agent of change for her community in Uganda.

In the United States, the debate over a national reparations program for slavery and Jim Crow has until now encountered political opposition. However, transitional justice approaches at the community level are increasingly surfacing to address racial injustice. A handful of 2020 presidential candidates have come out in support of reparations for slavery. Recently, Georgetown University took center stage in this debate when its student body voted in favor of a student-led initiative to establish a fee that will fund education and health care programs for the descendants of 272 enslaved persons sold by the university in 1838.

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 September 18, the trial of Dominic Ongwen resumed at the ICC. Ongwen is on trial for 70 counts of war crimes and crimes against humanity – including various forms of sexual violence and the recruitment of child soldiers – committed in the former IDP camps of Lukodi, Odek, Abok, and Pajule during the 20-year insurgency in Northern Uganda. Ongwen is the first former child soldier who is facing trial at the ICC for crimes in which he was also a victim.

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...

For years, ICTJ has championed the media and the role it plays in supporting truth-seeking and advancing accountability and redress for victims of conflict-related atrocities. In the places where we work, from South Africa, to the Gambia, Guatemala, Colombia and the Philippines, media projects and coverage—both mainstream and alternative—have been crucial in ensuring participation, mediating public discourse, contributing to acknowledgment for victims, and revealing long-hidden truths about crimes. This month, we share a dispatch from our work in Uganda.

ICTJ's Virginie Ladisch spoke with Heythem Guesmi, a young Tunisian activist who is fighting systemic oppression, economic exclusion, and impunity that persist despite the Revolution’s initial success, and Thenjiwe McHarris, a young organizer working with Black Lives Matter in the United States—a movement whose urgency also stems from historic marginalization leading to widespread impunity and systematic failures in law enforcement.