Resource Library

The Burmese government cannot change in a meaningful way until it eliminates the culture of impunity for human rights violations that has developed during the past 48 years. The international community can help this effort by establishing a commission of inquiry into the violations. R...

Gender-based violence, including sexual violence was a common feature of the 10-year-long armed conflict between the security forces and the Communist Party of Nepal – Maoist (CPN-M), yet few individual incidents were reported.

One of the major challenges facing parliamentary democracy can be the restriction of people's participation in democratic processes, especially the opportunity to vote in periodic elections.

According to the Rome Statute, the International Criminal Court (ICC) will investigate and prosecute where States are “unwilling or unable genuinely” to do so.

Although in force only recently, the Rome Statute has changed many of the assumptions of earlier peace versus justice debates, at least for States Parties.

Few conflicts have garnered as much attention as the recent one in Darfur. Widespread atrocities reported by several organizations including an International Commission of Investigation compelled the United Nations (UN) Security Council to refer the situation in the western region of ...

In August 2006 the United Nations Security Council mandated the establishment of the Serious Crimes Investigation Team (SCIT) as an extension of the previous “serious crimes” process, under the UN Integrated Mission in Timor-Leste (UNMIT). Early in 2008, the team began assisting the c...

Providing the Minister for Social Solidarity with the unfettered discretion to dismiss and appoint members of the institute’s Governing Board renders the institute vulnerable to politicization and undermines the institute’s ‘technical, administrative and financial autonomy.

Timor-Leste has implemented a number of transitional justice mechanisms to address the legacy of human rights violations that occurred in relation to the 1975 Timorese civil war and 24-year Indonesian occupation.These mechanisms have failed to provide victims with meaningful reparatio...

The situation in Uganda presented a challenging first case for the International Criminal Court (ICC). The origins of the conflict between the Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA) and the government are complex, and many people in the north resent the government for failing to protect them fr...