Resource Library

The importance of an independent, representative, and competent truth and reconciliation commission (TRC) to guarantee the rights of victims to truth, justice, and reparations should not be underestimated. Key recommendations in this regard are included in this briefing.

Demobilization was first initiated in Cambodia in 1992, but there have been few attempts to link disarmament, demobilization and reintegration (DDR) processes to transitional justice measures. The government's overriding consideration has been the preservation of stability, narrowly i...

This document presents a non‐exhaustive summary of some of the topics discussed at a workshop on outreach organized by the ICTJ in collaboration with the ECCC from March 3-5, 2010. It first provides a general overview of the ECCC functions and outreach activities. Thereafter, it highl...

The Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC or Congo) presents a critical test for the International Criminal Court (ICC). All of the accused in current ICC trials are from DRC. The Court plays a vital role in DRC regarding complementarity, peace, justice, victims, and affected communities....

The International Criminal Court (ICC) opened its second trial against Germain Katanga and Mathieu Ngudjolo Chui on November 24, 2009. The men are former leaders of armed rebel movements from the Ituri district in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC).

Years have lapsed since the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) ratified the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court (ICC) in March 2002, but the DRC government has yet to meet its legal obligation to incorporate the statute into national law. Adopting such legislation is esse...

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.

Background on the challenges in addressing legacies of past violence in sub-Saharan African countries such as Uganda, Ethiopia and Eritrea. The fact sheet gives an overview of the situation in the region and ICTJ's approaches in promoting transitional justice in individual countries. ...

Overview of the proceedings of the ECCC, the hybrid tribunal created in 2006 to try senior leaders of the Khmer Rouge and those "most responsible" for the crimes that took place. The court has five suspects in custody and has almost completed its first trial which began in March of 20...

Transforming a Legacy of Genocide presents the findings of a November 2007 survey of visitors to Choeung Ek, a public memorial of one of Cambodia's notorious "killing fields" during the Khmer Rouge regime, where approximately 20,000 people were killed between 1975 and 1979. The survey...

This transitional justice review of Cambodia addresses both the achievements of the Extraordinary Chambers in the Courts of Cambodia (ECCC) and the persisting concerns of political influence, corruption and delays that have the potential to undermine the judicial process. The review c...

This paper is meant to help the Extraordinary Chambers in the Courts of Cambodia (ECCC), the civil parties before the court and other Khmer Rouge period survivors and their families deal with practical and legal issues in the course of fulfilling the reparations mandate of the ECCC. ...

Situation brief on the International Criminal Court's upcoming pretrial hearings on whether to pursue charges against Jean-Pierre Bemba for crimes his troops allegedly committed in the Central African Republic (CAR) in 2002-03. The ICC prosecutor opened an investigation in May 2007 in...

Background on conflict in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) and the Central African Republic (CAR) in the context of Jean-Pierre Bemba’s trial at the International Criminal Court (ICC). The ICC is preparing to prosecute Bemba of the DRC for alleged rapes, torture and murders that...

In Congo over the past decade, demands for justice have been largely unmet in peace negotiations: impunity for the worst crimes is entrenched, and the root causes of the conflict remain unaddressed. As the European Union, often through the European Union Special Representatives (EUSRs...

The Documentation Affinity Group (DAG) was established in 2005 by ICTJ and five partner organizations as a peer-to-peer network with a primary focus on human rights documentation. Documenting Truth collects the best practices derived from the work of the DAG organizations in Cambodia,...

Background on the role of amnesty in processes of transitional justice and the 2009 DRC Amnesty Law. Given a fragile justice system and culture of impunity, this law risks rewarding blanket amnesty for all crimes committed in the DRC. ICTJ gives suggestions to break the culture of imp...

Difficult Peace, Limited Justice: Ten Years of Peacemaking in the DRC reviews the efforts to address justice during ten years of varied peace negotiations in the Democratic Republic of Congo. A close look the dynamics of peace talks and the resulting accords -- including those of Sun ...

In October 2008, fighting erupted in the North Kivu province in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) between rebel troops of Laurent Nkunda's Congrès National pour la Défense du Peuple (CNDP) movement, local militia groups, and troops of the Forces Armées de la République Démocr...

Situation brief on the International Criminal Court's prosecution against Thomas Lubanga, the former leader of the Union des Patriotes Congolais (UPC) who has been charged with genocide and crimes against humanity. Due to problems with the prosecutor's proposed use of evidence, the tr...

Background on the 2004 ICC arrest warrant for Bosco Ntaganda, wanted for war crimes allegedly committed in the DRC including civilian massacres and the recruitment of child soldiers. In 2009, the Congolese government decided not to arrest Bosco, and instead appointed him a deputy comm...

In April 2008 historic elections to Nepal’s Constituent Assembly led to a political watershed: former Maoist guerrillas surprised everyone by coming out ahead, suggesting that a new era had come to Nepal. In its first sitting, the Constituent Assembly declared Nepal a republic and bro...

In 1996, six years after Nepal replaced its absolute monarchy with multi-party democracy, Maoist rebels launched an armed struggle that led to an estimated 13,000 deaths over the next decade. In November 2006 the rebels and government made peace, paving the way for the abolition of th...

The Cambodian diaspora in France and Belgium has been actively following the development of efforts to prosecute Khmer Rouge officials responsible for crimes committed in Cambodia between 1975 and 1979. Diasporas have assumed a new and important role in the judicial and political aren...

Two years after the Democratic Republic of Congo held its first elections since independence, the country is at a crossroads. One of the key challenges facing the DRC today is the question of how the country will address the massive human rights atrocities of its recent past to establ...