Resource Library

This research brief provides case studies on the use of pardons in Argentina, Chile, El Salvador, Peru and South Africa following periods of mass abuse, and highlights subsequent political and civil society action to overcome impunity exacerbated by pardons and amnesties.

Amicus curiae on petition for a writ of certiorari, to the United States Court of Appeals for the second circuit.

On August 24, 2009, U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder announced that he was appointing Assistant U.S. Attorney John Durham to conduct a preliminary review into the possibility that federal laws were violated in the interrogation of specific detainees outside of the United States. The ...

Response to the first 100 days of the Obama administration and the disclosure of evidence detailing abusive treatment of detainees in the "war on terror." ICTJ recommends the appointment of a special prosecutor, the creation of an independent, nonpartisan commission of inquiry and con...

Details the range of measures that will be needed to address the consequences of abuses committed during the U.S. "war on terror," including independent investigations, public disclosure of the truth, prosecutions of those responsible for abuses and redress for victims of serious harm...

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 of the generations-long conflict in Colombia involving the state, the guerilla group FARC and paramilitaries. The shifting boundaries between drug trafficking and political crime remain a serious obstacle to efforts to promote accountability and respect for human rights in ...

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. ...

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...

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...

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...

During the 1970s, political violence in Argentina resulted in massive violations of human rights including thousands of deaths, prolonged and arbitrary arrests, disappearances, unfair trials, pervasive torture, in addition to cruel, inhuman, and degrading treatment. Since the restorat...

Counterterrorism detainees held in U.S. custody were subject to widespread abuses, including prolonged, arbitrary detention, physical and sexual abuse, enforced disappearance by way of the secret transfer of prisoners to undisclosed locations (“extraordinary rendition”), and other cru...

In dealing with counterterrorism detainees after 2001, the United States breached its obligations under the UN Convention Against Torture (CAT) and other sources of international human rights and humanitarian law. Although the current administration has turned away from some former p...

In Colombia, international crimes can be tried under the ordinary national jurisdiction as well as a limited number of cases under the Justice and Peace Law of 2005 (JPL). Neither jurisdiction has served to highlight the widespread or systematic nature of state-sponsored violence. ...

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...

In El Salvador there was a complex relationship between peacemaking and democratization. The DDR and transitional justice initiatives were connected by the timetable for the implementation of the peace accords. Progress in DDR was dependent on the implementation of political reforms, ...

In El Salvador there was a complex relationship between peacemaking and democratization. The DDR and transitional justice initiatives were connected by the timetable for the implementation of the peace accords. Progress in DDR was dependent on the implementation of political reforms, ...

The DDR process in Colombia aims to guarantee citizens their fundamental rights while at the same time to create space for the integration of demobilized armed groups. It remains to be seen if the Colombian DDR and transitional justice model can be implemented such that it satisfies b...

The DDR process in Colombia aims to guarantee citizens their fundamental rights while at the same time to create space for the integration of demobilized armed groups. It remains to be seen if the Colombian DDR and transitional justice model can be implemented such that it satisfies b...

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...

The report documents that practices that included slamming detainees into walls, extended sleep deprivation, suspending them by the arms, forced nudity, threats, prolonged shackling in uncomfortable positions and disrespect of the Qur'an, were the result of officially sanctioned polic...