Resource Library

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...

This reports examine the role of memorials in transitional justice processes, based on research conducted in the Acholi and Lango subregions of northern Uganda. It offers recommendations to those planning memorial activities on how to achieve the highest impact.

In Afghanistan's nation-building process, security has been prioritized over justice. Slow progress on crucial institutional reforms continues to impede efforts to create a competent and professional police force, a functioning civil service, and an accountable judiciary; all three of...

The disarmament, demobilization and reintegration (DDR) process implemented in Bosnia and Herzegovina (BiH) following the 1992-1994 war helped facilitate the transition to peace. However, the almost total failure of international and domestic authorities to support demobilized combata...

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...

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, ...

There was no formal relationship between Disarmament, Demobilization, Rehabilitation and Reintegration (DDRR) processes and transitional justice initiatives in Liberia. DDRR was near completion by the time the TRC began operations. This sequencing of the DDRR program prior to the TRC ...

The social dynamics of ethnic identities is a huge subject. This article narrows the issue by looking specifically at ethnic conflict. It surveys for a transitional justice audience the key factors driving ethnic conflict, and describes some of the more well-known methods of addressin...

In societies split dysfunctionally and violently along evident identity fault lines, the challenge of guaranteeing security requires not piecemeal reform of police and/or military organizations, but a holistic, "whole of governance" approach. How different identities are recognized an...

Many of the situations that transitional justice has been called upon to address involve wholesale attacks on minority communities. MIP rights may be -- and in some cases have been -- articulated to strengthen claims for transitional justice, and produce outcomes in transitional justi...

In societies scarred by ethnic animosity or religious intolerance, one goal of transitional justice is to help reshape identities, and to strengthen a sense of shared identity related to common membership in the national political community. This nation-building function of transition...

Within education, history may be the discipline that is most inherently conservative, as it has traditionally been the venue in which group cohesion and patriotism have been inculcated. In deeply divided societies, particularly after identity-based conflicts, history is a particularly...

The framework of transitional justice, originally devised to facilitate reconciliation in countries undergoing transitions from authoritarianism to democracy, is increasingly used to respond to certain types of human rights violations against indigenous peoples -- even in cases where ...

Truth commissions can provide a stage for a potentially powerful encounter with the past (and present) at the level of public discourse. While their capacity to effect transformation in societies marked by patterns of identity-related marginalization and exclusion is limited (and the ...

In situations of large scale violence and repression, reparations are best conceptualized as rights-based political projects aimed at giving victims due recognition and at enhancing civic trust both among citizens and between citizens and state institutions. This paper explores, in th...

While Rwanda has gone further than any other post-conflict state in prosecuting lower-level perpetrators for mass atrocity, transitional justice mechanisms were deliberately kept separate from the DDR program. On one hand, DDR largely succeeded despite a firm policy against amnesty. O...

In Sierra Leone, the disarmament, demobilization and reintegration (DDR) process and transitional justice initiatives occurred in temporal proximity. Disarmament and demobilization were largely successful in Sierra Leone. Some research suggests, however, that accountability measures ...

Essential among South Africa's transition programs was a process to disarm, demobilize, and reintegrate ex-combatants and to create a new defense force integrating the armed forces of opposing parties into a united military structure. Yet, DDR remained largely independent from other t...

This paper’s principal aim is to provide a cogent analytical framework on the range of possible or ideal relationships between DDR programs and amnesties. It assesses whether and how amnesties can serve to maximize the effectiveness of a DDR program, while doing the least harm possibl...

Disarmament, demobilization, and reintegration (DDR) programs and prosecutions of international crimes have become prominent features in the landscape of postconflict states. Some tension between them is inherent. Nonetheless, there is compatibility in the larger, long-term goals of D...

Generally, disarmament, demobilization, and reintegration (DDR) programs and truth commissions have operated independently of one another. This has resulted in missed opportunities for strengthening DDR and truth commissions. DDR’s reintegration aims may be furthered by increased trut...

The general aim of this paper is to construct an argument about the advisability of drawing links between disarmament, demobilization, and reintegration (DDR) and reparations programs, but not just because this is better from the standpoint of justice. It can be argued that the securi...

This chapter examines the largely overlooked relationship between female ex-combatants, DDR, and transitional justice, with a particular focus on truth commissions. The potential of truth commissions to recognize women’s multiple and contradictory roles during armed conflict and to pu...

Little has been written about the relationship between transitional justice measures and DDR programs with respect to child ex-combatants. We argue that the primary avenue through which transitional justice measures may positively affect the reintegration of former child combatants is...

This publication, written for the UNDP, provides operational guidelines on the implementation of vetting programs in post-conflict societies.

Local justice is sometimes presented as an alternative to or substitute for other measures of transitional justice, often due to political, cultural, or practical considerations. This chapter argues that local justice addresses the (comparatively neglected) reintegration aspect of DDR...

The focus of this paper is on initiatives of DDR, SSR, and transitional justice as they relate in peacebuilding contexts. This paper considers the connection between the three types of initiatives: first, by exploring the relationship between DDR and transitional justice; second, by e...

After periods of extended political conflict and of repression or state terrorism, there is an active political struggle about the meaning of what occurred. This paper illustrates some processes through which silenced or hidden ethnic, cultural or gender dimensions come to light durin...

International and hybrid jurisdictions have been created in response to the commission of heinous international crimes: genocide, crimes against humanity and war crimes, including mass rape. This article shows that, by their legal definitions, genocide and crimes against humanity are ...

Trials re-enact periods of violence and state repression in order to submit them to authoritative judgment. The legal judgment is, however, only one aspect of such trials, which have broader educational and transformative goals. The question posed in this paper is whether or not trial...

This paper makes explicit some of the connections between transitional justice and development, two sprawling fields characterized by fuzzy conceptual borders and by both internal and external dissent. Taking seriously the idea of connecting, however, also means preserving the integri...

Development theory and practice to date has not engaged extensively with transitional justice. This paper explores tentative pathways to conceive of how development and transitional justice practices connect-from a development practitioner's point of view.

Authoritarian regimes frequently leave in their wake a series of negative legacies that have not received sufficient attention in the literature on transitions, and even less by transitional justice measures. This paper examines the political economy of transitions from authoritariani...

Contemporary societies find it very difficult to bring about qualitative and systemic changes. This affects development and transitional justice processes in similar ways, for both practices seek to bring about precisely such changes; the shared challenge is a link between the two fie...

Reparations and development are generally conceptualized and approached independently, but for survivors and victims the demand for both often arises simultaneously. In practice, reparations and development are linked in specific ways. This paper analyzes these links in the context of...

This paper maps out some of the links between transitional justice, SSR, and development. It is argued here that SSR and transitional justice can be understood to complement each other in ways that have received little attention so far, and that bringing in a substantive and direct fo...

In response to past human rights violations, a variety of measures have been developed, including prosecutions at both international and domestic levels, truth commissions, and reparations for victims. All these options need strong institutions. In postconflict and post-authoritarian ...

Natural resources are a natural connecting point for postconflict development and transitional justice. Understanding the specific role of natural resources in the maintenance of authoritarian regimes and the facilitation of armed conflicts is central to transitional justice's aim of ...

This paper examines linkages between transitional justice processes and the broader issue of land tenure reform in countries with a long and complex history of property dispossession or where land has been a root cause of conflict. It is argued that greater coordination between transi...

This paper examines the links between education and transitional justice initiatives in contexts affected by conflict. It argues that conceptually there can be meaningful mutual reinforcement between the educational goal of participation and the transitional justice goals of recogniti...

The term "civil society" is used by both the transitional justice and the development communities, often in a positive light: transitional justice measures are often said to contribute to strengthening civil society, and at the same time, to some extent, to depend on it; similarly, de...

This paper explores how enforcement of international criminal law currently addresses socioeconomic and environmental crimes. It specifically examines current efforts to promote accountability for: (1) environmental war crimes and (2) property crimes and expropriation. The paper then ...

Truth commissions present an important venue for children’s voices to be heard and for their needs to be addressed. The more challenging questions are specific to each context – which settings are most appropriate, what risks are involved, what do the children have to gain and how wil...

The International Center for Transitional Justice (ICTJ), together with the University of Western Ontario Faculty of Law and the Permanent Mission of Canada to the United Nations, hosted an Expert Group Meeting entitled Closing the International and Hybrid Criminal Tribunals: Mechanis...

The legacy of systematic human rights violations committed during violent conflict and repressive rule can reach well into the new order. Transitional justice can help societies address the past through prosecutions, truthseeking, reparations for victims and institutional reform. Just...

The passing of the Constitution of Kenya of 2010 and its promulgation on August 27, 2010, heralds the deep desire of Kenyans, as individuals and communities, to live in a society that respects and protects their liberties and livelihoods without discrimination. With respect to transit...

In the wake of the April uprising, the International Center for Transitional Justice (ICTJ) undertook a weeklong mission in Kyrgyzstan to assess whether a transitional justice approach might assist the country in its transition process.

The Liberia Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC) released its final report in December 2009 after more than three years of operations. The report offers valuable insights into Liberia’s turbulent history, including the gross human rights violations committed during the country’s ...

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.