Resource Library

The International Center for Transitional Justice (ICTJ), in cooperation with the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), with support from the Governments of Denmark and South Africa, and in close consultation with the Assembly of States Parties to the Rome Statute (ASP), held a...

Indigenous peoples are among those most affected by contemporary conflict. The resource-rich territories they occupy are coveted by powerful, often violent groups. Their identity is perceived with mistrust, sometimes with hate. Indigenous communities live at a precarious intersection ...

Whether the government can lawfully rely on Exemption 7(F) of the Freedom of Information Act, 5 U.S.C. § 552(b)(7)(F), to withhold photographs depicting the abuse of prisoners held in U.S. custody without identifying with reasonable specificity any individuals who could reasonably be ...

Research Brief: Selected examples of Defence, Intelligence and Justice Investigative Reports into detention and interrogation practices.

Examples of pardons in international jurisprudence, including Inter-American Court and Commission, European Court of Human Rights, UN Treaty Bodies, and the African Commission on Human and Peoples’ Rights.

Case studies on the use of pardons in Argentina, Chile, El Salvador, Peru, and South Africa.

Recent speculation indicates that U.S. President George W. Bush may grant pardons to administration officials and members of the military who might face prosecution for authorizing, ordering, endorsing, justifying or committing acts pursuant to the “war on terror.” While a pardon appl...

This report disscusses the Greensboro Truth and Reonciliation Commission's Final Report on the 1979 killings of five anti-Ku Klux Klan demonstrators. It focuses on a meeting of representatives from truth recovery efforts around the world to assess the Greensboro experience. Topics cov...

This study examines the development of restitution and reparations in international law and practice over the last century. It aims to provide recommendations on how restitution can best contribute to transitional justice by reviewing four case-studies: the Czech Republic, South Afric...

ICTJ provides an overview of various United States Commissions of Inquiry. This publication includes briefs on the Senate and House Committee Investigations of the Palmer Raids in 1920, the Senator Frank Church Committee in 1975, a commission into wartime relocation and internment of ...

In the U.S., the democratic principle that openness in government can act as an important check against the possibility of government abuse has been steadily undermined. A critical information gap, only partially addressed through fragmented investigative efforts within and outside go...

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,...

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...

This Brief of Amici Curiae is respectfully submitted by several human rights and torture treatment organizations pursuant to Federal Rule of Appellate Procedure 29 and District of Columbia Circuit Rule 29. The Brief is filed in support of the Plaintiffs-Appellants and seeks the revers...

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...

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 ...

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...