46 results

A Revitalized Peace Process in Yemen Must Include Victims

Yemen's nine-year conflict has devastated the country and created one of the world’s worst humanitarian crises. The regional upheaval stemming from the ongoing war on Gaza has created more obstacles on the country's already complex path toward peace and shifted attention away from the set of UN-brokered commitments agreed upon by the parties to the conflict in December 2023, which include a nationwide ceasefire. Amid these challenges, it is more imperative than ever to support civil society and victims and bring attention to victims’ grievances and needs.

06/04/24
A field monitor from Yemen's National Commission to Investigate Alleged Violations of Human Rights (NCIAVHR) examines destruction caused by the war in the Salah District in Taiz Governorate in 2023. (Maher Al Absi/NCIAVHR)
World Report

When Libyan Women Set the Tone

Human rights violations as well as any official response to them affect women’s lives in distinct, profound, and often unseen and unspoken ways. For a society grappling with mass atrocities, it is crucial to shed light on these diverse experiences, if they are ever to be acknowledged and repaired. Space must therefore be created for women victims to share their experiences. Libya is one such country. To help raise the voices of women victims and human rights defenders there, ICTJ has been collaborating with diverse women-led civil society organizations since 2019, bringing them together and helping them build their capacities.

05/17/24
Working Group Discussion
In Focus

'Zyara to Yemen' Docuseries

The Arabic word “Zyara” means “visit” in English. The Zyara documentary series takes an innovative, deeply personal approach to storytelling with a view to nurturing collective social and emotional healing. Through candid encounters, it paints poetic portraits of four Yemenis refugees living in Oman, including a human rights lawyer and activist, a restaurant worker, a martial arts champion, and a businessman. By telling their stories and celebrating the resilient spirit of the Yemeni people, the Zyara project seeks to raise awareness and preserve truth and memory.

04/29/24
poster for Zyara to Yemen docuseries
In Focus

'Zyara to Yemen' Docuseries

The Arabic word “Zyara” means “visit” in English. The Zyara documentary series takes an innovative, deeply personal approach to storytelling with a view to nurturing collective social and emotional healing. Through candid encounters, it paints poetic portraits of four Yemenis refugees l...

Videos

Zyara to Yemen

The Arabic word “Zyara” means “visit” in English. The Zyara documentary series takes an innovative, deeply personal approach to storytelling with a view to nurturing collective social and emotional healing.

Videos

ICTJ Announces the Winners of the ‘Overseas’ Writing Contest

ICTJ is pleased to announce the winners of its “Overseas” writing contest. In it, young people originally from or currently residing in Lebanon, Libya, or Tunisia who have left their home countries for political or socioeconomic reasons were asked to share their personal experiences of migration in the form of a short, written testimony.

01/25/24
A drawing featuting a young trekking through a rugged landscape, his back facing toward the viewer. On his back, he carries a small castle.
Press Releases

ICTJ Writing Contest Invites Young Migrants to Share Their Stories

ICTJ is pleased to announce the “Overseas: Writing Contest,” an open call for young migrants originally from or currently residing in Lebanon, Libya, or Tunisia to share their personal experiences of migration in the form of a short, written testimony.

09/18/23
Press Releases

Accountability in Yemen Requires a Comprehensive Transitional Justice Process

In 2016, the Yemeni National Commission to Investigate Alleged Violations to Human Rights began documenting violations committed since the 2011 uprising and during the subsequent brutal civil war, which continues today. To date, the commission has documented more than 23,000 human rights abuses and referred over 2,000 cases to Yemen’s Public Prosecutor for prosecution. However, no verdict has been issued in any of these cases. To help the commissioners and members of Yemen’s judiciary advance accountability, ICTJ organized a workshop for them on transitional justice mechanisms. However, to deliver a justice that meets all the reparative needs of victims, these efforts must be an integral part of a broader, multifaceted transitional justice process.

03/20/23

by

Nour El Bejjani Noureddine

A group of people sit together for a photo in a conference room.
In Focus

The Force of the Police: An Analysis of Police Violence Based on Experience in the United States and the Imperative to Restore Legitimacy

George Floyd’s death reignited existing anger over American society’s deep and festering racial wounds. His death triggered significant social uprisings that have challenged the methods of policing that have emerged over the course of several decades. With a growing awareness of polic...

by

Roberto Cornelli

Three police officers kneel with several protesters at a demonstration.
Report

A Path for Hope in Libya Through Civil Society

Libyan civil society organizations are fighting against all odds to support victims of human rights violations. In doing so, they themselves risk violence and do their work despite the visible and invisible pain they feel and the innumerable obstacles placed in front of them. Renewed global attention on the Libyan conflict and two new draft laws to protect activists and others may help.

11/21/22

by Francesca Folda

A woman in a headscarf and sunglasses holds up a placard with a photograph of women and writing in Arabic.
In Focus

ICTJ Hosts Training for Field Monitors with Yemen’s National Commission Investigating Human Rights Violations

Even as the parties to the war in Yemen fail to extend the UN-brokered ceasefire, field monitors of the National Commission to Investigate Alleged Violations to Human Rights (NCIAVHR) continue to document and investigate human rights violations despite enormous challenges and serious risks to their...

11/15/22
Two women sits at conference table in front of a microphone.
In Focus

The Wide Awake Art Exhibition

In January 2022, ICTJ launched the Wide Awake Art Contest, an open call event inviting Lebanese and Tunisian artists as well as artists living in Lebanon or Tunisia to explore the theme “the Sound of Dissent.” The contest spotlights the creative works by those who are documenting and me...

Photos

Gearing Up the Fight Against Impunity: Dedicated Investigative and Prosecutorial Capacities

This study explores specialized units established in 23 countries to investigate and prosecute serious international crimes. Notwithstanding the challenges faced by these units, the study concludes that countries with a specialized institutional approach are considerably more successf...

several judges dressed in black gowns sit on a judicial bench.
Report

Alive in the Demand for Change: Transitional Justice and Prevention in Peru

This study examines the preventive effect of transitional justice in Peru in the aftermath of internal conflict and authoritarianism, focusing on the violence’s root causes and the differentiated impact on victims and affected communities. It contends that while transitional justice h...

by

Julie Guillerot

Report

Transitional Justice and Prevention: Summary Findings from Five Country Case Studies

This report summarizes the findings of an ICTJ research project on the contribution of transitional justice to prevention. Drawing from five country case studies, it contends that addressing the past can help to prevent the recurrence not only of human rights violations but also viole...

by

Roger Duthie

A young person with back facing the viewer is wearing a T-shirt that reads “Colombia in Peace"
Report

Special Report on COVID-19: Keeping Justice in Sight

Sparing almost no corner of the world from its wrath, the COVID-19 pandemic has now spread to every country. In an effort to slow the contagion, governments in most countries have been taking drastic measures requiring all residents other than essential workers to confine themselves in their homes, and shutting down vast sectors of their economies. The impact has been crushing. COVID-19 has profoundly affected every country where ICTJ currently works: Armenia, Colombia, Cote d’Ivoire, Ethiopia, Gambia, Kenya, Lebanon, Libya, Sudan, Syria, Tunisia, and Uganda. We recently caught up with ICTJ’s heads of country programs to learn more about the impact the pandemic is having on transitional justice and society more broadly.

05/19/20
In Focus

Holding a Mirror to Society: Acknowledgment and the Struggle for Indigenous Peoples Rights

Indigenous peoples are still some of the most marginalized and vulnerable communities around the world. In a conflict, they are often some of the most affected as their resource-rich territories are coveted by powerful and violent groups, their identity and loyalty perceived with mistrust, and their...

08/08/18
In Focus

A Practitioners' Perspective on Forms of Justice in Peru and Colombia

To mark the launch of our new publication, "Forms of Justice: A Guide to Designing Reparations Application Forms and Registration Processes for Victims of Human Rights Violations", we sat down with Jairo Rivas about his work in designing reparations forms in Peru and Colombia.

12/07/17
In Focus

Public Hearings: Platforms of Truth, Dignity, and Catharsis

On the International Day for the Right to Truth we spotlight one of the most powerful ways truth commissions can reassert victims' dignity: public hearings. These open events can have a potentially cathartic power for victims and their families, but also the public at large by generating solidarity and empathy for the suffering of others in societies deeply polarized and traumatized by atrocities and denial.

03/24/17
In Focus

Helping Victims Overcome Human Rights Violations Through Education

Understanding education as a form of both reconstruction and reparations is essential for societies in their efforts to address victims’ rights and help victims and their families overcome the consequences of a painful past.

07/27/16
In Focus

Peru: ICTJ Supports Victims Challenge of Unfair Compensation Program

ICTJ files legal brief supporting Peruvian families in their case for a just compensation program for victims of Peru's 1980-2000 internal armed conflict.

05/16/16
Press Releases

On the Front Lines of Justice: The Struggle for Accountability in National Contexts

On International Criminal Justice Day, 2014, ICTJ joins the global celebrations marking the groundbreaking establishment of the Rome Statute in 1998, which created the International Criminal Court (ICC). To mark the day, we review five contexts where national systems proved it was possible to bring perpetrators to justice where it matters the most.

07/15/14
In Focus

New Edition of Hatun Willakuy Shares Findings of Peru’s Truth Commission, Aimed at Wider Audiences

Three human rights groups have joined together to publish a new English edition of Hatun Willakuy, a book presenting the abridged findings of Peru’s Truth and Reconciliation Commission, on its tenth anniversary. The book, which is available online, will allow a larger number of readers to benefit from the findings of Peru’s truth-seeking process.

05/23/14
Press Releases

ICTJ Forum: 'The Act of Killing,' Peru, and the Philippines

In this edition of the ICTJ Forum, ICTJ Communications Director Refik Hodzic discusses transitional justice in the news with Truth and Memory Program Director Eduardo Gonzalez and Reparative Justice Program Director Ruben Carranza. They look at the meaning and impact of the explosive new documentary “The Act of Killing," discuss the 10-year anniversary of Peru's truth and reconciliation commission, and peace talks in the Philippines.

08/19/13
Podcasts

Ten Years After Peru’s Truth Commission

Ten years ago, on August 28, 2003, the Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC) of Peru presented its final report, clarifying the grave human rights violations committed between 1980 and 2000 during the internal armed conflict and the regime headed by Alberto Fujimori. This month, ICTJ joins Peru to examine the legacy and impact of the TRC.

08/19/13
In Focus