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Sierra Leone has made tremendous progress in implementing transitional justice commitments incumbent on the authorities under the Lomé Peace Agreement (LPA) and international law.

Few conflicts have garnered as much attention as the recent one in Darfur. Widespread atrocities reported by several organizations including an International Commission of Investigation compelled the United Nations (UN) Security Council to refer the situation in the western region of Sudan to the International Criminal Court (ICC) in March 2005.

In August 2006 the United Nations Security Council mandated the establishment of the Serious Crimes Investigation Team (SCIT) as an extension of the previous “serious crimes” process, under the UN Integrated Mission in Timor-Leste (UNMIT). Early in 2008, the team began assisting the country’s Office of the Prosecutor General (OPG) with investigations into outstanding cases of serious human rights violations committed in 1999.

Providing the Minister for Social Solidarity with the unfettered discretion to dismiss and appoint members of the institute’s Governing Board renders the institute vulnerable to politicization and undermines the institute’s ‘technical, administrative and financial autonomy.

Timor-Leste has implemented a number of transitional justice mechanisms to address the legacy of human rights violations that occurred in relation to the 1975 Timorese civil war and 24-year Indonesian occupation.These mechanisms have failed to provide victims with meaningful reparations for the harms they suffered.

The situation in Uganda presented a challenging first case for the International Criminal Court (ICC). The origins of the conflict between the Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA) and the government are complex, and many people in the north resent the government for failing to protect them from the LRA.

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 reversal of the district court‘s decision. They believe the district court‘s ruling in In re Iraq and Afghanistan Detainees Litigation, 479 F. Supp. 2d 85 (D.D.C. 2007), is startling and deeply troubling.

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 policies, areas of concern still exist.

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 cruel, inhuman, and degrading treatment or torture.

Negotiating Justice: Guidance for Mediators provides guidance on grappling with justice issues in peace negotiations. Co-published with the Centre for Humanitarian Dialogue, the report seeks in particular to provide peace process actors with basic facts of law, guidance on amnesties and international criminal justice, as well as lessons for incorporating approaches to accountability.