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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 violence and injustice more broadly by fostering individual and collective inclusion and catalyzing long-term reform. It also identifies common limitations to the preventive impact of transitional justice.

The relationship between transitional justice and security system – or sector – reform (SSR)1 is understudied, yet both contribute to state-building, democratisation and peacebuilding in countries with a legacy of massive human rights abuse. Reforming the system to ensure security agents become protectors of the population and the rule of law is of the utmost urgency, but the political and security context may pose serious challenges to reform.

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 justice processes that contribute to more effective and sustainable justice and reconciliation.

This paper highlights positive examples of the media's role in contributing to public debates about the war in the former Yugoslavia. It compares and contrasts state-controlled media before and during the war with independent media. Ultimately, it considers the media's potential for promoting further debate and reflection and contributing to transitional justice.

Indigenous rights are increasingly being addressed through different transitional justice measures, and ICTJ is actively involved in the discourse on how truth commissions and other transitional justice mechanisms can help the struggle for the rights of indigenous people.

To mark International Women’s Day, we invite you to read about four countries at the top of our gender justice priorities in the coming year, each with its own history, context, and complex sets of challenges.

Transitional justice processes have a fundamental public dimension: their impact depends in part on the social support they receive. Beyond outreach programs, other initiatives, such as media and cultural interventions, can strengthen—or in some cases undermine—the public resonance of transitional justice. How can media and art be used to engage society in discussions around accountability? How do media influence social perceptions and attitudes toward the legacy of the past?

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 examining the links between DDR and SSR; and third, by considering the connections between transitional justice and SSR.

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 transitional justice is a delicate task in any context, but it is particularly fraught with danger when a country undergoing a democratic transition contains a strongly mobilized minority nationalist movement.

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 there is no regime transition. This paper outlines some of the potential complexities involved in processing indigenous demands for justice through a transitional justice framework, through a case study of Canadian initiatives.