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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.

In the absence of governmental action or as preparation for it, some local communities or civil society groups sometime seek to recognize and investigate the legacy of past human rights abuses. Such actions can help lead to more formal transitional justice approaches, including truth commissions, vetting and prosecutions.

Unofficial Translation of Iraq’s Accountability and Justice Law.

The struggle against impunity remains as important –and precarious –as ever as we celebrate International Justice Day on July 17. ICTJ marks the occasion with a look at complementarity, a concept critical to understanding the role that the ICC and national courts play in this struggle.

There is now an opportunity to design and implement a reparations program for victims of human rights and humanitarian law violations in Uganda. As with other countries emerging from conflict, the contours of a Ugandan reparations policy have been the subject of extended debate and generated high expectations. While the government has embarked on several reconstruction, recovery, humanitarian, and development programs for the north and other conflict-affected parts of the country, these programs were explicitly motivated by stabilization, development, and poverty-reduction objectives, rather than justice and reparations goals. This report examines approaches for identifying and categorizing victims, defining benefits and beneficiaries, and sequencing the delivery of reparations, offering guidance in assessing how the needs of the most vulnerable victims can be met and what long-term capacities must be put in place to implement a comprehensive reparations program.

ICTJ is pleased to announce it will host a series of online debates on new challenges and cutting-edge issues in transitional justice.

Recent Israeli strikes in Beirut and other populated areas in Lebanon, among the conflict's most intense so far, have destroyed critical infrastructure and devastated civilian communities. ICTJ stands unequivocally with the Lebanese people and all victims across the region and calls for an immediate end to all attacks on and threats to civilian communities and infrastructure.

The first verdict in the Justice and Peace process case against paramilitary commander Hebert Veloza Garcia, alias “H.H.”, will be announced on October 30, and will be a landmark in Colombia's compliance with its obligation to investigate, prosecute, and sanction those who have committed international crimes and serious human rights violations in the country.

In the lead up to Afghanistan's second cycle of elections in 2009 and 2010, this report aims to analyze the legal and operational framework for vetting candidates in the upcoming elections; describe and assess the challenges to the vetting process in the previous elections; map out possibilities and challenges for vetting in the upcoming elections; and make recommendations on vetting to key Afghan and international stakeholders.

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