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This book presents a series of essays on truth and criminal justice in Peru. It aims to contribute to analysis on how to strengthen and consolidate democracy there. The essays pay particular attention to the interests of individual victims' of human rights abuses, analyzing individual situations using sophisticated conceptual tools. They also devote attention to activist organizations, emphasizing the role of civil society in creating a strong democracy.

This case study provides basic information and policy analysis on the Special Court for Sierra Leone. It aims to help guide policymakers establishing and implementing similar mechanisms. The Court broke new ground in terms of narrowly focusing on those bearing the greatest responsibility for human rights abuses, allowing for a limited and efficient approach. However, the court faces significant challenges in terms of impact, legitimacy, fairness, and overall efficiency.

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 covered include best practices, lessons learned, and the potential of truth commissions for other communities and issues in the United States. It concludes that there is great potential to gain from this type of exchange, and that Greensboro is an inspiration for other communities.

This publication sets out basic considerations on prosecution initiatives. It is intended to assist United Nations field staff when advising on how to address the challenges of prosecuting perpetrators of crimes such as genocide, crimes against humanity and war crimes. It focuses on the strategic and technical challenges these prosecutions face domestically, and denotes principle considerations that should be applied to all prosecutorial initiatives.

This publication sets out basic principles and approaches to truth commissions and is intended to assist policymakers in advising on the development of truth-seeking mechanisms. It summarizes lessons learned from the experiences of over 30 truth commissions in the past two to three decades. While truth commissions do not replace the need for prosecutions, they do offer some form of accounting for the past. The work of a truth commission may strengthen prosecutions that take place in the future.

This publication provides an operational framework for vetting and institutional reform. It is intended address the challenges of institutional and personnel reform in post-conflict States through the creation of vetting processes that exclude persons who lack integrity from public institutions. It is divided into three sections: 1) the concept of vetting in the context of institutional reform and transitional justice; 2) the political conditions of post-conflict or post-authoritarian reform; and 3) the operational guidelines themselves.

This briefing note provides a short overview of the conflict in Afghanistan's recent history, and the ongoing discussions and initiatives to address human rights violations and war crimes there. The state-building process, launched in 2001 after the ousting of the Taliban regime, has been slow and cumbersome. Important political achievements have been made, such as the adoption of a new constitution, holding of presidential and parliamentary elections, and the establishment of a new government. Yet many significant challenges remain.

From 1976 to 1983 Argentina was ruled by a military dictatorship and an estimated 10,000 to 30,000 people "disappeared." This paper outlines transitional justice developments in Argentina - including the investigation and prosecution of human rights violations. The current movement to end impunity for human rights abusers in Argentina is due to the to support of recent governments, hard work by Argentine human rights organizations, initiatives of the Argentine judicial system, and the contribution of activists who continue to work for justice for victims.

The Extraordinary Chambers of the Courts of Cambodia's reparations mandate may seem narrow and restrictive. Yet there are several potential ways in which the Court can make the right to reparations meaningful for civil parties and for many other Cambodians. It has the ability to influence the implementation of reparations beyond its temporal mandate - through its judgments and practice directives.

This report is based on a population-based survey assessing attitudes about peace and justice in Northern Uganda. For nearly two decades, the Lord's Resistance Army has been in conflict with Ugandan government forces, killing countless civilians and abducting tens of thousands of children and adults to serve as soldiers and sex slaves for its commanders. The Ugandan government's dual approach of military action and mediation to bring peace to the region has had little success. This study represents the spectrum of attitudes and opinions of those most affected by the violence.