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Canada’s Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC) released its interim report and a new historical publication titled They Came for the Children in Vancouver today. The TRC was established in 2008 to examine and make public the truth about Canada’s former Indian Residential Schools, a system designed to forcibly assimilate aboriginal children. From 1874 to 1996 more than 150,000 children were taken from their families and placed in church-run schools. They were prohibited from speaking their native languages and practicing cultural traditions, and physical, sexual, and emotional violence was commonplace.

About the Project There are few crimes with such devastating and far-reaching impacts as enforced disappearance. Innocents taken from their homes vanish to secret locations known only to the perpetrators. Imprisoned, tortured, and often killed for dubious reasons, their disappearance leaves a void in which families struggle to understand what has happened to their loved ones. In this limbo of not knowing, they exist condemned to days, months, and sometimes years of searching for clues and bits of information, left vulnerable to discrimination and abuse by the same people who disappeared their kin. Sometimes their search leads them to a grave with remains that can be identified by a personal detail, a key their child had when her life was taken or a DNA sample from a single bone. Some end up living in this limbo for the rest of their lives, unable to reconcile that their loved one is dead, desperately clinging to hope, against all odds, with the absence of the disappeared palpable every day of their life. To help depict the impact of disappearances on families, we solicited the help of some of the world’s leading photographers, whose photos bring to life the universality of the plight of the families of the disappeared. For this unique project, Rodrigo Abd, Mari Bastashevski, Marcelo Brodsky, Ziyah Gafic, Dalia Khamissy, Susan Meiselas, and Gervasio Sánchez have shared some of their most poignant images and thoughts about their experience of working with the families of the disappeared and its impact on them. The motives are as diverse as the dimensions of the pain suffered by the families. From empty rooms echoing with the voices of the taken, to personal artifacts exhumed with remains hidden by killers, to the endless conflict between despair and hope on the faces of parents who cling to the photo of their disappeared children. However, all of the images, without exception, capture the void that dominates the lives of those left behind. It is images like these that make the horror of this crime visible and real. On this International Day of the Disappeared, we invite you to take a moment to consider the awful impact of this heinous crime that has scarred numerous societies around the world and stand in solidarity with its victims in their struggle for truth and justice.

The resignation and indictment of President Otto Pérez Molina for corruption was a significant victory over impunity in Guatemala. In an interview with journalist Carlos Dada, we discussed how recent developments in Guatemala could impact other countries in Central America, such as Honduras and El Salvador.

This paper provides a description of the brief proceedings against Callixte Mbarushimana and Sylvestre Mudacumura before the International Criminal Court.

This briefing paper provides an overview of the proceedings against Germain Katanga and Mathieu Ngudjolo before the International Criminal Court. The conviction and sentence against Katanga signifies the first final judgment of the ICC.

This briefing paper provides an overview of the proceedings against Thomas Lubanga before the International Criminal Court since the start of the prosecutor’s investigation in 2004 until the 2012 decisions of Trial Chamber I concerning the verdict, the sentence, and reparations. It identifies the most important rulings and issues surrounding the case.

For many years now, the International Center for Transitional Justice and other organizations have supported young activists and artists as they harness the power of art, culture, and new media to advance truth, justice, reform, and redress, not only where they live, but across borders and in collaboration with others. This innovative and inspiring work offers lessons about how to increase civic engagement and help societies know the truth about their country’s past and actively shape the national narrative.

ICTJ is watching with grave concern the unfolding war launched by the United States and Israel against Iran and its devastating ripple effects across the wider region. Over a month into the conflict, the human cost is staggering. We at ICTJ reaffirm the international principles that govern our shared world and stand unequivocally with all victims across the region.

In the aftermath of a conflict, a census and identification program (CIP) verifies membership within one or several security institutions, identifies their institutional boundaries, and helps ensure that individuals do not informally join or leave the institution(s). This report hopes to fill the gap by explaining CIPs in a way that is useful for actors involved in SSR and by providing practitioners the means to plan and implement such programs.