Search

During the 1970s, political violence in Argentina resulted in massive violations of human rights including thousands of deaths, prolonged and arbitrary arrests, disappearances, unfair trials, pervasive torture, in addition to cruel, inhuman, and degrading treatment. Since the restoration of democracy in 1983, there have been various obstacles to prosecution of such crimes committed by security forces and paramilitary groups.

This case study offers an overview of some of the major issues and recent developments in transitional justice in Croatia. While the main focus is on war crimes prosecutions before the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia and Croatian courts, it also examines truth-telling efforts (or the lack thereof), reparations, and the relevant institutional reforms by the Croatian State.

ICTJ and the Center for Human Rights and Global Justice at NYU School of Law are pleased to announce that that Darren Walker, President of the Ford Foundation, and Sherrilyn Ifill, President and Director-Counsel of the NAACP Legal Defense Fund, will join ICTJ President David Tolbert in conversation for the ninth Emilio Mignone Lecture on Transitional Justice.

Little has been written about the relationship between transitional justice measures and DDR programs with respect to child ex-combatants. We argue that the primary avenue through which transitional justice measures may positively affect the reintegration of former child combatants is likely to be their potential impact on receiving communities. Potential negative effects, however, are important and should not be overlooked.

Lebanon has long been afflicted by a combination of political deadlock and a lack of accountability that has resulted in ongoing human rights violations and overall systemic rot. Comprehensive reforms, along with an inclusive truth-seeking process, broad public dialogue, and other ways of building a more complete understanding of the past—and its relation to current issues—could help the Lebanese people begin to build a common national identity that puts notions of justice, truth, equality, citizenship, and inclusion at its core.

The 2006 crisis in Timor-Leste saw close to 15 percent of the population displaced from their homes, threatening to sink the country into protracted instability and violence. Remarkably, five years later the country was back on track, with the internal displacement issue largely resolved. This paper looks at the National Recovery Strategy (NRS) that the government adopted to resolve internal displacement in Timor-Leste. Following a discussion of the NRS, the paper considers whether or not its cash-grant scheme qualifies as a full-fledged reparations effort.

Argentina’s trials for crimes committed during the dictatorship of military juntas are widely seen as a successful national effort to seek accountability for past abuses. And while victims’ demands for justice continue to remain high, the judiciary is facing challenges to ensure the cases are dealt with expeditiously and fairly. In a interview for ICTJ's Spanish podcast series "Lessons from Latin America," Mirna Goransky, Assistant General Prosecutor for the Attorney General’s Office shares her perspectives on human rights trials in Argentina.

The International Center for Transitional Justice strongly welcomes the decision of the UK High Court ordering the British government to pay damages to a group of Kenyans who were imprisoned and tortured by colonial authorities following the Mau Mau Rebellion of the 1950s.

In countries emerging from violent conflict and repression around the world, prosecutors are facing significant challenges and pressures when seeking to investigate and prosecute serious crimes, such as torture, extrajudicial killings, and enforced disappearance. To reflect on these challenges, ICTJ together with the International Nuremberg Principles Academy, and with support from the governments of Australia and Sweden, convened a side event on December 6, 2019, during the 18th Assembly of State Parties of the International Criminal Court.