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To mark the launch of our new publication, "Forms of Justice: A Guide to Designing Reparations Application Forms and Registration Processes for Victims of Human Rights Violations", we sat down with Karl Gaspar to talk about his experience participating in the reparations process as a victim in the Philippines.

To mark the launch of our new publication, "Forms of Justice: A Guide to Designing Reparations Application Forms and Registration Processes for Victims of Human Rights Violations", we sat down with Jairo Rivas about his work in designing reparations forms in Peru and Colombia.

In a number of countries around the world, governments have created state-administered reparations programs for victims and communities that were most affected by massive human rights violations. The success of these programs, which often involve thousands of individuals, depends in part on the state’s ability to reach victims and record their demands for justice in an effective and meaningful way. Reparations programs may be administered by government agencies pursuant to a law or policy or a court judgment.

Constitutional reforms can be valuable in a transitional justice process, but their effectiveness depends on the degree to which they are woven into the social and cultural understanding of the country's legal framework.

Corruption is often uncritically assumed to be part of the way things work in transitional and post-conflict countries. Corruption is even argued to be beneficial to development, in that it “greases the wheels of bureaucracy” and gets things done. Under pressure to establish short-term stability in post-conflict settings, peace-builders and negotiators will sometimes make deals with the power brokers who started the conflict, shopping out political positions and control over state assets while turning a blind eye to questionable control of public funds.

Anti-apartheid activist Ahmed Timol died in South African police custody in 1971, and his family continues to demand justice. While police claimed Timol died by suicide, evidence indicated that he was tortured and murdered. The family’s tenacious efforts led to the reopening of an inquest into Timol's death this year, with ICTJ senior program advisor Howard Varney representing the family. Last month the Pretoria High Court ruled in the family’s favor, finding that Timol did not kill himself but was indeed murdered while in police custody. ICTJ’s Sam McCann sat down with Varney to discuss the ruling, what it means to Timol’s family, and its significance for the fight for justice in South Africa.

Do the concepts and strategies of transitional justice have a role to play in the United States? Our 2017 Emilio Mignone Lecture asked that question, with Darren Walker, President of the Ford Foundation, and Sherrilyn Ifill, President and Director-Counsel of the NAACP Legal Defense Fund, joining ICTJ's David Tolbert in conversation. Watch the full discussion here.

A new paper from the International Center for Transitional Justice on police vetting in Kenya charges that the Kenyan government has failed to undertake needed reforms to root out corruption and abuses from the National Police Service and restore public trust in the police. Four years into the vetting process, the National Police Service Commission, tasked with vetting over 77,000 officers, has faced allegations of corruption and been criticized for failing to vet senior police officers implicated in graft and other crimes.

For decades, Kenyans have yearned for a police service that is accountable to the people and adheres to national laws and international human rights standards. The police stand accused of regularly meting out violence on the public, extra-judicial killings, and other human rights violations which are very rarely investigated or the perpetrators brought to account. The police further stand accused of abetting corruption, resulting in a debilitating impact on public trust.

Last month, the United Nations established a new mission in Haiti, focused on strengthening rule of law institutions and human rights reporting. Can it work with activists to challenge impunity? We sat down with Isabelle Clérié, a Haitian civil society organizer, about the mission, what it can accomplish, and how the past is understood in the country.