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Amid deteriorating human rights conditions in the country, the lower house of Burundi’s National Assembly voted overwhelmingly in favor of withdrawing from the Rome Statute, the treaty that created the International Criminal Court. “Burundi should reconsider this ill-conceived decision, which undermines efforts at the national level to bring justice, peace, and stability to the country,” said ICTJ President David Tolbert.

While Lebanon is post-peace agreement, it is not necessarily "post-conflict." The country struggles to address the legacy of decades of violence, and the lack of a comprehensive approach to dealing with the past means the country's youth are growing up with scant knowledge of their history. But they want to know more: one project is helping them ask those around them about the past, and giving those who lived it a chance to tell their stories.

ICTJ welcomes the historic peace agreement signed today between the Colombian government and the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) – an essential step toward building lasting peace in the country.

In transitional contexts, reporting does not simply present the facts, but instead shapes the parameters for interpreting divisive political issues. Coverage in such polarized contexts can mitigate or obscure the substance of transitional justice efforts to establish what happened, who the victims were, and who was responsible for the violations. It can either catalyze or paralyze the debate on how to repair victims and ensure that systematic violence does not recur.

In a society grappling with the legacy of the past, citizens must make informed judgements and disentangle the facts from the sticky web of political rhetoric, denial, and polarizing propaganda. To do so, they rely on one key agent of social change: the media. But how can transitional processes effectively partner with the media and engage key constituencies? And what happens when media play a decisively negative role in mediating information about war crimes?

In Côte d’Ivoire, the state aims to restore victims’ rights and offer reparations to those affected by 2010’s post-election violence. A couple of years ago ICTJ came to the conclusion that discussions about how to provide reparations to victims had not sufficiently considered victims' opinions and needs, particularly of those living in the provinces or in marginal areas, some of whom were the most affected by the conflict. To help address these shortcomings, ICTJ organized consultations throughout the country, providing victims with forums to discuss their needs. Participants discussed the consequences of the conflict, the obstacles they now face as a result, and what sorts of policies would meet their needs. The forums included men, women and youth in Côte d’Ivoire, reflecting the diversity of experiences during the conflict and the needs that manifest themselves in communities today. The demands and suggestions expressed in these consultations form the basis of our new report, “Recommendations for Victim Reparations in Côte d’Ivoire.” Go inside the consultation process with Senior Associate Cristián Correa of ICTJ’s Reparative Justice Program, who besides conducting the project and co-authoring the report photographed the experience.

This volume examines the effects, risks, and potential of extending the field of transitional justice to cases that do not present a key moment of political transition to peace or democracy and instead are defined by political continuity and ongoing conflict. It begins with analyses of the Colombian case before moving onto to experiences and challenges in other contexts in order to foster comparative reflection.

On International Day of the Victims of Enforced Disappearances, the families of the missing maintain their vow: "until we find them." As special bodies to search for their loved ones develop, what do victims expect?

As the government and FARC reach a peace deal, they have agreed to the creation of a special unit that will search for, locate and identify the disappeared. What do victims expect from this new body?

1,300 are still missing in Nepal, nearly a decade after the country's bloody civil war ended. The peace agreement was meant to provide for the families of the disappeared, but today they are still searching for answers. As a new government body begins investigations, victims wonder: is the commission fully committed to addressing their needs?