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Colombia continues to endure a complex conflict spanning more than four decades that has resulted in almost 400,000 registered victims and has displaced more than three million people. In a podcast with ICTJ’s vice president Paul Seils, we explore the concepts of prioritization and selection of cases and their relevance to Colombia's Justice and Peace process.

It has been nearly seven years since the passage of the Justice and Peace Law (JPL) in Colombia. The process continues today amidst controversies and important reflections on the direction it should take. What progress has been made and what are the shortcomings of how the law has been implemented?

Vetting—the process by which abusive or corrupt employees are excluded from public office—is often practiced in post-conflict societies, yet remains one of the least studied aspects of transitional justice. In a co-publication of the Social Science Research Council (SSRC) and the International Center for Transitional Justice (ICTJ), editors Alexander Mayer-Rieckh and Pablo de Greiff have assembled a collection of essays systematically exploring vetting practices in a variety of countries and contexts.

The world has turned its eyes to Guatemala, where the trial of retired generals Efraín Ríos Montt and José Mauricio Rodríguez Sánchez is drawing to a dramatic close. With a verdict expected soon, ICTJ spoke with Francisco Soto, executive director of the Center for Legal Action on Human Rights in Guatemala (CALDH). In this Q&A, Mr. Soto describes how civil society in Guatemala has been a crucial force in the long struggle for justice, and reflects on the historic significance of this trial, for both Guatemala and the world.

When the Syrian people took to the streets in March 2011, nobody could have predicted that the ensuing crisis would become the largest international calamity in recent history. Syrians’ calls for freedom and justice, which rode the wave of revolutions in neighboring countries, have become enmeshed in a violent, protracted conflict that has changed the face of Syria and the course of politics in dozens of other states, doubtlessly influencing the way the world will deal with political, social, and humanitarian crises in the future.

By looking at the documentation efforts of Syrian civil society organizations, this paper challenges the notion that criminal prosecution is the sole avenue of justice available for alleged crimes in Syria. Documentation could be used for important other avenues of justice, such as acknowledgement, fulfilling victims’ right to truth, and informing and preparing future transitional justice processes. This paper makes several recommendations for what can be done with documentation to support Syrian victims.

As the world marks August 30, the International Day of the Disappeared, we are reminded that forced disappearances and transitional justice share a common history. Indeed, processes working in concert that came to form the field of transitional justice were born from the search for truth and justice about the disappeared.

ICTJ convenes a high-level conference in Abidjan to discuss the progress in investigating and prosecuting serious crimes committed in Cote d’Ivoire during the 2010 post-election violence.

The European Union has an extensive commitment to peacebuilding. This includes the whole range of relevant EU activities, from facilitating peace agreements and crisis management under the Common Foreign and Security Policy (CFSP), to short, medium, and long-term peacebuilding programmes with international bodies, third country governments, local authorities and civil society organisations supported by the European Commission.

In a new briefing paper, ICTJ's Paul Seils and Roger Duthie examine what steps the international community can take during a crisis to support democracy and accountability.