Resource Library

Much of ICTJ’s work—and in fact much of the field of transitional justice—can be understood as the pursuit of effective remedies for victims of severe human rights violations. A remedy involves two elements: a victim’s access to the appropriate authorities to have his claim fairly hea...

Of the 26 countries in the lowest bracket of the UN Development Programme’s 2008 Human Development Index, six have large victim communities expecting reparations as a result of truthseeking and criminal justice measures.

The design and implementation of reparations for victims in the aftermath of large-scale and serious human rights violations is an area rife with challenges.

Of the many challenges that arise when negotiating a transition to peace and an end of war, one of the most difficult can be the tension between prioritizing peace and insisting equally on justice for crimes of the war.

Both of the books reviewed here provide deep analysis regarding the challenges of repairing historical mass crimes and past harmful policies, aswell as the limitations and difficulties of such endeavors.

In the absence of governmental action or as preparation for it, some local communities or civil society groups sometime seek to recognize and investigate the legacy of past human rights abuses. Such actions can help lead to more formal transitional justice approaches, including truth ...

Reparations play a unique role within the transitional justice framework in providing justice for victims.

Hybrid courts have ranged from the ad hoc international Criminal Tribunals for the former Yugoslavia and Rwanda (ICTY and ICTR respectively), to the treaty-based Special Court for Sierra Leone (SCSL) and Extraordinary Chambers in the Courts of Cambodia (ECCC), to international assista...

Background on the ICC's record in pursuing prosecutions as a response to massive human rights abuses and discusses hybrid court tribunals as a developing judicial strategy. ICTJ offers insight into trends for states to balance international and domestic pressures to combat impunity fo...

The principle of complementarity is central to the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court (ICC). According to this principle, the ICC should assume jurisdiction only when states parties are unwilling or genuinely unable to carry out their own investigation or prosecution. Th...