Search

Begin New Search Publication Year within 1 Year

3171. Reports That Transform: Reporting Truth and Making Impact

Author:
Howard Varney
Publication Date:
10-2024
Content Type:
Special Report
Institution:
The International Center for Transitional Justice (ICTJ)
Abstract:
In societies grappling with legacies of mass atrocities, truth-seeking bodies and the reports they produce can be instrumental in exposing culpability, revealing root causes, and preventing a recurrence of violence or repression. When fact-finding reports are the products of rigorous inquiry, and are presented coherently and persuasively, they can become catalysts for change. Moreover, such reports can powerfully acknowledge the harm suffered by victims. In so doing, they begin the process of restoring victims’ human dignity as well as societal healing. Transforming data collected from various sources is a challenging exercise for any truth commission or fact-finding body. Virtually all truth commissions underestimate the effort and time needed to collate and analyze information and write the final report. These guidelines are not intended for reading in a single sitting. Rather they are intended as a resource that staff and commissioners can turn to as they face specific challenges in the last few phases of a commission’s life. These guidelines deal primarily with the following: how to make sense of the mountain of data collected, how to analyze raw data, what key questions to ask and resolve in a final report, how to convert data into a readable and useful final report, how to organize the report writing phase, how to make findings and recommendations, dealing with political interference, and what typical report formats are utilized.
Topic:
Transitional Justice, Atrocity Prevention, and Truth Commissions
Political Geography:
Global Focus

3172. ‘The Search for People’s Well-Being’: Mainstreaming a Psychosocial Approach to Transitional Justice

Author:
Virginie Ladisch and Shayna Lewis
Publication Date:
09-2024
Content Type:
Special Report
Institution:
The International Center for Transitional Justice (ICTJ)
Abstract:
The field of transitional justice is increasingly recognizing the relevance of mental health and psychosocial support (MHPSS) in contexts of massive human rights violations. Despite growing advocacy and awareness at the global policy level, however, the field lacks a systematic approach to the issue, signified by the persistent conception of MHPSS solely as a form of service provision to victims and survivors. This study contributes to the development of such an approach, one that applies a psychosocial lens to analyze contexts, assess needs, and design and implement programming that has a positive, transformative impact on the well-being of victims and communities, as well as broader social systems. Drawing on experiences in contexts such as Australia, Canada, Colombia, The Gambia, Nepal, Uganda, and Syria, the report also offers guidance for supporting the mental health and well-being of transitional justice practitioners and addresses practical considerations as they operationalize MHPSS within their own work. At the level of formal transitional justice processes, a psychosocial approach can be integrated into reparative justice, truth-telling initiatives, and judicial processes seeking criminal accountability. Beyond formal processes, though, a psychosocial lens should be a foundational component of all aspects of transitional justice work. It requires a deep understanding of context and the psychosocial needs of a given society, community, or group. It also requires the development of responses that address those needs across different interventions. This study therefore offers guidance regarding key points of consideration for both civil society and government actors involved in transitional justice: embedding work in local communities, creating conditions for positive participation, overcoming stigma, identifying clear roles, building collaboration across silos, developing a long-term process, focusing on all stages of work, considering trauma among leaders and institutions, securing adequate funding, and measuring progress. The report argues that a psychosocial approach needs to be outward to inform analysis of the overall context, design of the intervention, and support for victims, as well as inward to consider how trauma affects organizational structures, team dynamics, and individuals’ ability to do their work.
Topic:
Sustainable Development Goals, Criminal Justice, Memory, Justice, Reparations, Gender, Violence Prevention, Youth Engagement, and Institutional Reform
Political Geography:
Uganda, Africa, Middle East, Canada, Asia, Colombia, South America, Nepal, Syria, North America, and Gambia

3173. Transforming Social Relations: Restorative Responses to Massive Human Rights Violations

Author:
The International Center for Transitional Justice (ICTJ)
Publication Date:
04-2024
Content Type:
Special Report
Institution:
The International Center for Transitional Justice (ICTJ)
Abstract:
Restorative justice and transitional justice are closely and fundamentally related responses to crime. They emphasize shared values and promote similar frameworks that seek to clarify responsibilities, and they both address the inherent limitations of existing institutions: for restorative justice, the limitations of retributive systems in dealing with domestic crimes; for transitional justice, the additional limitations of conventional or compromised rule of law institutions in dealing with serious and massive international crimes. In many ways, restorative justice is at the center of transitional justice. While scholars and practitioners of transitional justice have consistently applied the concepts of restorative justice, in practical terms, there are few examples of restorative justice practices being explicitly integrated into transitional justice processes, specifically those aimed at criminal accountability. There is also a general lack of understanding within both fields about what such integration means or requires. This report offers reflection, clarity, and guidance on the application of a restorative justice framework in contexts of massive human rights violations, including the advantages, risks, opportunities, and challenges of such an approach. The analysis is based on the experiences of Colombia, Sierra Leone, Tunisia, and the Bangsamoro region of the Philippines, which represent a range of different processes that all either integrated or reflected the practices or principles of restorative justice. These principles include stakeholder participation and repair of harm, and the practices include the use of direct or indirect dialogue or engagement between victims and perpetrators to resolve crimes. The study's findings address the role of dialogue between victims and perpetrators; the importance of engagement with communities and society in establishing a link between the micro and macro levels; the contribution of alternative or restorative sanctions in facilitating participation and repair; the need for integrity, legitimacy, and efficacy of process; and the coherence of restorative justice with other justice, peacebuilding, and transitional processes.
Topic:
Human Rights, Reform, Transitional Justice, Criminal Justice, Institutions, Reparations, and Atrocity Prevention
Political Geography:
Africa, Middle East, Asia, Colombia, South America, Sierra Leone, and Tunisia

3174. The Truth About Corruption: Reviewing the Tunisia Truth and Dignity Commission’s Report on Corruption Under Dictatorship

Author:
Ruben Carranza, Mohamed Azer Zouari, and Ichraq Ghdiri
Publication Date:
02-2024
Content Type:
Policy Brief
Institution:
The International Center for Transitional Justice (ICTJ)
Abstract:
With respect to fulfilling its mandate to investigate and to hold accountable those who committed or enabled corruption during the Ben Ali dictatorship, Tunisia’s Truth and Dignity Commission (TDC) accomplished the most basic roles of a truth commission, from conducting a public hearing, to taking statements from victims and witnesses, to releasing a report. To some extent, the TDC was also able to link corruption to the marginalization of the country’s poorest regions and to identify potential funding for reparations. The commission had legal and political power to obtain information, a USD $19 million budget, 567 staff, and significant public attention. It had the resources and power to systematically seek and tell the truth and draw a roadmap for dismantling the dictatorship’s corruption network, including laying the foundations for prosecuting the most corrupt Ben Ali family members, cronies, and officials. It also had a clear mandate to identify the root causes of marginalization in Tunisia. There were significant political obstacles to fulfilling its mandate, but the TDC simply failed to maximize and properly use these tools, resources, and powers. It also undermined its own credibility by the lack of transparency in the “arbitration” and “reconciliation” process it followed in dealing with suspected perpetrators of corruption. Nevertheless, the TDC’s final report tells a larger set of truths. Its findings and recommendations on corruption can be linked to its findings on repression committed by the dictatorship, as well as to its recommendations involving the neoliberal economic and social policies prescribed by the World Bank and International Monetary Fund and implemented by Ben Ali and now his successors. The Tunisian experience also reaffirms that, in transitional justice processes in the global South, corruption and economic crimes ought to be examined for truth telling to be complete and for accountability to include those who profited from or enabled corruption.
Topic:
Corruption, Reform, Transitional Justice, Criminal Justice, Institutions, Reparations, and Truth Commissions
Political Geography:
Middle East and Tunisia

3175. Repairing from the Bench: From Finding Responsibility to Fashioning Judicial Redress

Author:
Adriana Garcia Garcia, Fatima Yasmin Bokhari, and Masha Lisitsyna
Publication Date:
01-2024
Content Type:
Special Report
Institution:
The International Center for Transitional Justice (ICTJ)
Abstract:
Violence perpetrated by the police and the military is dominating news around the world. Survivors, victims, activists, and lawyers on all continents have filed lawsuits against these violations in judicial processes. Among the key objectives for victims are to seek the truth and confirmation from authorities that a wrong was done to them and to obtain reparations. The premise that harm should be repaired is routine in domestic legal systems around the world. But what does the obligation to provide reparations mean, particularly when serious human rights violations are at issue? While reparations may be narrowly defined as the relief afforded to a successful claimant in a given proceeding, in practice they can take a range of forms. The right to reparation has expanded in recent decades through interpretations of international norms, in particular, the right of victims of human rights violations to an effective remedy. This report draws on that evolving interpretation of international law and jurisprudence, much of it developed by regional human rights institutions in Africa, the Americas, and Europe; UN treaty bodies; and some innovative domestic courts. It identifies a series of judicial decisions interpreting international human rights law that have affirmed the content of the right to reparation for serious human rights violations that have upheld the rights of victims as much as possible. More than an analysis of the state of the field of the recognition of the right to reparation, the report provides guidance to human rights defenders and courts that are trying to respond to victims of such violations in ways that affirm their dignity and rights. This guide also explores how domestic courts have provided judicial reparations at the national level. Two relevant questions are considered: Have they in fact complied with international decisions and relevant norms regarding reparations? Have they delivered by doing those things that we believe courts are better suited to do on behalf of victims? At the domestic level, very few analyses exist on how domestic judges grant reparations or the compliance of their decisions with international law, jurisprudence of international human rights courts, and decisions by international human rights bodies that govern reparations. This guide seeks to fill this gap through the analysis of decisions of domestic courts around the world with different specialties.
Topic:
Transitional Justice, Criminal Justice, Memory, Judiciary, and Reparations
Political Geography:
Africa, Middle East, Asia, South America, and North America

3176. Accessing Connection: Bridging the Digital Divide for LGBTI Communities Worldwide

Author:
Olivia Johnson and Jeff Deutch
Publication Date:
02-2024
Content Type:
Special Report
Institution:
ILGA World (International Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Trans and Intersex Association)
Abstract:
The digital divide impacts lesbian, gay, bisexual, trans, and intersex people in specific ways, and listening to their stories is essential to building meaningful digital inclusion for all. ILGA World’s Accessing Connection is a pioneering research looking into the complex interplay between disparities in digital access and the unique experiences of individuals and communities of diverse sexual orientations, gender identities and expressions, and sex characteristics. Researchers have mapped the complexities of the digital divide across perspectives of gender, race and migration status, geographic regions, urban-rural contexts, indigeneity, and disability — amongst others. However, until now, little to no research existed on the hurdles it poses to LGBTI people. Authored for ILGA World by The Engine Room — a non-profit supporting civil society in their use of technology — Accessing Connection fills this gap, building on data and first-hand accounts of human rights defenders from every region of the world.
Topic:
Human Rights, Internet, LGBT+, Connectivity, Intersex, and Digital Access
Political Geography:
Global Focus