In Focus

Youth Working for Justice: Key Agents of ChangeOn International Youth Day, ICTJ reaffirms the importance of engaging youth in efforts to reckon with the past in societies grappling with repressive and violent histories.Read More…

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AFRICADespite the post-war boom in Côte d’Ivoire, justice remains elusive, but the country’s presidential election on October 25 is seen as a first important step toward overcoming the past. In Senegal, the unprecedented trial of former Chadian dictator, Hissène Habré – who is accused of crimes against humanity, war crimes, and torture – began on July 20, but was adjourned the next day until September 7 so court-appointed lawyers could prepare his defense. Peace talks have resumed in South Sudan, as the warring sides have come under immense international pressure to reach a deal by August 17 or suffer sanctions. Delegates from Namibia traveled to Germany this summer hoping to present President Joachim Gauck with a petition signed by 2,000 German public figures, which calls on the government to accept responsibility for the genocide committed in the African nation at the turn of the nineteenth century. Despite the short delay, those who have been seeking justice for 25 years still feelconfident that justice is at hand. At a conference on Zimbabwe, there was a push for reparations program and talkof adopting new transitional justice principles. This all comes at a time the government is about to operationalize the Peace and National Healing Commission.

AMERICASAt the ongoing peace talks in Cuba between the Colombian government and FARC rebels, top negotiators contend that the rebel group must first agree to submit to transitional justice and its disarmament before the government can agree to a bilateral ceasefire. Meanwhile back in the country, Colombian authorities have begun exhuming a mass grave at the La Escombrera landfill, which will hopefully provide families with closure and an end to impunity. In Peru, government soldiers rescuedaround 40 men, women and children who had been kept prisoner in “production camps” for three decades by the Shining Path, the country’s Communist rebel group. In Chile, thirteen soldiers connected on the 1988 attack on democracy activists, Rodrigo Rojas and Carmen Gloria Quintana, were arrested. One of the conscripts, who identified those involved, revealed that there was indeed a “pact of silence” in the army to keep truth from the public. There are two exhibits on display in Canadathis summer related to the history of residential schools and missionaries to Indigenous communities, one is a large “witness blanket” and the other is a collection of artifacts. In addition, a petition with 1,200+ signatures as of late July calls on the government to make the Truth and Reconciliation Commission an election issue.

ASIAIn Nepal, victims and civil society organizations are not happy with the recent draft regulations framed by the two truth-seeking bodies, the Commission of Investigation on Enforced Disappeared Persons (CIEDP) and the Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC), because they don’t adhere to the verdicts of Supreme Court.. The TRC, meanwhile, is preparing to set up a women-only private hearing facilities, in order to encourage rape and sexual assault victims to speak out. The Myanmargovernment pardoned 6,966 prisoners in July, among those released where 210 foreigners and some military intelligence officers.In Indonesia, victims of an armed conflict in the Indonesian province, Aceh, have demanded the country’s authorities set up a Truth and Reconciliation Commission, promised to them in a peace agreement signed in Helsinki ten years ago. Meanwhile in Bangladesh, two Razakars a part of the armed militia group during the 1971 Liberation War were found guilty of genocide and war crimes. The beginning of August marked the 70th anniversary of the days nuclear bombs were dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki; the survivors continue to tell their stories to the new generation. In other news, Sri Lanka pledged to act on a UN war crimes report that will be released within the following weeks, detailing Sri Lanka treatment of Tamils during the country’s guerrilla war.

EUROPESerbian Prime Minister, Aleksandar Vucic, will officially propose a Remembrance Day, commemorating all the victims of the 1990s war, to leaders of leaders of former Yugoslav countries at the end of August. This proposal has already been rejected by Croatian Prime Minister Zoran Milanovic and Kosovo Foreign Minister Hashim Thac. In Croatia, thousands celebrated the 20th anniversary of ‘Operation Storm,’ an operation in which Zagreb’s forces defeated rebel Serbs and regained control over 18 per cent of the country’s territory. Days before the anniversary, three NGOs launched an interactive site called the ‘Storm of the Hauge,’ which presents the findings of the International Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia, ICTY. In Kosovo, the country’s parliament voted to change the constitution and create a special war crimes court. However, opposition parties have argued that the establishment of the special war crimes court violate Kosovo’s sovereignty. Spain’s University of Barcelona has set up the projectThe DNA of memory: the UB DNA Bank of Spanish Civil War victims with the hopes of being able to identity victims of the Spanish Civil War.

MENAIn Tunisia, the draft national reconciliation bill on economic and financial offences submitted to parliament in mid-July continues to be the subject of intense debate, drawing criticism from human rights organizations and supporters of transitional justice. In Lybia, Saif al-Islam Gaddafi, son of Col Muammar Gaddafi, and eight others were sentenced to death over war crimes connected to the 2011 revolution. But these verdicts illustrate revenge rather than justice and the expediency of the justice system rather than its effectiveness. In Syria, the UN special envoy invited Syrians to participate in discussions on how to restart peace talks.

Publications

Squaring Colombia’s Circle: The Objectives of Punishment and the Pursuit of PeaceThis paper weighs the possible modes and competing policy objectives of punishing FARC members for serious crimes in the context of Colombia’s ongoing peace negotiations. It argues that punishment has to occur in a way that does not damage one of the underlying objectives of the peace process, transforming the FARC from an insurgent group into a political actor.

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The Accountability Landscape in Eastern DRCThis report analyzes the response of Congolese judicial authorities to international crimes committed in the territory of the Democratic Republic of the Congo from 2009 to 2014, with a particular focus on the war-torn East (North Kivu, South Kivu, and Ituri).

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Author: Impunity Watch Archive