The International Center for Transitional Justice (ICTJ) works for justice in countries that have endured massive human rights abuses under repression and in conflict. ICTJ works with victims, civil society groups, national, and international organizations to ensure redress for victims and to help prevent atrocities from happening again.
Societies break the cycle of massive human rights violations and lay the foundations for peace, justice, and inclusion.
ICTJ shapes how practitioners, policymakers, and academics think about and practice transitional justice by sharing expertise and advocating for context-specific solutions. The organization leverages its ability to articulate lessons learned from fieldwork to produce research, develop innovative approaches, and deliver timely information.
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Paul van Zyl, co-founder of International Center for Transitional Justice (ICTJ), was born in South Africa and spent years actively opposing the injustices of that system. From 1995 to 1998, Paul helped the country heal from apartheid by serving as Executive Secretary of South Africa’s post-apartheid Truth and Reconciliation Commission. Paul co-founded ICTJ with the support of the Ford Foundation and a collaborative of other funders committed to facing legacies of past abuse and injustice, and promoting human rights around the world. Paul initially served as Program Director and Executive Vice President, but has since moved on from ICTJ to found and lead the ethical fashion company, Maiyet.
Juan Méndez joined the organization in 2001 and became President in 2004. A native of Argentina, Juan grew up during a time of great upheaval in Latin America. As a result of his legal and advocacy work representing political prisoners, he was arrested, tortured and exiled. Juan has dedicated his life to pioneering ways to protect human rights since. Juan stepped down as president of ICTJ in May 2009 but he continues to hold the title of President Emeritus.
ICTJ has been instrumental in the consolidation of the field of transitional justice, elevating global discourse and promoting a context-specific approach in policy and practice. The following are a small selection of key impacts of ICTJ’s work. In Colombia, where the 50-year-old armed conflict between the government and the FARC rebel group left behind more than 8.5 million victims, ICTJ supported the peace process early on as well as the 2016 negotiations of the peace agreement. ICTJ advised the parties to negotiations on the crucial element of the peace accord, the Victims’ Agreement, which deals with victims’ rights to justice, truth, and reparations. One of ICTJ’s more recent victories is the 2018 Law on Missing and Forcibly Disappeared Persons in Lebanon. After decades of silence, the law sets in motion a process to uncover the truth about those who were disappeared during the country’s civil war. The law incorporates many of the recommendations made by ICTJ in its 2016 study on the establishment of an independent national commission for the missing and forcibly disappeared. In Tunisia, ICTJ successfully developed a media strategy to amplify the reach of the Truth and Dignity Commission’s (TDC) 2016-2017 public hearings, which broadcast victims’ stories widely and had a major impact on the public discourse in the country.
Transitional justice is about the most difficult dilemmas facing a society during some of the most troubling and challenging moments of its history. It is applied when a country needs…
