ICTJ World Report

4/23/13 4:45 PM

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ICTJ World Report

April 2013

In Focus
Soft Vengeance: An Interview with South Africas Albie Sachs
South African judge and human rights activist Albie Sachs is among the foremost transitional justice experts to have emerged from the anti-apartheid struggle and subsequent transition. In this interview with ICTJ Vice President Paul Seils, Sachs discusses the difficult balance of retribution and reconciliation, and offers possible lessons from the South African experience for other societies facing similar questions of truth and justice.
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World Report

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ICTJ World Report

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AFRICA In Kenya ICC indictees Uhuru Kenyatta and William Ruto were inaugurated President and Deputy President after being elected in a highly anticipated presidential election in March. Earlier, the ICC dropped all charges against former Kenyan head of the civil service Francis Muthaura, who was accused alongside Uhuru Kenyatta of crimes against humanity during 2007-2008 post-election violence. Parts of Kenya erupted in ethnic clashes prior to the election. On the tenth anniversary of the handover of the final recommendations of the South Africa Truth and Reconciliation Commission, SABC and the South African History Archive (SAHA) launched a new website highlighting the work of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC). Liberias disabled community is pressing the Government of Liberia to pay them reparation following years of rebellions which left thousands of them dead and disabled. Self-imposed leader of the Central African Republic announced that he will remain in power until 2016, after dissolving the parliament, abolishing the constitution and rebuffing disapproval from other factions of the rebellion. Sudans President Omar al-Bashir has said that he will release all political detainees in the country. Sudan's vice president invited rebel groups to help prepare a new constitution, a sign of Khartoum's newly-relaxed stance toward the insurgents since signing border security deals with South Sudan this month.
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AMERICAS The Constitutional Court of Guatemala will have to rule on the fate of the genocide trial against Ros Montt, after the decision of a first-instance judge to nullify all the proceedings was appealed by the Prosecutors' Office and the High Risk Tribunal, who consider that ruling "illegal." In Colombia, tens of thousands of people marched through the streets of Bogot and other cities in a mass demonstration of solidarity with victims of the countrys half-century-old conflict, and in support of the peace negotiations aimed at ending it. Meanwhile, the first agreements on land issues were reached by the government and FARC representatives on the peace talks taking place in La Habana. Nearly a million secret documents from the Brazilian dictatorship (1964-1985) have been declassified and made available to the public by the Sao Paulo National Archive. In Argentina, the trial of Plan Condor a secret, decadelong campaign by six allied military governments to remove left-wing subversion opened, with 25 defendants accused of human rights abuses. Forensic scientists of Peru identified three of the 53 bodies recovered from a military base in Ayacucho, disappeared 30 years ago. In Chile, the Appeals Court revoked the ruling that ordered economic reparations for more than 200 former political prisoners between 1973 and 1990. In Haiti, former dictator Jean-Claude Duvalier finally attended a hearing of his ongoing trial for alleged abuses under his regime (1971-1986) with the help of the Tonton Macoutes private militia. In El Salvador, human rights organizations and victims claimed before the Prosecutors Office to investigate the more than 45 cases of massacres, killings and disappearances that took place in the 1980s.
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ASIA

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The European Union discarded the last of its economic sanctions against Myanmar on Monday, despite new reports that Rohingya Muslims there face bloody and persistent attempts at ethnic cleansing. Nepal's Supreme Court issued an interim stay order halting an attempt by the government to set up a Truth and Reconciliation Commission to investigate crimes committed during the country's 10year civil war. In Cambodia, translators have gone on strike at the genocide tribunal of Khmer Rogue leaders. The UN's Human Rights Council has passed a resolution highly critical of Sri Lanka's record. The resolution encourages Sri Lanka to conduct an independent and credible investigation into alleged war crimes.
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EUROPE A United Nations appeals court unexpectedly overturned the war crimes conviction of the former Yugoslav Army chief who had been sentenced to 27 years for aiding and abetting atrocities in Bosnia and Croatia, including attacks on Sarajevo and Srebrenica. Mio Stanii and Stojan upljanin, two high level officials in Bosnian Serb structures, were each sentenced to 22 years imprisonment for crimes against humanity and war crimes committed between April and December 1992 in Bosnia and Herzegovina (BiH). Between 300 and 500 genocide victims from Srebrenica will be buried at the nearby Potocari Memorial on this year's anniversary of the massacres by Bosnian Serb forces. War crimes prosecutors from Serbia and Bosnia met in Sarajevo to discuss cooperation in war crimes investigations and appointed liaison officers for that purpose.
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MENA Human Rights Watch said that police arrested 20 opposition activists in towns near Bahrain's Formula One circuit in a sign of rising political tension before the Grand Prix on April 21. In Egypt, a Cairo criminal court accepted an appeal submitted by Egypt's prosecution against an earlier release order granted to former president Hosni Mubarak in his trial over graft charges and he will remain detained for at least a 15 day period pending further investigation into the case. The Special Tribunal for Lebanon (STL) condemned the latest attempt to interfere with the proper administration of justice by publishing a list of alleged witnesses and potentially endangering the lives of Lebanese citizens. Libya's national assembly approved a law criminalizing torture and abductions. Activists said they would not withdraw a lawsuit against Israeli commanders for a fatal 2010 raid on their Gaza-bound flotilla, ahead of official compensation talks between Turkey and the Israel. A team of U.N.-led experts is on standby in Cyprus waiting for the go-ahead to investigate allegations of chemical weapons attacks in Syria, but the mission has been held up by diplomatic wrangling over their powers and how to keep them safe. Tunisia received 28.8 million in the first such retrieval of what it calls looted assets held abroad by ousted President Zine El Abidine Ben Ali and his family. Yemen launched an UN-backed national dialogue whereby representatives of various political groups and civil society are discussing the countrys constitution and elections.
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Publications
Truth Seeking: Elements of Creating an Effective Truth Commission
This publication provides an overview of the essential best practices guiding the main aspects of a truth commission, answering basic questions relating to its goals, powers, operations, framework, protections for commissioners and witnesses, and reporting.
View Report

Upcoming Events
April 24 - 27, 2013

Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada: National Event

Location: Montreal, Quebec View Details

April 26, 2013

A Bitter Legacy: Lessons of De-Baathification in Iraq

Based on significant field research and interviews with the Higher National de-Baathification Commission, this report focuses on Iraqs purge of members of Saddam Husseins Baath Party, which is the most well-known example of large-scale and politically based dismissals in the Middle East and North Africa. The report summarizes the structure and impact of deBaathification from 2003 to 2011.
View Report

Mapping the Rollback? Human rights provisions of the Belfast/Good Friday Agreement
Location: Belfast, Northern Ireland View Details

More Events

More Publications

Copyright 2011 International Center for Transitional Justice

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