ICTJ World Report

3/20/14, 1:24 PM

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ICTJ World Report

March 2014

In Focus
ICTJ Forum Series on Truth Commissions and Peace Mediation: Ian Martin
In this episode of the ICTJ Forum, the former Special Representative of the United Nations SecretaryGeneral for Libya, Ian Martin, speaks with us about the relationship between truth-seeking and peace negotiations in the context of Nepal and countries in the MENA region.
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World Report
AFRICA The International Criminal Court found Democratic Republic of the Congo militia leader Germain Katanga guilty of war crimes, but did not convict him of sexual offenses. ICTJ joined more than 100 other NGOs to call on the ICC to continue investigations in the DRC. With a goal to check the suitability and competence of every officer in the 78,000-strong police force of Kenya security experts and human rights groups warn that more needs to be done to deal with institutionalized patterns of abuses. The President of Uganda has signed a controversial law allowing those convicted of homosexuality to be imprisoned for life. Frances highest court has blocked plans to extradite three Rwandans to stand trial in Kigali on charges related to the 1994 genocide, ruling that the men could not be tried for a crime which was not legally defined at the time it was allegedly committed. Meanwhile, Germany convicted Onesphore Rwabukombe, a Rwandan Hutu for his role in the genocide of Tutsis in Rwanda in 1994.
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AMERICAS The seventh and final national event of Canadas Truth and Reconciliation Commission will be held in Edmonton, March 27-30. Sixty-nine of congresspersons recently elected in Colombia have links to illegal activities and have been under scrutiny for alleged activities such illegal vote procurement, as well as possible links with guerrilla groups, drug trafficking networks, and smuggling. In addition, the government of Colombia and FARC began the 21st round of peace talks, initiating a dialogue seeking to find an agreement on drug policy. Claudia Paz y Paz, Guatemalas first female attorney general and a leader in the effort to reverse the tradition of impunity, will be forced to leave office seven months early after the court ruled in favor of a technical challenge brought by a corporate lawyer and businessman Ricardo Sagastume.
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ASIA The new coalition government of Nepal has been sworn in after protracted inter-party negotiations. The two largest parties, Nepali Congress and the Communist Party Nepal - United Marxist Leninist hold ten ministries each with the remaining two ministries allocated to smaller parties (Ratriya Prajatantra Party and Communist Party Nepal Maxist Leninist). As Thailand bids for key posts on the U.N. Human Rights Council and as a non-permanent member of the Security Council, rights activists and the International Commission of Jurists say Thailand needs to be held to greater account for its human rights record, especially in cases of forced disappearances and extrajudicial abuses. A panel of experts mandated by the UNs Human Rights Council said North Koreans had suffered unspeakable atrocities and that those responsible, including leader Kim Jong-un, must face justice.
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EUROPE Demonstrations in Bosnia, which call on the government to tackle the high unemployment rate and corruption, have resulted in the worst violence the country has seen since the end of the 1992-1995 war. Meanwhile, Bosnia has opened a new war crimes trial against former Bosnian Serb fighter Radovan Maliovic for allegedly killing a Bosniak civilian in the Sarajevo suburb of Hadzici in 1992. Bosnian prosecutors have called for more money for exhumations; as more than 8,000 people are still considered missing. Hearings have started at the International Court of Justice in The Hague, where Croatia and Serbia have sued each other for alleged genocide during the 1990s war.
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MENA Tunisia has lifted a state of emergency three years after it was imposed, in a largely symbolic move to show security is improving in the North African state. The Special Tribunal for Lebanon has adjourned
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the trial against five members of Hezbollah accused of complicity in the assassination of former Prime Minister Rafik Hariri, until mid-May. Thousands of people participated in a rally, coinciding with International Womens Day, through Beirut, demanding politicians in Lebanon pass a law against domestic violence. Meanwhile, families of people who disappeared during the Civil War and their advocates praised a Shura Council ruling granting them access to key documents relating to the fate of the disappeared, but are skeptical that the state intends to cooperate. Videotaped testimonies of prisoners allegedly held in jails in Egypt are painting a picture of arbitrary arrest, torture, forced confessions and cramped prison cells. A group of 27 countries on the Human Rights Council expressed concerns over the Egyptian governments wide-scale use of violence against opposition protesters, the first reprimand from the international body since a bloody crackdown on dissent in the country began last year. A day after the abrupt resignation of the military-backed government that had managed Egypt since July, a new Prime Minister has been appointed. The Coordinating Group of Transitional Justice in Syria has been created, and is made up of 20 members of 14 organizations working in civil society, transitional justice and peace efforts with representatives of the National Coalition of Syrian Revolution and Opposition Forces. After militants led by the jihadist Islamic state in Iraq and the Levant took over parts of the cities of Fallujah and Ramadi in late December, up to 300,000 people have been displaced by the fighting in Iraqs western province of Anbar, according to UN reports. After its Prime Minister lost a no confidence vote, Libya opened the polls on February 20th to elect an assembly to draft a new constitution, but less than 498,000 ballots were cast out of the one million people who had registered to vote. The country has recently experienced a series of bombings and assassinations.
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Publications
Failing to Deal with the Past: What Cost to Lebanon?
This report examines the situation of impunity in Lebanon that has persisted since the 1975-1990 war through the lenses of core elements of transitional justice.
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Upcoming Events
June 17 - July 07, 2014

EPAF Field School: Transitional Justice in Practice

Location: Ayacucho, Peru View Details

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Copyright 2011 International Center for Transitional Justice

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