ICTJFacing the Past to Prevent Future Abuses An annual report magazine 2006/2007 An annual report The AsIA Issue Challenging Legacies of Impunity International Center for Transitional Justice ICTJFacing the Past to Prevent Future Abuses International Center for Transitional Justice ANNuAL RePORT MAGAZINe 2006 / 2007 Interactive Table of Contents Please click on the sections and page numbers below. Front Cover Asia Issue ICTJ Spotlight Core Principals Asia Regional Overview 8 Our Presence 28 Mission Statement From the President 1 Asia Profile The ICTJ’s Engagement 30 Editors’ Note and 2 Khin Maung Shwe 9 with the UN and the EU Table of Contents Preparing Burma for Transition The Importance of 30 Essay Asia Visual Essay Communicating Justice Linking Peace and Justice 3 Cambodia 10 Indonesia /Timor-Leste 11 Interview Nepal 12 Staff Publications, Books, Awards 32 Alex Boraine 4 Financials 34 A Holistic Approach to TJ Asia Feature Supporters 36 Indonesia / Timor-Leste 14 Board of Directors 37 Conversation The Price of Denial Staff 38 Pablo de Greiff 6 How the ICTJ’s Research Last Word Unit Informs the Field ICTJ Productions Brings 40 Africa Regional Overview 18 Transitional Justice to Americas Regional Overview 19 the Big Screen Middle East and North Africa 20 (MENA) Regional Overview Regional Directors 41 Europe Regional Overview 21 Back Cover / Offices Feature Prosecuting Heads of State: 22 Holding Leaders Accountable The ICTJ Prosecutions Team: 23 Restoring the Rule of Law Feature Security System Reform 24 How Security System Reform Can Prevent Future Abuses Feature Lessons from South Africa 26 A Reflection ICTJ core PRINCIPLes ICTJ MIssION StateMeNT The core principles of the ICTJ are reflected The International Center for Transitional in the following five operational guidelines: Justice (ICTJ) assists countries pursuing accountability for past mass atrocity or Prioritize the interests and perspectives of human rights abuse. The Center works in victims and survivors. The Center will always societies emerging from repressive rule or assess and respect the interests of victims, armed conflict, as well as in established often working closely with victims’ organi- democracies where historical injustices zations and human rights advocacy groups. or systemic abuse remains unresolved. Promote compliance with international In order to promote justice, peace, and obligations. The Center will promote reconciliation, government officials and understanding and acceptance of the nongovernmental advocates are likely to obligations of states in responding to rights consider a variety of transitional justice violations, especially of those established approaches, including both judicial and in international law. nonjudicial responses to human rights crimes. The ICTJ assists in the development Shape policy and advice based on a of integrated, comprehensive, and localized rigorous analysis of the national and approaches to transitional justice compris- international context and circumstances. ing five key elements: prosecuting perpe- The Center will undertake each assign- trators, documenting and acknowledging ment with a focused assessment of local violations through nonjudicial means such conditions and relevant international as truth commissions, reforming abusive in- circumstances, rather than approaching stitutions, providing reparations to victims, its work with prior blueprints or rigid and facilitating reconciliation processes. guidelines that predetermine options. The Center is committed to building local Promote local involvement and capacity and generally strengthening empowerment. The Center will prioritize the emerging field of transitional justice, the training and empowerment of local and works closely with organizations and actors so that skills and expertise are experts around the world to do so. By work- transferred to nationals. The Center will ing in the field through local languages, always involve local actors in policy devel- the ICTJ provides comparative information, opment so that initiatives are shaped and legal and policy analysis, documentation, ultimately decided by nationals. and strategic research to justice and truth- seeking institutions, nongovernmental Support and facilitate the work of organizations, governments, and others. organizations and individuals in the transitional justice field. The Center will aim to facilitate communication, net- working, and collaboration among those working in the transitional justice field. Cover: Pandur, Nepal, March 2007. Rachya Bahadur Gurung, a witness of his country’s transition, stands in the mountainous landscape near his home. Photo by Paula Bronstein/Getty Images. This page: Rukum District, Nepal, April 2004. Dilmaya holds her daughter, Bissnu, inside her home in Gipu village. Her husband, a former Communist Party member, has been missing since being kidnapped 13 days earlier because he quit the party. Photo by Ami Vitale/Getty Images. From the President Dear Friends, The period covered in this report has been a particularly exciting one for our institution. A growing need for our assistance in the field, the cross-border dimensions of our endeavors, and the importance of establishing the “pillars” of transitional justice in universal thematic approaches have presented us with significant strategic challenges. In response, we have embarked on a process of regionalization and decentralization of our country-based programs. In an effort to maintain a constant presence in the areas in which we work, we have launched offices in Bogotá, Dili, Jakarta, and Kathmandu, adding to our already established offices in New York, Brussels, Cape Town, Geneva, Kinshasa, and Monrovia. To meet the increasing demand for our expertise around the world, under the leadership of our Board of Directors and our expand- ing donor community, we have grown from an original staff of three to a team of more than 100 staff working throughout the Americas, Africa, Asia, Europe, and the Middle East. In addition, we have hired a team of experienced regional directors to guide our offices around the world. I am pleased to direct your attention to the inside back cover to learn about the prodigious collective experience on human rights and justice accumulated by our new regional directors: Mariclaire Acosta, Suliman Baldo, Patrick Burgess, and Dick Oosting, who join MENA Director Hanny Megally. As a result of these exciting new hires, our strategies and projects are now more grounded in local realities and more strategically engaged with partners and stakeholders; our Juan E. Méndez impact is thus enriched. While regionally shifting our focus, we simultaneously organized our global staff of profes- sionals in thematic teams that contribute specific expertise on each of the transitional justice mechanisms, to ensure that the universality of our principles combines effectively and holistical- ly with the necessary adaptation of strategies to realities on the ground. We have, in fact, formed thematic teams equipped to address prosecutions, truth-seeking, reparations, security systems reform, memorials and museums, gender, and peace and justice. We continue to cultivate relationships with a growing number of transitional justice practitioners and members of the informed public through conferences, fellowships, and trainings, as well as increasing engagement with members of the press. In early 2007 the Center launched a two-year, multinational media training initiative called Communicating Justice in conjunction with the BBC World Service Trust, to bring visibility to and coverage of transitional justice issues in the very countries where transitions take place. Another important innovation is our ability to incorporate the victims’ demands for justice in the context of peace negotiations. Through our thematic program on peace and justice, we organize and generate conversations on this difficult dilemma among human rights activists, conflict resolution specialists, and humanitarian organizations; we also apply these principles in specific peace processes such as the talks in Juba to end the conflict in northern Uganda. Transi- tional justice holds the key to effective post-conflict reconstruction, but it can also offer practical suggestions for peace arrangements that bear the promise of being durable precisely because they harmonize the interests of peace and the interests of justice. This report focuses on Asia, as our presence there expands, deepens our relationship with civil society, and bolsters political will to address the past. In Asia, transitions from conflict to peace are often contested or incomplete, creating a growing desire for transitional justice, which is supported by an emerging generation of human rights activists working to persuade govern- ments to examine the past and take action to ensure that human rights abuses are not repeated. This report highlights important challenges that activists, governments, and civil society in the region face, such as preparing for transition in Burma, working toward accountability in Timor- Leste, and confronting a shroud of denial in Indonesia. Undeniably, the ICTJ has had a resounding impact on the field of human rights since its inception in 2001. I am proud to present you with this report, which vividly highlights our most notable and recent contributions to the field of transitional justice. Juan E. Méndez President President’s Letter Producing this Annual Report has been the readers, supporters, and partners—engage more EdItors’ NotE central