The International Center for Transitional Justice (ICTJ) was founded in 2001 as a non-profit organization dedicated to pursuing accountability for mass atrocity and human rights abuse through transitional justice mechanisms. Transitional justice work unfolds in unique and most challenging of conditions, in societies shaped by widespread violence, polarized politics and fragile institutions, where we invest our knowledge, effort and commitment to help heal fractured communities and restore confidence in the rule of law.

From full blown national and international conflicts to repressive governments ordinary people are very frequently the victims of abuses – and on a massive scale. Such violence may involve mass killings, forced disappearances, torture, rape, massive displacement, forced recruitment of children and myriad other crimes. It leaves societies devastated, with crumbling institutions that cannot serve its citizens and consequences lingering for generations. Transitional justice is about societies seeking to recover from such profound and systemic failure.

ICTJ brings more than 15 years of experience in over 40 countries to try to answer the difficult questions about what can be done in these terrible circumstances to ensure the dignity of victims is recognized and respected, and measures are taken to prevent the recurrence of violations.

While many groups working on human rights focus on exposing and denouncing violations and atrocities, our focus is on what often proves even more challenging - trying to put the pieces of a broken society back together again on foundations of justice and the rule of law. This requires staying in the struggle for the long haul and being an active part of the solution. Our work often begins when the cameras leave.

Our goals are concrete and tangible:

• Fighting impunity and seeking accountability for serious violations of human rights
• Establishing accountable institutions and restoring confidence in them
• Increasing access to justice for the most vulnerable in society in the aftermath of violations
• Ensuring that women play an effective role in the pursuit of a just society
• Restoring respect for the rule of law
• Facilitating peace processes and fostering durable resolutions of conflicts
• Establishing a basis to address the underlying causes of conflict and marginalization
• Making sure the voices of young people are heard on issues that directly affect them
• Advancing the cause of reconciliation

Transitional justice includes a range of responses to massive human rights violations, including exposing the truth about past atrocities, holding perpetrators accountable, providing reparations for victims, and fundamentally reforming the state and social institutions that allowed—and in many cases participated in—atrocities.

Our experience shows that justice is essential for societies to transition from conflict to sustainable peace, from massive abuses to respect for human rights, from lawlessness to the rule of law. We also know that these justice efforts need to take account of the fragile conditions that follow conflict and repression.

Transitional justice is not a magic wand that can be waved to transform societies, but it can be an indispensable tool in the struggle to address recurrent cycles of violence, impunity, divided communities, displacement, gender inequality, corruption, and marginalization.

Most countries that suffer from a national conflict experience a recurrence. Between 1945 and 2009, 57% of all such conflicts relapsed at least once. From 2000 to 2011 ,the figure is worse—a 90% recurrence rate. The immediate post-conflict context is the best opportunity to establish the basis for a new commitment to the rule of law. Transitional justice is, in this sense, a coherent early action plan to prevent future conflict.