Transitional Justice - Publications
Publications Relevant to Other Peace and Security Issues
2011
Strengthening Colombia's Transitional Justice Process by Engaging Women
Publication Date: March 2011
Authors: Carla Koppell and Jonathan Talbot
Abstract: The Colombian National Commission for Reparation and Reconciliation (CNRR) is a transitional justice mechanism effectively structured for involving women and addressing their priorities and needs. Mainstreaming gender has involved advocating for particular women to serve as commissioners, support for the creation of a gender unit within the commission, close collaboration with women’s civil society organizations, capacity building for prosecutors and magistrates, and technical assistance to commissioners and staff. This document gives an overview of the CNRR's efforts to mainstream gender and provides guidance on how to adapt and replicate this impressive, comprehensive approach. (8 pages)
2010
Improving Liberia’s Transitional Justice Process by Engaging Women
Publication Date: April 2010
Author: Michelle Page with input from Cerue Garlo and Marpue Speare
Abstract: When women contribute, transitional justice efforts are more likely to address crimes of war. Women have knowledge of the distinct, complex violations of rights women suffer that can significantly inform truth commission mandates, judicial opinions, reparations schemes, and proposals for policy reform. In Liberia, following the 2003 resolution of two decades of violent conflict, the Women NGO’s Secretariat of Liberia (WONGOSOL) facilitated a series of regional women-only dialogues around the country to ensure that the voices, concerns, and priorities of local women were recognized and addressed in the transitional justice process. (4 pages)
2009
Inclusive Security: A Curriculum for Women Waging Peace (available for purchase)
Publication Date: January 2009
Authors: Miki Jacevic, Tobie Whitman, Allison Shean
Abstract: This unique tool draws on more than a decade of original research and training by The Institute for Inclusive Security and accomplished women peace builders from areas including Afghanistan, Bosnia, Colombia, Haiti, Iraq, Israel & Palestine, Northern Ireland, Rwanda, and Sudan. Eight modules contain training plans, activity guides, PowerPoint presentations with lecture notes, videos, and role-playing exercises that simulate real-world peace processes. It is designed for experienced trainers and is structured to foster strong coalitions, to enhance problem-solving abilities, to bolster confidence, and, most significantly, to result in a concrete agenda for advancing women’s participation in peace and security. (Bound curriculum modules, appendices, lecture notes, role-play cards, multimedia on DVD)
2007
Inclusive Security, Sustainable Peace: A Toolkit for Advocacy and Action
Publication Date: November 2004, updated December 2007
Authors: Sanam Naraghi Anderlini, Nicola Johnston, Judy El-Bushra, Camille Pampell Conaway, Lisa Kays, Jolynn Shoemaker, Elizabeth Powley, Kelly Fish, Ancil Adrian-Paul, Gillian Lobo, Guillermo Suarez Sebastian, Mebrak Tareke
Abstract: The Toolkit is a resource for women peace builders and practitioners to effectively promote peace and security. Inclusive Security and International Alert collaborated to produce the Toolkit, published in November 2004, which outlines the components of peace building from conflict prevention to post-conflict reconstruction, highlights the role that women play in each phase, and is directed to women peace builders and the policy community. The toolkit was updated in December 2007. (327 pages including endnotes and appendices) (selected portions available in Arabic, French, Pashto, Portuguese, Russian, and Spanish)
2005
Women's Contributions to South Africa's Truth and Reconciliation Commission
Publication Date: February 2005
Author: Pumla Gobodo-Madikizela
Abstract: In 1994, in order to address apartheid-era human rights abuses, the country created the Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC). Two important goals of the TRC were to grant amnesty to perpetrators of human rights abuses who disclosed the atrocities they committed and to break the country’s cycle of violence. Women played vital roles in the TRC. They were nurturing and compassionate commissioners and staff, and they were emotional witnesses who addressed the suffering of others in their testimonies. This publication documents and analyzes the ways in which women shaped South Africa's post-apartheid transitional justice process. (25 pages plus endnotes)
Moving Beyond Silence: Women Waging Peace
Publication Date: 2005
Author: Swanee Hunt
Around the globe, women play a vital but often unrecognized role in averting violence and resolving conflict. With expertise in grassroots activism, political leadership, investigative journalism, human rights law, military reform, formal and information negotiations, transitional justice, and post-conflict reconstruction, these women bring new approaches to the security sphere process. Sustainable peace, and therefore international security, depends on such innovations. But scholarship regarding the work of women peace builders is scarce and women’s work in the field of security is largely unrecognized at the institutional and public policy levels. This chapter of Listening to the Silences: Women and War lays out the case for women’s inclusion in peace building, examples of women’s peace efforts around the world, as well as challenges and successes in connecting such women to policymakers to create a new model of ‘inclusive security.’ (21 pages)
2004
Women's Participation in the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia (ICTY): Transitional Justice for Bosnia and Herzegovina
Publication Date: July 2004
Author: Julie Mertus
Abstract: Bosnian civil society groups have taken the lead in addressing needs not met by their state during its postwar reconstruction period. Women’s groups have spurred the creation of a war crimes court, the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY), and have filled gaps in the court’s reconciliation processes. They pressed the court to consider gender-based crimes as violations of international law. Bosnian women’s groups connected women witnesses with the trials, serving as links between The Hague and fellow Bosnians. Women in Bosnia have furthered efforts to incorporate gender issues into future investigations, and have set important precedents in international law. This publication highlights the significant contributions women have made to the ICTY despite the overall challenges and limitations it faces. It also demonstrates that the inclusion of women and gender expertise at the ICTY was vital not only for the prosecution of crimes committed against women, but also for the broader pursuit of justice and the advancement of international law. (26 pages plus endnotes)
From Combat to Community: Women and Girls of Sierra Leone
Publication Date: January 2004
Authors: Dyan Mazurana and Khristopher Carlson
Abstract: Women and girls fought on both sides of Sierra Leone’s civil war. Although large numbers of women said they were gang-pressed into performing support functions for armed groups, many also fought or received weapons training. Sierra Leone’s national disarmament, demobilization, and reintegration (DDR) program frequently excluded women and girls. Many female ex-combatants, however, returned to violence in order to survive. Women have also often led the reintegration process, accepting ex-combatants back into society and spearheading the rehabilitation process for these former fighters. Drawing on qualitative field-based research and quantitative survey data, this publication assesses how consideration of gender issues can improve DDR processes and documents the contributions of women in official and civil society-based reintegration programs. (27 pages plus endnotes) (executive summary available)
2001
Women Waging Peace: Inclusive Security (Foreign Policy)
Publication Date: May/June 2001
Authors: Swanee Hunt and Cristina Posa
This article lays out an early vision of ‘inclusive security’ and points to the activities of women in conflict regions including Bosnia, Chechnya, Chile, India, Indonesia, Japan, Northern Ireland, Pakistan, and Sudan, as they worked through various mechanisms to promote peace. (10 pages)
1997
Women's Vital Voices: The Costs of Exclusion in Eastern Europe (Foreign Affairs)
Publication Date: July/August 1997
Author: Swanee Hunt
This publication argues that the dramatically low status of women in post-communist Europe is an issue that goes beyond the well-being of women per se to the fostering of economic development and democracy. American interests, it contends, require that the United States help the region’s women carve out their rightful place in the mainstream of society. (7 pages)
Publications Relevant to Other Peace and Security Issues
