After seven years of waiting for the UN-backed Special Criminal Court (SCC) in the Central African Republic (CAR) to begin operations, victims of the country’s civil war had hoped to finally see the first tangible step toward justice on April 25 when the first trial opened in the capital Bangui…

In the latest round of negotiations between Ukraine and Russia in Istanbul on March 29, Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan called on both delegations to act responsibly and agree to a ceasefire. He reminded them of their historical mission to achieve a just peace. There isn’t anyone who would oppose such…

On February 6, 2022, President Kaies Saied announced that he would dissolve Tunisia’s Supreme Judicial Council (CSM). While his supporters welcomed the declaration with satisfaction, many more across broad segments of society greeted it with outrage and resentment. That the president made this unilateral announcement on the premises of the…

On Thursday, January 13, 2022, the Higher Regional Court in Koblenz, Germany, convicted Anwar Raslan, a senior official in the Syrian government, for crimes against humanity. The court found Raslan guilty of complicity in 4,000 cases of torture, 27 murders, and two cases of sexual assault in Syria and sentenced…

Since its inception in 2019, The Gambia’s Truth, Reconciliation and Reparations Commission (TRRC) has captured the world’s attention. Quickly held up as a model, it raised high expectations in the country with victims and their families eager to take part in it and speak about the violations they suffered and…

When reflecting on peace agreements and their implementation, it is tempting to begin by saying that these processes are generally slow and complex. While that may be true in many contexts, it contributes little to the discussion about what has happened in Colombia since the government signed a final peace…

Over the last few weeks, conversations about Afghanistan have been taking place in probably every home — at the dinner table or while watching the horrific images on television from Kabul, particularly during the evacuation of the airport. No doubt some of the comments made in these conversations have been…

Hailed as one of the only success stories to emerge out of the Arab Spring — the wave of uprisings against repressive rule that swept North Africa and the Middle East in 2011 — Tunisia is now facing a significant challenge to its democratic progress. On July 25, Tunisia’s president…

It only takes a quick skim of the daily news to see how the world has yet again failed Afghan civilians. Afghanistan has not had many good years in the past four decades of war, but the past 15 months have been decidedly fraught. There was the Trump administration’s rushed…