The records of the International Center for Transitional Justice (ICTJ) span the years 1918 to 2020, with the bulk of the materials from the late 20th and early 21st century. The materials document the activities of ICTJ in its support of peace processes and to the pursuit of legal reparations and reconciliation in areas of conflict involving human rights violations. Formats in the collection include ICTF office and administrative files, annual reports, single articles, legal journals, human rights organization publications, reports and white papers, conference proceedings, newspapers and clippings, trial transcripts, teaching materials, and photographs, as well as some posters and other ephemera such as fliers, graphics, invitations, and programs. There are many audiovisual and digital formats.
There are four main series: Geographic Files, Reference and Reports, Program and Subject Files, and Administrative Files. The Geographic series contains materials from countries directly impacted by the work of ICTJ and its partners. It is arranged by continent and then by country. These materials cover virtually every major case of human rights abuse and violation worldwide. There are also materials on affiliated armed conflicts such as the Iraq War and the war in Bosnia-Herzegovina; violent ethnic clashes; refugee movements; refugee and detention camps; women's rights; and case studies of human rights abuses.
The Reference and Reports series formed ICTJ's documentation library. The Program and Subject files contain thematically-arranged publications about ICTJ's main subject areas, such as transitional justice and reparations, as well as the programatic materials from ICTJ conferences, workshops, publications, truth commissions, and program divisions. The final series, administrative files, is largely comprised of the files of former ICTJ presidents Alex Boraine and Juan Mendez and other staff files, including Louis Bickford, director of multiple ICTJ units. The staff files and the institutional memory files come together to form the narrative of the creation and work of ICTJ since its beginnings in 2001.
Each series also lists audiovisual materials and digital files. These materials are inserted into the series they correspond with. Formats include Betamax tapes, mini-DVs, DVDs, CDs, VHS tapes, and cassette tapes. The audiovisual materials include trial recordings, staff interviews, conference recordings, and truth commission proceedings; some of these were digitized by ICTJ staff. The born-digital records contain similar materials and also include training materials, ICTJ administrative materials, and program specific documents.
Acquired as part of the Human Rights Archive at Duke University.
The International Center for Transitional Justice (ICTJ), founded in 2001 and based in New York City, is a global non-profit that works with partners in post-conflict, conflict, and democratic countries to pursue accountability, truth, and reconciliation for large-scale human right abuses, through a series of measures including criminal prosecutions, truth commissions, reparations programs, and institutional reforms. It also has offices in Bogotá, Colombia; Brussels, Belgium; The Hague, The Netherlands; Kampala, Uganda; Nairobi, Kenya; and Tunis, Tunisia.
