Envisioning Redress, Justice and Peace

In supporting processes that facilitate and preserve accounts of injustices and harms, GIJTR understands the equal significance of processes that allow for victims and survivors to envision and advocate for a world that prioritizes redress, justice and peace. GIJTR is guided by the core tenet that victims and survivors inherently know their needs and that justice must be tied to material and symbolic acts of accountability, memorialization, non-recurrence and reparations. This forward-looking shift reinforces the agency and self-determination of victim groups and emphasizes the need for building a world that is rooted in respect for human rights and the protection of vulnerable groups and where the experience of victimhood is not permanent.

In asking victims and survivors about the world they wish to live in, GIJTR programming aims to go beyond the absence of conflict and instead make explicit the deeper connections between transitional justice processes and wider social transformation. It is for this reason that GIJTR’s work with post-conflict communities goes beyond knowledge transfer and capacity building. Through intentionally designed financial, technical and programmatic support, GIJTR provides local civil society partners opportunities to develop solution-based projects that are derived from and sustained by community members themselves.

This section of the exhibition highlights how through different solution-based projects, GIJTR local partners have brought different groups together to develop collective visions and shared routes for social cohesion, atrocity prevention, sustained dialogue, community building and highlighting the role that each person can play in creating a just world for all. Included here are illustrations of what it would mean to live in a peaceful Sri Lanka, to initiatives that raise awareness among youth about The Gambia’s Truth Commission findings, to projects that share the stories of Colombians and their needs related to truth, justice and reconciliation. Through these and other initiatives, GIJTR creates spaces for critical reflection on the relationship between past and present and the building of sustainable peace for future generations.

Supporting Truth, Justice and Reconciliation in Colombia

50 Lives is a podcast series based on the stories of Colombian citizens that portrays the reality of a country that, in the midst of a history marked by crude violence, decides to give itself a new opportunity and bet on the construction of a different country through ventures, collective projects, initiatives of peace and actions of forgiveness and reconciliation. The stories come from regions such as: Putumayo, Valle del Cauca, Soacha, Bolívar, Chocó, Antioquia, Huila, Tumaco, Cesar, Cauca, Bogotá, and other areas that reflect the resilience of the Colombian people. The podcast series is hosted through Javeriana Estereo.

Supporting Local Capacities for Truth, Justice and Social Cohesion in The Gambia

This child-friendly adaptation was created to provide young Gambians with greater understanding and access to the final report of the Gambia’s Truth, Reparations and Reconciliation Commission (TRRC). Beyond information sharing, the purpose of the book is to encourage readers to think about their role in advocating for justice and reconciliation and supporting victims and survivors in the Gambia. In addition, GIJTR local partner Fantanka produced drama-documentaries to translate findings on the Jammeh regime’s violations to be accessed by a wider Gambian audience.

Galvanizing Guinea’s Quest for Truth-Truth Telling and Violence Prevention in Guinea

As part of GIJTR’s work with Guinean partners,  training and sub-grants were offered to artists to develop original pieces focused on truth, justice and social cohesion. This music video was produced through a sub-grant project between 2020 and 2021, under the guidance of CONAREG.

The Media and Transitional Justice Academy

Through a series of interviews on radio and TV, GIJTR Academy participant Mamadou Aliou Bangoura explored the relevance of transitional justice in the Guinean context. Interviews included stories of victims and survivors of human rights violations, as well as activists working to support those affected by atrocities committed in the country.

Reintegration of Women Survivors of Conflict-Related Sexual Violence and Children Born of War

This toolkit produced by GIJTR in 2021, focuses on the unique societal reintegration needs of women survivors of conflict-related sexual violence and their children born of war. Within the framework of the toolkit, “Truth” is the prerequisite for empowerment and reintegration of survivors of sexual violence and their children. “Bread” is shorthand for ensuring that the foundations for survival are met. And “Tea” signifies the creation of circles of care – within the family, community and society – that support survivors of sexual violence and their children, opening the door to social cohesion and reconciliation. This is accompanied with photographs of survivors of conflict-related sexual violence in Nepal from 2020-2021 who participated in a roundtable with GIJTR Consortium partner Asia Justice and Rights, focused on drawing attention to their situation and unique reintegration needs.

South Sudan Human Rights Documentation Initiative

When creating these body maps in 2016, South Sudanese activists realized that the process highlighted the cyclical nature of violence in their country, and that the body maps could therefore also be used to identify early warning signs of atrocities in future. Since then, these local partners have gone on to lead body mapping workshops with their own community members and to exhibit some of their body maps in a refugee camp in Uganda.

Promoting Social Cohesion, Justice and Violence Prevention in Sri Lanka

As part of an art competition organized by GIJTR local partner the Institute of Social Development, drawings and paintings created by Sri Lankan youth were submitted. All artworks selected to be displayed focused on envisioning sustainable peace. The artworks displayed here are two of many other pieces expressing hopes and dreams for Sri Lanka.

Promoting Social Cohesion, Justice and Violence Prevention in Sri Lanka 

This virtual exhibit showcases materials developed by young women peacebuilders, with support from GIJTR, during residential workshops and peacebuilding activities in the Puttalam, Vavuniya, Kilinochchi, Hambanthota, Batticaloa and Anuradhapura districts.

Women peacebuilders’ experiences in Sri Lanka are similar to those of women across the world. Their roles and contributions are frequently overlooked, minimized, excluded or invisible. In this context, it is critical that Sri Lanka continues to mould and encourage women peacebuilders, including young women peacebuilders, to pursue this critical work so that Sri Lanka will see sustainable and lasting peace.

This project is based on a research study conducted by the Centre for Equality and Justice (CEJ) in 2021 to document the views of 25 women peacebuilders on varied aspects of peacebuilding, such as the challenges they face, the support they receive, and how they view their role in the community.

To advance this work, CEJ collaborated with SAFE Foundation and Rajarata Praja Kendraya (RPK) in Anuradhapura, Viluthu; Muslim Women Development Trust (MWDT); Praja Diriya Padanama in Puttalam; Network for Advocating Requirements of Women (NewAROW) in Batticaloa; Women Development Federation in Hambanthota; Institute for Social Development in Kandy; and Organization for Elangai Refugees Rehabilitation (OfERR) in Vavuniya on this project. Through workshops, seed grants, networking, and this digital archive, CEJ and its partner organizations aimed to build linkages for collective peace advocacy, encourage young women to join the work, and recognize the work of women peacebuilders working on diverse platforms, from online work to grassroots advocacy to national activism.