Transitional Justice Information Handbook

The tasks of promoting justice, compensation, and reconciliation after conflict are challenging and can take many years to achieve. This handbook briefly illustrates approaches that have been employed in numerous countries to promote post-conflict transitional justice. Past experience demonstrates that transitional justice mechanisms work best if they are combined in a comprehensive strategy: Judicial measures like trials and legal reforms, and non-judicial measures like truth commissions and compensation schemes can and should complement each other. This guide also identifies some of the difficult choices that societies must make in their struggle to rebuild their society and their state while confronting the legacy of the past: whom to hold accountable, how victims may be satisfied, and how security and justice sector institutions can be reformed.