Remembering abuses
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Instituting a community-level truth and reconciliation commission to address racial divisions

The community of Greensboro, North Carolina hosted a unique Truth and Reconciliation Commission, developed as an act of society rather than the government, and has been the only Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC) in the United States. Community survivors and activists saw a need for action beyond the legal system; they wanted to alleviate the pain harbored in victims, and address the racial hatred enduring in others. The 2004-2006 Greensboro Truth and Reconciliation Commission (GTRC) launched a healing process for victims, raised awareness of the racial divisions within the community, and promoted open dialogue and equality within Greensboro. As a result, a Task Force was created as a post Truth and Reconciliation Commission plan to educate the Greensboro citizens, and continues to hold monthly meetings and assist in the on-going healing process for victims of discrimination.

Holding an international tribunal to raise awareness of and seek reparations for sexual war crimes

A network in Asia organized an international tribunal to preserve the memory of abuses that occurred decades before, and to demand compensation.

Mapping personal histories to reclaim a place in history, recover lost land and promote social justice

The District Six Museum in South Africa spearheaded the land claim which ultimately recovered the property and the dignity people had lost in forced removals under apartheid and continues to be a space where people can collect, disseminate and exchange memories of the neighborhood.  In 1966, as a result of the Group Areas Act, the racially integrated neighborhood of District Six in Cape To

Creating a venue on the Internet for former child soldiers to share their stories and develop new skills

Launched in 2000, The Child Soldier Project of iEarn Sierra Leone created a website for former child soldiers to share their stories. www.childsoldiers.org featured the essays, poems, artwork and voices of former child soldiers and offered an online forum.

Opening police files to victims of abuse to promote justice and healing

The Centro de Documentación y Archivo (CDyA) opens police files to the public to contribute to justice and healing in Paraguay.  The discovery of an immense cache of files in a small Paraguayan police station by a former political prisoner in December 1992 led to the creation of the CDyA.  This archive is commonly known as the “Archive of Terror” because of the nature of the files it

Working with local communities in the forensic investigation of genocide

The Guatemalan Anthropological Team (EAFG) coordinates its efforts to exhume the victims of genocide and investigate their deaths with the local indigenous populations. This helps the families and communities of the victims to confront the tragedies and their own grief while learning what happened to their loved ones.

Mobilizing public resources for victims of human rights violations

The ICAR Foundation in Romania mobilized public resources for the victims of human rights violations in order to get the State to take full responsibility for its actions by acknowledging and treating former political prisoners justly and humanely.

Creating a written history based on oral testimony to help people in isolated communities understand the full extent of the war

As part of the on-going REMHI (Recovery of Historical Memory) Project, several dioceses of the Catholic Church in Guatemala have mobilized their own members to collect testimonies from victims of state violence and, now that these have been compiled into a 4-volume report, to disseminate and return that history to the afflicted communities and individuals.  During Guatemala’s 36-year civil war, close to 200,000 people were killed or disappeared and entire villages and communities were destroyed, primarily by state security forces.   REMHI’s approach has been unusual relative to other truth and reconciliation efforts in its grassroots mobilization of individuals from the afflicted areas as “agents of reconciliation” and in those individuals’ efforts to thoroughly involve and interact with the victims.

Sharing files on the disappeared to contribute to healing from genocide

The Documentation Center of Cambodia (DC-Cam) collects records of the victims of the Cambodia genocide in order to offer families and friends an opportunity to learn the precise fate of the disappeared.  DC-Cam was established to keep the memory of the Cambodian Genocide of April 1975 to January 1979 alive through the Family Tracing File System.  Once family and friends have collected this invaluable information, they can feel a sense of closure.  This service is provided to encourage Cambodians to address their country’s past, with the hope that this will allow them to heal from the trauma of the genocide.  At the same time, DC-Cam is also on a quest to find legal evidence that can be used against former Khmer Rouge leaders in a court of law to further bring justice to the people of Cambodia.

Using forensics to investigate human rights abuses

The Argentine Forensic Anthropology Team (Equipo Argentino de Antropología Forense – EAAF) has pioneered the use of forensic anthropology in the field of human rights.