In 2026, ICTJ will mark its 25th anniversary. As an organization, we approach this milestone with genuine pride and determination, but also with grave concerns about the world in which we find ourselves in this moment.
ICTJ was founded in 2001 on a simple but radical conviction: that societies emerging from massive violence, atrocities, and authoritarian rule cannot build lasting peace without accountability for what happened. Victims are entitled to acknowledgment, redress, and truth. Impunity is not a price worth paying for stability: It is, in fact, the surest path to exclusion, marginalization, and renewed violence.
This conviction has not changed over the years. On the contrary, we have renewed and strengthened it every day through our work in more than 50 countries and alongside hundreds of partners and like-minded institutions committed to justice, inclusive democracies, and everyone’s human rights. What has changed is the environment in which we carry it out.
We are living through a period of serious regression in the international rule of law. The multilateral frameworks and institutions, which were created, however imperfectly, to build peace, protect civilians, hold perpetrators accountable, and support transitional processes, are now under strain, challenged by the very governments they were designed to constrain. Words like “justice,” “peace,” and “accountability” are being weaponized, stripped of their meaning, or simply discarded.
In too many places, peace processes exclude the voices of victims. In others, accountability mechanisms are dismantled before they can deliver results. And across the globe, we are witnessing the disturbing normalization of impunity—a loud and clear message that those in power are beyond the reach of justice.
It is in these troubled times that ICTJ commemorates its 25th anniversary, and I will not pretend it is easy. But I have also learned, over the course of my many years in this field, that moments of intense pressure often reveal the depth of commitment. What this milestone anniversary confirms is that there is a global community of justice champions who refuse to accept that justice is a luxury or a naïve aspiration. These practitioners, advocates, victims, researchers, ordinary citizens, and policymakers understand that without truth, justice, and accountability, there can be no real reconciliation or sustainable peace.
Over the past 25 years, ICTJ has helped create this community while also pioneering the field of transitional justice—through its innovative research and programmatic initiatives in diverse contexts and by fostering the establishment of practices and norms that have taken root across the globe. We have supported and worked together with the people advancing justice under extraordinary pressure, often at great personal cost. We have insisted, consistently, that victims, their rights, and their experiences must be front and center of any genuine justice and reconciliation process.
In 2026 and beyond, this work is more necessary than ever. The challenges ahead are real, but so is the resolve of those committed to meeting them. My invitation—to our readers, our partners, and anyone who believes in equal justice for all—is to stay engaged; to resist the normalization of impunity; and to support the institutions, the mechanisms, and above all the people working on the frontlines of this struggle.
After 25 years, we can be realistic about the obstacles. We have also become unshakeable in our belief that justice is possible. As Martin Luther King, Jr. reminds us, “the arc of the moral universe is long, but it bends toward justice.” What these many years of work have taught us is that the arc does not bend on its own. It takes the determination of victims who refuse to be silenced, the persistence of advocates who keep pushing forward even when the path is unclear, and the collective resolve of a global community that insists that accountability is not optional. This is our shared task, and it is worth every effort.
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PHOTO: An illustration by Tania Radwan from the book Windmills of Our Hearts is displayed during a reading held on February 24, 2024, at the MUBS University in Aley (Mount Lebanon). Coproduced by ICTJ, the book features short stories by 15 women relatives of missing and forcibly disappeared persons in Lebanon. (Mohammad Salman/ICTJ)
