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For many people in Lebanon, being uprooted from home is no longer an exceptional event. In this Expert’s Choice, ICTJ's Firas BouZeineddine draws a connection between the dire situation many Lebanese are facing and the culture of impunity that prevails in the country. In particular, he calls on domestic and external actors to be held accountable for past and present violations.

Recent Israeli strikes in Beirut and other populated areas in Lebanon, among the conflict's most intense so far, have destroyed critical infrastructure and devastated civilian communities. ICTJ stands unequivocally with the Lebanese people and all victims across the region and calls for an immediate end to all attacks on and threats to civilian communities and infrastructure.

ICTJ is watching with grave concern the unfolding war launched by the United States and Israel against Iran and its devastating ripple effects across the wider region. Over a month into the conflict, the human cost is staggering. We at ICTJ reaffirm the international principles that govern our shared world and stand unequivocally with all victims across the region.

Throughout 2025, ICTJ’s experts offered thoughtful analysis on conflicts and major political developments in more than 10 countries as part of the World Report newsletter. Their insightful commentaries shed light on the obstacles that victims, civil society, and their partners must navigate as they pursue sustainable peace and justice. In this edition, we look back on the past year through the Expert’s Choice column.

The death of eight women in childbirth at a hospital in Agadir this past August sent shockwaves through Morocco. The news crystallized national anger over deteriorating public services as well as persistent high unemployment and corruption. Years of frustration erupted into the streets as thousands of mostly young Moroccans gathered in cities and towns across the nation to protest and to demand accountability and institutional reform.

The police response to the peaceful anti-government protests in Kenya over the past year has been deadly and brutal. Their actions have rocked the country and reaffirmed the 2013 findings of the Kenyan Truth, Justice and Reconciliation Commission (KTJRC) that state security agencies, particularly the police, have historically used excessive and disproportionate force and “been the main perpetrators of bodily integrity violations of human rights in Kenya including massacres, enforced disappearances, torture and ill-treatment, and sexual violence.”

The ongoing war in the Middle East is not an isolated event; it represents a 75-year cycle of violence marked by historical grievances, geopolitical struggles, and humanitarian crises. In the latest episode of this tragic story, Lebanon has become the newest battlefield. So far, the conflict has caused widespread destruction, killed or injured thousands, and displaced over a million in Lebanon. The country now faces many daunting questions about reconstruction, reparations for victims, and the type of society that will emerge in the war’s aftermath.

Thousands took to the streets across Kenya on January 27 following the gruesome slaying of more than a dozen women to denounce violence against women and demand action to end it. Protesters later gathered in Nairobi on February 14 for a Valentine’s Day vigil for the more than 30 women murdered in the country so far this year and to pressure the government to declare femicide and violence against women a national emergency and to establish a commission to address these crimes and thereby break the cycle of impunity. These efforts are laudable, if not inspiring. However, physical and sexual violence against women and femicide—at times perpetrated by law enforcement officers who are meant to protect them, as enshrined in Kenya’s 2010 Constitution—has persisted in Kenya for decades.

For over a month now, Lebanese people have been in the streets peacefully calling for an end to corruption, economic disenfranchisement, and government mismanagement, calling instead for accountability and reform of the systems that have allowed these things to occur. The protests are historic for several reasons: their scope and magnitude, as well as the way they have unified a country that has for so long had division baked into nearly every aspect of life, down to its system of governance.

Ever since the armed conflict in Lebanon broke out in the mid-1970s, the main demand of the families of the missing and disappeared has been to secure the right to know the truth and the right to an effective investigation, verification of facts, and public disclosure of what happened. These families persisted in their demands over the decades, against the odds and despite social, political, and cultural forces pushing for collective amnesia. Their perseverance, along with civil society’s invaluable efforts, shined a continuous light on the issue of the disappeared, igniting a public debate that parliamentarians could no longer ignore. Last month, they voted in favor of the Law for the Missing and Forcibly Disappeared Persons in Lebanon.