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Fourteen members of Syrian civil society recently gathered for a five-day workshop on community facilitation and transitional justice organized by ICTJ and its partners in the Bridges of Truth project. The workshop marked a major step in the preparation for extensive community dialogues that will take place across Syria in the months ahead.

ICTJ recently convened human rights defenders, journalists, and lawyers from Libya, Sudan, Syria, Tunisia, and Yemen for a workshop on digital, open-source investigations. Held on November 3-8 in Kampala, Uganda, the course trained participants on open-source tools with a view to strengthening their work investigating, documenting, and monitoring human rights violations.

On January 28, 2026, ICTJ held its annual January for Justice Leaders benefit dinner in New York City, an event celebrating leaders advancing justice around the world. This edition also marked the beginning of ICTJ’s 25th anniversary year and served as an opportunity to look back on a quarter century spent standing alongside victims, civil society, and institutions in the pursuit of truth, accountability, and lasting peace after mass atrocities.

The outlet PassBlue recently interviewed ICTJ Executive Director Fernando Travesí-Sanz about the challenges and breakthroughs ICTJ has encountered while facilitating a victims-led path to transitional justice in post-Assad Syria. Travesí-Sanz compared the experience to the lessons learned from Colombia’s post-conflict transition, revealing the nuanced, fragile nature of both retroactive justice and long-term peacebuilding.

ICTJ and its partners in the Bridges of Truth project presented in Damascus the findings from their recent report on the first community dialogues held in Syria since the fall of the al-Assad regime in December 2024. On October 7, victims and family members, civil society actors, representatives from the country’s nascent transitional justice commissions, government officials, and international partners gathered to reflect on the lessons learned from the dialogues and the path forward for truth, justice, and accountability in Syria.

ICTJ, in collaboration with the Dutch Ministry of Foreign Affairs, recently convened the first international dialogue in Geneva in support of Syria’s two new justice commissions. From July 10 to 11, members of the National Commissions for Transitional Justice and for the Missing joined representatives of Syrian victim groups and experts and practitioners from around the world to discuss the present opportunities and challenges for peace and justice in Syria and how best to support the nascent institutions in fulfilling their mandates and advancing acknowledgment, truth, accountability, and repair.

At the end of April in Syria, dozens of local residents in several cities and towns sat down together for the first time to finally speak about their experiences during the 14-year conflict that tore society apart and resulted in countless human rights violations. These community dialogues, organized by ICTJ in partnership with the Bridges of Truth project, provided a safe space for participants to share their stories and hardships, discuss their needs, and express their hopes for justice and reconciliation.

Since 2014, conflict in Yemen has caused hundreds of thousands of deaths, displaced millions, destroyed the economy, and exacerbated systemic marginalization, creating one of the world’s worst humanitarian catastrophes. Yet currently, transitional justice and reconciliation take up little space in the Yemeni political arena. In this context, ICTJ has released a new report that explores pathways to a just and sustainable peace in Yemen.

On February 1, 2025, ICTJ facilitated a meeting between family members of the missing and detainees and Syria’s transitional president, Ahmed Al-Sharaa, and the minister of foreign affairs, Asaad Al-Shaibani, at the Presidential Palace in Damascus. Attendees presented a number of specific urgent demands related to the missing and forcibly disappeared, while President Ahmed Al-Sharaa underscored the government’s commitment to the issue.

On December 2 to 6, 2024, the International Criminal Court’s (ICC) Assembly of States Parties—the court’s management oversight and legislative body—held its 23rd session in The Hague. As in previous years, ICTJ took an active part, and its experts joined many of the discussions sharing their knowledge and insight. ICTJ organized two side events, one focusing on Syrian victims and another on reparations for victims in Northern Uganda.