African Transitional Justice Network | Usani | Friends Activity

Having witnessed a community-designed transitional justice process for climate harms in South Africa, I started thinking: Are other communities affected by climate change developing their own backward- and forward-looking measures for climate harms, which could be seen as transitional justice? Working with the Civil Society Network on Climate Change (CISONECC), I conducted research with residents of Nkhulambe, an area of Malawi badly affected by climate disasters and creeping climate change. Several findings emerged: ➡️ Climate harms: While climate change is long term and climate impacts are likely to continue, residents experience a broad range of unacknowledged climate harms that could be prevented and reduced. These relate to loss of life, physical health, homes, infrastructure, education, livelihoods, food security, cultural practices, social order, and mental health. ➡️ Truth telling: Residents engage in truth telling on the causes and consequences of climate harms in community governance structures, cultural and religious ceremonies, and other events, seeking to share experiences, raise awareness, enable community and external learning, and build solidarity for action. ➡️ Memorialisation: Residents gather in the community and use traditional and religious practices to remember and honour those lost, help each other heal, enable community and external learning, and shape the way climate harms are talked about. ➡️ Participatory reform: Arguing that affected communities have knowledge and solutions that better respond to climate harms, residents advocate for participatory institutional and procedural reforms to facilitate more holistic climate action and contribute to non-recurrence at the national and international levels. These efforts, combined with climate readiness initiatives, suggest that (1) acknowledging the backward-looking measures developed by affected communities enriches climate responses, and (2) applying a transformative transitional justice lens to existing community practices may open new avenues towards climate justice. The report is available here: https://lnkd.in/eFRB8HK8

Tue, 05 May 2026 04:51:16 +0200

Having witnessed a community-designed transitional justice process for climate harms in South Africa, I started thinking: Are other communities affected by climate change developing their own backward- and forward-looking measures for climate harms, which could be seen as transitional justice?

Working with the Civil Society Network on Climate…Read More

Have you seen all the resources available on the African Transitional Justice Hub? The platform offers: ➡️ Comprehensive summaries of national transitional justice processes across the continent ➡️ Case studies on African truth commissions’ engagements with conflict-related sexual violence and gender more broadly ➡️ A database of truth commissions in Africa, including all reports and other source documents ➡️ A database of peace agreements with transitional justice components in Africa, including source documents ➡️ Continental policies and other frameworks related to transitional justice, including from the African Union and the regional economic communities ➡️ A collection of original opinion pieces by African practitioners on pressing transitional justice issues Together, they document transitional justice ideas and practices in Africa and present an African approach to transitional justice. Despite many challenges, we are seeing increasing engagement with socioeconomic transformation, mental health and psychosocial support, gender justice, diversity management, indigenous justice approaches, tech developments, climate justice, corporate accountability, and redress for colonialism and slavery, among other innovations. Have a look! #AfricanTJHub #TJinAfrica #TransitionalJustice

Mon, 20 Apr 2026 14:22:06 +0200

Have you seen all the resources available on the African Transitional Justice Hub? The platform offers:

➡️ Comprehensive summaries of national transitional justice processes across the continent

➡️ Case studies on African truth commissions’ engagements with conflict-related sexual violence and gender more broadly

➡️ A database of truth c…Read More

We have two new compelling opinion pieces by African practitioners on our African Transitional Justice Hub! CISONECC’s Julius Ng’oma writes that climate change must be understood not only as an environmental or humanitarian challenge, but also as a justice issue that raises fundamental questions about whose lives are protected, whose losses are recognised, and who participates in shaping recovery and resilience. https://atjhub.csvr.org.za/building-climate-justice-through-transitional-justice-a-new-path-for-malawis-resilience/ And CSVR’s Cathy-Ann Potgieter writes that South Africa must revisit its approach to reparations, including by expanding access beyond the narrow confines of the TRC victim list, simplifying administrative processes, and investing in community-based programmes that address systemic inequality: https://atjhub.csvr.org.za/the-unfinished-business-of-justice-south-africas-broken-promise-to-apartheid-survivors/

Wed, 15 Apr 2026 08:59:21 +0200

We have two new compelling opinion pieces by African practitioners on our African Transitional Justice Hub!

CISONECC’s Julius Ng’oma writes that climate change must be understood not only as an environmental or humanitarian challenge, but also as a justice issue that raises fundamental questions about whose lives are protected, whose losses are…Read More

South Sudan, Mali, Burundi, and the DRC carry deep wounds from years of conflict, displacement, poverty, and gender-based violence — wounds that don’t disappear when the fighting stops. The psychosocial toll is real: fractured communities, eroded trust, and individuals left to cope with trauma largely on their own Through our multi-year partnership with Impunity Watch, this week we launched a training manual and toolkit designed to strengthen the capacity of local actors to address trauma, support healing, and embed mental health and psychosocial support within transitional justice, peacebuilding, and reconciliation work in these four contexts.

Wed, 01 Apr 2026 08:29:55 +0200

South Sudan, Mali, Burundi, and the DRC carry deep wounds from years of conflict, displacement, poverty, and gender-based violence — wounds that don’t disappear when the fighting stops. The psychosocial toll is real: fractured communities, eroded trust, and individuals left to cope with trauma largely on their own
Through our multi-year par…Read More

URGENT ALERT: DRONE ATTACKS ON CIVILIAN INFRASTRUCTURE IN MINEMBWE South Kivu, Democratic Republic of Congo | March 26, 2026 BACKGROUND The Action Pour le Developpement des Jeunes au Congo (ADJC) a humanitarian and development organizations operating in the midlands and highlands of Uvira, Fizi, and Itombwe issues this urgent alert regarding repeated targeted attacks on civilian infrastructure in Minembwe, Fizi Territory, South Kivu Province, DRC. KEY INCIDENTS • March 25, 2025 (~4:00 PM): Community radio station TUUNGANE (Madegu Centre) destroyed by FARDCattributed drone strikes — its third destruction within one month. • March 25, 2025 (night): Drone strikes on Kiziba village destroyed civilian homes and killed livestock — the primary livelihood source for local communities. • March 23, 2026 (night): The 5th CELPA Church in Ilundu destroyed, depriving the community of a vital spiritual and social gathering space. HUMANITARIAN CONTEXT These attacks occur against the backdrop of a total humanitarian blockade lasting more than one year, severely restricting access to assistance for civilian populations already suffering nearly nine years of violence. The prolonged shutdown of Vodacom telecommunications for almost two months has further isolated communities and impeded emergency response and documentation of violations. Victims include innocent children, women, and elderly people who cannot access adequate medical care. Alleged perpetrators include FARDC, Burundi National Defense Forces (FDNB), Wazalendo armed groups, and foreign mercenaries. LEGAL CONCERNS These attacks — targeting civilians far from active frontlines who pose no military threat — constitute serious violations of international humanitarian law, including the principles of distinction between civilians and combatants and the protection of civilian property. URGENT CALLS TO ACTION • Publicly and unequivocally condemn attacks against civilians and civilian infrastructure; • Demand immediate cessation of drone strikes in populated areas; • Ensure safe and unhindered humanitarian access to the population of Minembwe; • Conduct independent and impartial investigations to identify those responsible; • Break the silence surrounding the Minembwe crisis and amplify the voices of victims. Despite more than ten alerts issued by the Action Pour le Developpement des Jeunes au Congo (ADJC), the international communi ty, media, and humanitarian actors have remained largely silent. Silence in the face of serious violations of international humanitarian law may be perceived as implicit tolerance. Urgent and responsible action is required.

Thu, 26 Mar 2026 15:22:29 +0200

URGENT ALERT: DRONE ATTACKS ON CIVILIAN INFRASTRUCTURE IN
MINEMBWE
South Kivu, Democratic Republic of Congo | March 26, 2026
BACKGROUND
The Action Pour le Developpement des Jeunes au Congo (ADJC) a humanitarian and development organizations
operating in the midlands and highlands of Uvira, Fizi, and Itombwe issues this urgent alert regarding…Read More

As the ITJA project moves toward closure, we convened in Accra not to conclude, but to consolidate. This roundtable was a moment to interrogate what has been built, honour the lessons carried by practitioners across the continent, and consider how this work can be carried forward. The work of transitional justice in Africa continues, evolving, grounded in experience, and carried forward by those committed to lasting change.

Thu, 26 Mar 2026 05:19:55 +0200

As the ITJA project moves toward closure, we convened in Accra not to conclude, but to consolidate.

This roundtable was a moment to interrogate what has been built, honour the lessons carried by practitioners across the continent, and consider how this work can be carried forward.

The work of transitional justice in Africa continues,…Read More

This is such a fantastic database - makes me glad - thank you.

Mon, 16 Mar 2026 12:13:57 +0200

This is such a fantastic database – makes me glad – thank you.

With this initiative, I had the wonderful (and somewhat terrifying) opportunity to see a long-contemplated idea become a reality – collaborating with communities gravely affected by climate change to carry out a transformative transitional justice process for climate harms. Presenting the entire initiative, this publication examines ways a transformative approach to transitional justice can create new avenues towards climate justice. And it documents the process of working closely with the communities to implement truth telling and memorialisation for climate harms, along with advocacy for participatory climate responses, sharing lessons learnt that might be useful to other practitioners. Some key points: - Climate impacts lead to a wide range of profound and lasting climate harms, which are often rendered invisible. - Transitional justice combines backward-looking and forward-looking measures that, by design, help address these manifold climate harms. - Because they navigate climate challenges on a daily basis, affected communities have the contextualised knowledge, resources and networks to come up with novel solutions. These address past climate harms and seek to curb future harms. - Mental health and psychosocial support are crucial to dealing with climate harms. - Community-led, ‘bottom-up’ measures can be seen as forms of transformative transitional justice in themselves. They can also complement and strengthen national and international, ‘top-down’ efforts. - By enabling cross-pollination of ideas and practices among diverse stakeholders from the local to the international level, we can build solidarity to work towards climate responses that transform obstructive power structures and tackle the intersectional, intergenerational harms that come with climate change. With these lessons learnt from practice, the door is open to further transformative transitional justice processes for climate harms. I am looking forward to seeing what comes next. You can find the full report here: https://www.csvr.org.za/transformative-transitional-justice-for-climate-justice-lessons-from-practice/

Mon, 02 Mar 2026 10:00:27 +0200

With this initiative, I had the wonderful (and somewhat terrifying) opportunity to see a long-contemplated idea become a reality – collaborating with communities gravely affected by climate change to carry out a transformative transitional justice process for climate harms.

Presenting the entire initiative, this publication examines ways a t…Read More

Happy to see this paper I worked on with Ron Slye out in the world. It compares transitional justice and depolarization, identifying correlations between their respective objectives and tools, and examines ways in which the two act as mutual risk multipliers, creating negative feedback loops that produce additional harms and make future attempts at transition more difficult. The paper provides a conceptual framework for thinking about polarization-sensitive transitional justice, along with some practical proposals for making it happen. You can read the paper here: https://ifit-transitions.org/publications/polarisation-the-hyper-problem-transitional-justice-can-no-longer-ignore/ #TransitionalJustice #Polarization

Tue, 17 Feb 2026 16:28:49 +0200

Happy to see this paper I worked on with Ron Slye out in the world. It compares transitional justice and depolarization, identifying correlations between their respective objectives and tools, and examines ways in which the two act as mutual risk multipliers, creating negative feedback loops that produce additional harms and make future attempts…Read More