What we do
We jointly engage in mutual learning, collaborative research, and practice-oriented policy advice.
Our approach
After violent conflicts or authoritarian rule, the past remains present. It impacts the everyday lives of victims, survivors and their families as well as societies and politics, even decades later. Different measures to acknowledge and redress gross human rights violations, war crimes and other injustices – frequently referred to as 'transitional justice' or ‘dealing with the past’ – play an important role in paving the way from violence to peace. Wherever dealing with the past processes take place, they encounter many challenges and setbacks, but also opportunities as well as moments of change. They are shaped by the local context, people, culture and power relations.
As different as the contexts may be, many experiences and challenges remain universal. In order to strengthen partnerships and to advance the policy and practice of transitional justice, the Global Learning Hub for Transitional Justice and Reconciliation facilitates space for dialogue and mutual learning that is driven by solidarity, inclusivity and innovation. Together with our partner organisations, we explore and amplify the wealth of experiences in dealing with the past across the world, and we link German experiences with current international transitional justice processes and discourses. We substantiate, generate and disseminate knowledge and we provide advice.
Currently, the Hub partners have identified four thematic workstreams for mutual learning and joint activities:
- Operationalising guarantees of non-recurrence
- Feminist perspectives on transitional justice
- Youth engagement in dealing with the past processes
- “Unpopular” victims
Fields of action
1 Promoting dialogue and mutual learning
We facilitate collaborative learning journeys to address cutting edge issues and key challenges. Different formats such as study trips, field workshops, peer-to-peer learning, writing retreats as well as audio-visual formats are realised to advance mutual learning.
Our event series “Changing Perspectives - Dialogues on Transitional Justice” promotes different perspectives and exchange between transitional justice actors and practices from the global South and the global North.
2 Providing policy advice and capacity development
We engage with political stakeholders in Germany as well as on the regional and international level to raise awareness, build capacities and provide policy advice on transitional justice approaches, lessons learnt and emerging practice. The focus is to promote the implementation of the German Inter-Ministerial Strategy to Support “Dealing with the Past and Reconciliation (Transitional Justice)".
3 Collaborative knowledge generation
We co-create knowledge on practical insights and innovative practices in the field of transitional justice relevant to policy makers and practitioners alike. A key product piloted by the Hub is a series of “Reflection Papers” providing synthesised insights and recommendations on the basis of the “Dialogues on Transitional Justice”. In addition, the Hub promotes collaborative research into selected topics, implemented jointly with Hub partners.